From Act II, Chapter 3
. . . After ten minutes, Choudary hands off the megaphone and steps back for a moment's rest. "We've been humbly blessed by Allah with media," he says, mopping his brow. "That is for the good. Even if the crowd isn't as large as some, our brothers in Pakistan maybe will hear us. They'll know we are with them."
The "we," in this case, are a diverse lot. But that's not uncommon: "true believer" is not a résumé-driven avocation. . . . Choudary, leading them through this noisy valley, is of Pakistani descent, but British born. He's an attorney, a wide-set, nice-looking chap in his late thirties who once practiced law not far from this fashionable neighborhood in West London. He says he knows that his rhetoric "approaches the line" of incitement. But "the government knows, or should know, that we're not planning anything here; it's just talk." In a precise echo of Omand's comments--about how radical Muslims are "constantly tempting" authorities to "expose our values as fragile and hypocritical"--Choudary adds, "we're testing whether the British government is really true to the idea of freedom of speech and innocent until proven guilty. Let's see."
Then, with a nod, he steps forward again to take the bullhorn. . . .
Anjem Choudary is an Islamist, a lawyer, and a follower and protégé of Omar Bakri. He led the Islamist organization al-Muhajiroun with Bakri before it disbanded. Following Bakri's exile, Choudary has largely stepped up as one of Britain's most outspoken radical Islamic leaders. In The Way of the World, he, like Bakri, speaks to the complexities of contemporary Islamist communities in Western societies.