Jihadi son of infamous terrorist fighting to regain UK citizenship

The son of a notorious hate preacher insists he fought terrorists — not alongside them — in Syria.

By World Israel News Staff

The British-born son of infamous terrorist Abu Hamza is challenging the U.K. government’s decision to strip him of his British citizenship, arguing that he is being punished for his father’s crimes, despite traveling to Syria and reportedly fighting with jihadist groups.

Sufean Kamal, 31, has launched a legal effort to regain his British citizenship, according to a report by the Daily Mail, saying he wants to return to the United Kingdom to reunite with his wife and children, who continue to live there.

Kamal’s father, Abu Hamza, 68, became one of Britain’s most notorious Islamist hate preachers after years of delivering inflammatory sermons that encouraged violence against the West. In 2014, he was sentenced to life in prison in the United States on terrorism-related convictions after being extradited from the U.K.

According to court proceedings, Kamal voluntarily left Britain in 2013 to travel to Syria during the height of the country’s civil war and ISIS’s reign of terror over wide swathes of the country.

His legal team acknowledges that he participated in armed conflict while there, but claims that he fought alongside secular rebel factions seeking to overthrow longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather than jihadist organizations.

During a recent court hearing, an intelligence officer from MI5 — the United Kingdom’s domestic security and counterintelligence service — testified that intelligence gathered by the agency indicated Kamal had engaged in activities that posed a threat to Britain’s national security while in Syria.

According to the government’s assessment, Kamal was affiliated with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria, a U.S.- and U.K.-designated terrorist organization that played a major role in the Syrian conflict.

“Should Kamal return to the UK, we assess that there is a real risk that he would use his experience in Syria to assist UK-based Islamist extremists to engage in Islamist extremist activity,” the agency said in an earlier assessment presented to the court.

Although much of the intelligence remains classified, British authorities concluded that the evidence justified revoking Kamal’s citizenship in 2016 on national security grounds.

Kamal has rejected those allegations, insisting that he has never posed a threat to Britain.

“Taking away my citizenship has affected me and my family. I am not a terrorist,” Kamal said.

“Britain is the place where I was born and lived. I have never been a threat to national security in Britain,” he added.

“Abu Hamza is my father and he has his own opinions and I have mine. Revoking my citizenship just because I am related to Abu Hamza is not allowed.”

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