British Imam Killed In Broad Daylight In London By ‘Syrian Hit Squad’

A 48-year-old hardline Syrian Imam, who lived in London, England, was reportedly assassinated yesterday in broad daylight, on the streets of the British capital.

Abdul Hadi Arwani, who was a strong critic of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, was found dead in his car with chest wounds, apparently caused from gunfire.

Even though Arwani was taken by air ambulance to the nearest hospital, he was pronounced dead in the morning hours of Tuesday.

The police have said that the murder has all the trademarks of a “state-sponsored assassination,” and the fact that the victim was involved with violent anti-Assad demonstrations outside the Syrian Embassy in London a few years ago means he could have been a target of the regime.

At that violent demonstration, Arwani, who aligned himself more with ISIS than the Syrian president, told demonstrators, “This building belongs to the Syrian people, not a regime killing people every single day for ten months.”

Of course the news of Arwani’s death led to some comments on social media, with other militant Muslims who supported Arwani expressing their outrage at his murder.

One such character, the aptly named Jihad Kader posted on his Facebook page,

Sheikh Abdul Hadi Arwani was martyred this morning as many of you are aware, shot in Wembley. I was fortunate enough to have him as one of my teachers and was also a close family friend, always there to help and ever so humble. He was so active, never turning down the opportunity to be involved in good. He was the most optimistic person I ever met, a real inspiration. He tried to encourage the Sunnah and was always keen to practice it. He talked highly of martyrdom and Allah granted it to him.

Indeed spreading the message of “martyrdom” clearly upset some people, as in his life Arwani spoke openly about the glory of death, an idea which is abhorrent to many people in the West.

A spokesperson for the British police told reporters, “Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 11:15am today to reports of a man found suffering what is believed to be gunshot injuries to his chest. The man, aged in his late 40s, was found sitting in a dark coloured Volkswagen Passat, in Wembley. The man was pronounced dead at the scene at 11.48am. At this very early stage detectives retain an open mind regarding the possible motive.”

Mr Arwani was born in Syria but had lived in Britain for the past three years, working as a “teacher” espousing militant Islamic views.

[Image credit: youtube.com]