Khuram Butt: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

khuram butt

Khuram Butt. (Jamie Roberts documentary screenshot)

Khuram Butt, identified as one of the gang of terrorists who staged coordinated attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market, appeared in a documentary on British jihadis that showed him praying with an Islamic flag in a park.

The 27-year-old terrorist known as “Abz,” and “Khuram Shazad Butt,” who was photographed lying dead in the street while wearing hoax explosives, is a Pakistan-born British citizen who was allegedly associated with notorious YouTube and street preachers. Some of those street preachers have vowed that England will fall under Sharia law and the Islamic flag will fly over 10 Downing Street. The terrorist was reported to police two years ago for trying to brainwash local children into becoming Muslims in an English park.

The three terrorists – who were shot dead by police – staged both a vehicle and a knife attack in the latest horror to hit England. The terrorists shouted, “This is for Allah” as they randomly slashed people’s faces and throats, according to Fox News.

They rammed a van into people walking on the landmark London Bridge and then randomly stabbed and slashed at people in a nearby cafe in Borough Market. The London Ambulance Service told the Guardian that at least 48 people were transported to six hospitals across London, and more people were treated at the scene for less serious injuries. At least seven people were reportedly killed in the twin attacks. Twenty-one people remained in critical condition the day after the attacks.

The Metropolitan police declared the assaults a terrorist attack, tweeting, “At 0025hrs 4/6/17 the incidents at #LondonBridge & #BoroughMarket were declared as terrorist incidents.” Prime Minister Theresa May expressed concern that the attack was a copycat of other terrorist incidents, and vowed, “Enough is enough.”

UK Express obtained exclusive video of the terrorists calmly walking through the market before they knifed people. However, it was not the first time this suspect ended up on video.

Here’s what you need to know:


1. Khuram Butt Was Featured in a Documentary That Showed Him in a Confrontation With Police After Praying Before an Islamic Flag in a Park

The documentary on British Jihadis aired on Channel 4 in Britain and was filmed by a man named Jamie Roberts. He spent years following some of the most notorious Islamic street preachers in England.

One London Bridge terrorist, Khuram Butt, makes a brief appearance in the documentary, which focuses on three preachers who are well known to police and in England. In the scene in which the terrorist is featured, a man named Mohammed Shamsuddin is leading the group.

Metropolitan police, identifying Butt and Rachid Redouane on June 5, said that Butt was known to them. Redouane was described as being of Moroccan-Libyan descent. Police said Butt was a British citizen.

“Khuram Shazad Butt was known to the police and MI5. However, there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned and the investigation had been prioritised accordingly. The other named man, Rachid Redouane, was not known,” the statement by police said.

In the documentary, Butt and the other men display a black Islamic flag, which is similar to one used by ISIS, and bow down before it in the English park. At the end of the prayer session, a police officer confronts the group, and they are briefly detained. The officer says a member of the public had contacted authorities because the men were spotted with something resembling an ISIS flag in the park. A verbal debate ensues.

According to UK Daily Mail, the 27-year-old London Bridge terrorist was a “Muslim extremist” who “appeared in a TV documentary last year about British jihadis” and who was “involved in a filmed altercation with police after an Islamic State flag was unfurled in a park.”

Daily Mail added, “He was caught on camera alongside two notorious preachers who were well known to police and intelligence officials because of their extremist views… a friend of the Watford-born suspect had reported him to the anti-terror hotline after he became radicalised by watching extremist videos on YouTube.”

According to a 2016 Guardian article on the documentary, Shamsuddin has ties to some of the most notorious Islamic preachers in Great Britain, a topic the documentary discusses. “The Jihadis Next Door also focuses on an extremist preacher called Abu Haleema and his friend Mohammed Shamsuddin. Haleema has links to a teen jihadi who wanted to carry out a beheading on Anzac Day in Australia, while Shamsuddin was an associate of Islamic cleric Anjem Choudary and joined a radical group after meeting hate preacher Omar Bakri, also known at the Tottenham Ayatollah,” reports the Guardian.

The documentary opens with an associate of Shamsuddin, the notorious Siddhartha Dhar, also known as Abu Rumaysah, a former bouncy castle salesman from London and Muslim convert who is believed to have fled to Syria and was accused of being the “new Jihadi John” who appeared in a gruesome ISIS video.

The men pray before an Islamic flag in this screenshot from Jamie Roberts’ documentary.

The degree to which Butt was tied to or influenced by these men is not known, but the documentary does show him praying with the group in the park. There is no indication that any of the men listed above had anything to do with the London Bridge attacks, however.

In the documentary, the street preachers made it very clear what their goal is: They speak openly about desiring sharia law in Great Britain, and two of them express confidence that the Islamic flag will one day fly over 10 Downing Street, the address of the British prime minister.

A screenshot from the Channel 4 documentary by Jamie Roberts.

“This is a war against Islam and Muslims, the struggle must continue… one day the black flag of Islam will be over 10 downing street, Allahu Akbar,” Shamsuddin says in one scene. One of the preachers also talks about what life would be like under sharia law in England: Women would have to be fully covered, adulterers would be stoned in open public parks, homosexuality would be severely punished, and gambling and alcohol would be banned.

The preachers and their followers repeatedly take to street corners in England to preach their version of Islam. One interesting aspect of the documentary is that the men are repeatedly confronted by other Muslims, who yell at them, and accuse them of giving Islam a bad name. “This is ISIS, ISIS, this is what you see on television,” says one agitated opponent on the street. “You’re talking rubbish,” says another.

You can watch the documentary above via YouTube.

In contrast to the intense scenes shown in the documentary, neighbors of the man described him in tranquil terms. UK Daily Mail reported that the London Bridge terrorist discussed by neighbors is the same man in the documentary.

One neighbor described the man as “affable” and expressed shock at hearing that the man, who was a fixture in the neighborhood with young children, could be involved in the attacks, according to Sky News.

“Yes, he has a family. He’s got family. He’s always been pleasant to our family…I don’t understand how it could be him,” the neighbor said, adding that the man had helped with community groups on homelessness and worked at a gym. “He’s lived here for years.” Other neighbors described the terrorist as someone who frequently changed his appearance, liked to play table tennis, and held doors open for elderly people.

Butt was from Barking.

Police made 12 arrests at a Barking flat, but they haven’t yet said how they believe those people were linked to the attacks. The apartment building is where one of the three terrorists lived, according to news reports.

Another man said the suspects asked him about his moving van recently.

The coordinated attacks started when a van sped into pedestrians on London Bridge, reported NBC News. The incident unfolded at about 10:08 p.m. on June 3, as Londoners were enjoying a Saturday evening near London Bridge.

The van was traveling abut 50 miles per hour when it rammed into people, according to BBC.

BBC reporter Holly Jones, who witnessed the attack on the bridge, told the network of the van’s driver, “He swerved right round me and then hit about five or six people. He hit about two people in front of me and then three behind.”

Police said three terrorists were killed in the attacks. Metropolitan police released a statement that described the attacks unfolding this way:

“At 22:08hrs yesterday evening we began to receive reports that a vehicle had struck pedestrians on London Bridge. The vehicle continued to drive from London Bridge to Borough Market. The suspects then left the vehicle and a number of people were stabbed, including an on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident at London Bridge. He received serious but not life-threatening injuries. His family has been informed.”


2. Butt Was Kicked Out of a Mosque & the Terrorists Referred to Themselves as Sheiks

Police officers and members of the emergency services attend to a person injured in an apparent terror attack on London Bridge in central London on June 3, 2017. (Getty)

Khuram Butt was thrown out of his mosque “after he interrupted a sermon to say that voting in the general election was ‘un-Islamic,'” accoridng to The Independent.

The manager of the mosque told The Independent, “He got very angry. I called him aside and said, please calm down. He refused, so I removed him. Thank God he followed me. When we got outside the room, he said you don’t have any authority over me, only God has authority because this is a house of God. I said that might be true, but I am in charge.”

Neighbors said the men called themselves sheiks and “spiritual Muslims,” with one being seen in long robes, The Independent reported.

In the London Bridge attacks, armed police rushed to the scene, and gunshots broke out. “I hear maybe six to eight gunshots and screams unlike I’ve ever heard before. People running — I’ve never ran so fast in my life,” Joe Dillon, an American student at Kings College, told MSNBC. “I ran and I hid.”

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Debris is strewn outside a cafe near London Bridge on June 4, 2017 in London, England. Police responded to what they are calling terrorist attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market where at least 20 people were injured and one person was killed. (Getty)

One witness described the ensuing pandemonium to The Guardian, saying, “I was in the back of the pub. A wave of about 30 people ran in and tried to get into the cellar or cupboard. Then there were shots outside. They didn’t seem real – like a kid letting off firecrackers. We saw police lights and everyone got down under a table. People turned tables over.”

Other witnesses described throwing bottles and other objects at the terrorists to try to stop them.

BBC reported that about four people were stabbed by three attackers. Police continued, “Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes.”


3. He Worked in a KFC & Was the Son of Pakistani Asylum Seekers

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Police officers clear the area near Borough market at London Bridge on June 3, 2017 in London, England. Police have responded to reports of a van hitting pedestrians on London Bridge in central London. (Getty)

According to the UK Telegraph, the 27-year-old suspect, Khuram Butt, had a wife through an arranged marriage and two children.

“The attacker’s parents were reported to be asylum seekers from Pakistan. His father is said to also live in east London, but his mother is dead. The attacker had worked at a branch of the fast food chain KFC before leaving two years ago for a job on the London Underground,” reported the Telegraph.

The Daily Mail also reported that the terrorist worked for Transport for London, which “is responsible for the Tube and buses.”

The Telegraph reported that the man “had been radicalised while watching YouTube videos of the infamous American hate preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril,” and two people who knew him also contacted police to report his extremist views.

According to BBC, Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, released a statement that said, in part: “I am appalled and angered by the terrorist attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market, in my home city. These acts of violence were truly shocking and I condemn them in the strongest terms. Muslims everywhere are outraged and disgusted at these cowards who once again have destroyed the lives of our fellow Britons.”


4. He Was Accused Two Years Ago of Trying to Brainwash Children to Become Muslim in a Park & Left Behind a Newborn

One woman told the Telegraph that the Butt was brainwashing children in a local park two years ago, and one of her children came home and said, “Mummy I want to become a Muslim.”

According to the Guardian, the woman confronted the man in the park, and he said, “I’m ready to do whatever I need to do in the name of Allah. I am ready in the name of Allah to do what needs to be done, including killing my own mother.” She told police and gave them photographs, but nothing happened. The incident occurred two years before the terrorist attack, the Guardian reported.

Photos and videos emerged showing the chaos at the London Bridge and Borough Market scene, including people walking down the street with their hands in the air, and police bursting into taverns to tell people to get out.

One man snapped a photo of a dead terrorist lying on the ground with canisters around his chest that police said were hoax explosives. The Daily Mail interviewed a man who said this was the same London Bridge terrorist as the one in the documentary because the neighbor recognized the Arsenal shirt he was wearing earlier in the day.

Butt seemed “euphoric” and asked the man about the van he was using to move, reported Daily Mail.

One reporter said that Butt had a newborn infant:

London’s mayor condemned the attacks, saying, according to BBC: “We don’t yet know the full details, but this was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

According to the Mirror, the knife-wielding terrorists slashed people’s faces and throats, witnesses said.


5. He Wouldn’t Interact With Women & Was Planning to go to Syria

Manchester Benefit Concert

Flowers to mourn the Manchester bombing victims. (Getty)

Butt’s neighbor told the Daily Mail the man “didn’t interact with women in the area because of his views. He would happily talk to men but would ignore females. I only ever saw his wife if he was with her and she wore the full veil – I don’t think I ever saw her eyes.”

A relative of the terrorist’s wife told the Daily Mail, “In 2015, I heard that he tried to go to Syria saying he was going for jihad. But the family rallied around and as his wife was pregnant they managed to stop him.”

The 2005 London bombing killed 52 people. However, the London Bridge attack is the third since March 2017. First, a terrorist, Khalid Masood, drove into a crowd of pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and tried to storm UK Parliament.

Then, Salman Abedi blew himself up in a crowd of people leaving an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Manchester and also at London Bridge and Borough Market.

Six people died in the Westminster Bridge attack, and 22 perished in the Manchester bombing. ISIS has also claimed responsibility for the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks.