Free Republic

LONDON - Two British Muslim converts were convicted Thursday of hacking a soldier to death in broad daylight on a London street. Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, struck Fusilier Lee Rigby with a car and then attacked his unconscious body with knives and a meat cleaver, trying to behead him.

London (AFP) - Two Muslim extremists were on Thursday found guilty of the gruesome murder of a British soldier in broad daylight on a London street. Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, hacked to death soldier Lee Rigby as he walked back to his barracks in Woolwich, southeast London, in May.

Islamist Michael Adebolajo butchered a British soldier in Woolwich in May. After the murder, a group of British Muslims drove by the memorial set up on the sidewalk in Woolwich and laughed at the beheading of Lee Rigby, the soldier who was knifed to death. Then they posted it online.

David Cameron is planning new powers to muzzle Islamic hate preachers accused of provoking terrorist outrages such as the killing of soldier Lee Rigby. The Prime Minister wants to stop extremist clerics using schools, colleges, prisons and mosques to spread their ‘poison’ and is to head a new Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation Task Force (TERFOR) made up of senior Ministers, MI5, police and moderate religious leaders. The high-powered group will study a number of measures, including banning extremist clerics from being given public platforms to incite students, prisoners and other followers – and forcing mosque leaders to answer for ‘hate...

One of the suspects in the Woolwich murder case was arrested in Kenya in 2010, the Foreign Office has confirmed. It said Michael Adebolajo was arrested there and it gave consular assistance "as normal" in the circumstances. He was believed to have been preparing to train and fight with Somali militant group al-Shabaab, Boniface Mwaniki, head of Kenya's anti-terrorism unit, told the Associated Press.

Michael Adebolajo, who was arrested for hacking a soldier to death in Woolwich, was brought up a devout Christian but rebelled against his parents and turned to Islam, friends and neighbours say. Mr Adebolajo was born in Lambeth in December 1984, and brought up with his siblings in Romford by staunchly church-going parents who both worked for the NHS. He attended Marshall Park School in Romford, and Havering Sixth Form College. Yesterday the 28-year-old was captured on film with his hands red with blood and a soldier slumped dead on the road behind him, telling passers-by: “The only reason we...

A man reported to be a serving soldier is dead and two people have been shot in Woolwich, south east London, after what Sky sources understand is being treated as a terrorist attack. Downing Street has called a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee after the incident in John Wilson Street, which David Cameron described as "truly shocking". Sky sources understand that senior police officers believe the killing was likely to be a politically-motivated Islamist terrorist attack. Dozens of weapons - including a number of knives - and pools of blood could be seen on the ground, where a...