Babar Ahmad speaks to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire about his life and his ordeal of being detained without trial for so many years in his first TV interview since being released.
In his interview Babar speaks about:
– Fighting jihad in Bosnia: “I am proud of everything I did to help the Bosnian and Chechen people.”
– How he set up websites to honour his friends who were killed in Bosnia: “I considered them heroes. I still consider them heroes. I wanted the world to know about these great men.”
– How police officers abused him during his arrest
– How he considers the thousands of people who supported him and sent him letters of support, as “heroes, because they chose to support me even though they didn’t have to.”
– Being hooded during his extradition to the US
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– How he endured two years in solitary confinement at a US Supermax prison.
– Why he pleaded guilty to supporting the Taliban in the US.
– How the judge who saw all the evidence against him ruled that he was a “good person” who was not a terrorist.
– His views on jihad, which he describes as a “noble act to protect innocent people from terror.”
– What he thinks about ordinary Americans after his experience.
– Why he has come out of his experience free of bitterness or hatred.
– His advice to young Muslims grappling with difficult decisions.
