User:Arthur Warrington Thomas/Khalid Kelly

Khalid Kelly, born Terence Edward Kelly, is an Irish Muslim convert, and former leader of Al-Mujaharoun in Ireland.

Kelly by profession is an Irish nurse whom, like Yvonne Ridley, converted to Islam, in 2000 after being imprisoned in an Islamic country.

He has a daughter who lives with her non-Muslim mother. and a son named Osama from his marriage to a Pakistani Muslim.

Background
Born Terence Edward Kelly in south Dublin, he attended Catholic school there until age 15, when he left to work in pubs.

At 23, he moved to London to train as an intensive care nurse and in 1996 took a job in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the King Faisal hospital, attracted by the tax-free salary, living their for 4 1/2 years. He lived for 3 1/2 years in "downtown in a Saudi villa, not in one of the Western compounds. When I’d hear the call to prayer, I’d open the window and turn up the stereo in opposition to what I saw as an imposition." Although Kelly went to work in Saudi Arabia because the salary was tax free he soon found bigger money in making alcohol, which is a strictly forbidden activity in that country. Kelly was subsequently caught and sent to jail in 2000, where an Afghan introduced him to Islam. Khalid Kelly, as he is now known, left prison a convert. Kelly recalls:

"I got really good at making drink. I had three stills in my house and then I got arrested one day with five cases of Johnny Walker in the back of my car. I was sent to prison for eight months. I lost everything. It was all confiscated. The prison was 150 people in a dormitory with a mosque at the end. I’d been inside for four weeks and was at my lowest point when I was given the Koran in English. Someone explained it to me. And then it was very quick. I saw that God was the creator, the provider, the commander, and the legislator for mankind. It was all suddenly very clear. I felt freer than I had ever been - even though I was in prison." Kelly has also said of this event:

"It just filled in all the gaps, you know? It was like the answer to everything I'd every wondered about. There was even a Captain Ali there at the prison, and he gave me a Koran. And I'll always remember it because he wrapped it in a piece of newspaper, you know, because he didn't have any wrapping paper. And he was so happy for me. He was nearly crying, the man." He said, "'I'm so happy you've come to the truth. It will change your life.' And indeed it did," Kelly says.

Describing his journey from skepticism to belief, or as he called it “from darkness to light,” Kelly said, “the journey started with the illegal production of alcoholic drinks in Saudi Arabia whilst I was working as a nurse at the King Faisal hospital.” He went on to say: ''“Before Islam, I didn’t know the meaning of love. I used to be like other British young men, drinking and going out, but when I read the Quran in 2000, whilst in jail, I felt a huge surge of compassion and sympathy. I feel now that what led me to Islam was God’s mercy and sympathy. It’s something bigger than myself and I can’t explain it with words.”''

In 2002 Kelly was deported to Britain and allegedly soon began attending sermons by the radical preacher Omar Mohammad Bakri.

Upon his return to Britain Kelly got a job working as a nurse at St Thomas’s Hospital. However, rumours started that he was a supporter of the Taliban and subsequently lost his job.

He became a member of the now disbanded hardline Islamic organisation Al-Mujaharoun (the leader in Ireland) and now describes himself as an independent Muslim preacher.

Kelly was a member of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah, a British Islamist organization and a close associate of Sulayman Keeler, Abu Izzadeen. Omar Bakri Muhammed and Abu Hamza al-Masri, Abu Uzair and Anjem Choudary. He was also a member of Al Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect.

In October 2003 Kelly appreaed on The Late Late Show on RTE One with Pat Kenny, alongside Anjem Choudary.

Declared fugitive in 2008
In March 2008 it was reported that Khalid Kelly is on the run. After the Danish cartoon controversy and subsequent arrests for having signs which said 'Kill those who insult the Prophet', Kelly fled the country and has been traveling the Muslim world looking for a place to bring his wife and two sons, Osama (named after the Qaeda leader) and the newborn Muhammed.

Video

 * Khalid Kelly - Irish TV - In October 2003 on The Late Late Show on RTE One with Pat Kenny, alongside Anjem Choudary.