CAGE UK (Cageprisoners)
Founded: 2003
Founder: Moazzam Begg, amongst other partners
Key Members: Moazzam Begg/Dr. Adnan Siddiqui/Dr. Asim Qureshi/Ibrahim Mohamoud
Type: Human rights and advocacy organisation with a focus on Muslim detainees
Organisational Ideology: Islamism/Extremist Jihadist Apologists
Headquarter: London, United Kingdom (with branches overseas in Africa)
Online Resources
249K Followers
6.2K Subscribers
17K Followers
34.2K Followers
Overview
CAGE UK is a London-based advocacy group that, according to its website, “seeks to empower communities touched by the War on Terror.” It is also stated that the organisation “highlights and works against governmental policies adopted as part of the War on Terror, seeking for a society free of oppression and injustice.” According to its Director, Dr. Adnan Siddiqui, CAGE UK was founded to raise awareness of the situation of prisoners, with a focus on Muslims, imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay and abroad, and that it has worked closely with former US detainees as well as campaigns on behalf of current inmates held without trial.
CAGE’s website went live in October 2003. It released names, images, and other information on detainees that the US had kept hidden, much of it received from detainees’ relatives. Moazzam Begg, CAGE’s outreach director and one of its key founders, is a British citizen from Birmingham who was detained in extrajudicial custody as a suspected enemy combatant by the US government at Bagram in Afghanistan and the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba for three years. In 2005, he was freed without charge. He has fought to represent prisoners who are currently being imprisoned at Guantánamo, as well as to assist former detainees in reintegrating into society. He has also worked with governments to encourage them to accept non-national former inmates, some of whom have been denied entrance into their home countries.
According to CAGE’s website, the organisation calls “for a complete overhaul of anti-terror laws, resultant convictions and ensuing prison sentences. Further, just as in the case of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four during the Irish Troubles, we recognise that there have and will be some miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions. We make no representations if we believe processes and convictions to be sound.”
In addition, it is stated that the organisation “opposes and rejects all unlawful violence whether committed by state, organisational or individual actors. CAGE is deeply sympathetic to the victims of violence and their loved ones but avoids engaging in this reductive binary and incessant calls to condemn terrorism.” However, in the aftermath of the takeover of Afghanisation by the Taliban, in August 2021, Moazzam Begg published a blog, preceded by a tagline that described the militants’ takeover as a “historic victory and humiliation.” Moazzam Begg also declared that the UK forces would be remembered as “the terrible ones,” and that the Taliban should be allowed “the right to celebrate” for conquering Afghanistan. In addition, the organisation’s Director of Research, Dr. Asim Qureshi, frequently praised some of the UK’s most dangerous terrorists as “Jihadi John”, by describing him as an“extremely kind, gentle, and beautiful young man.”
Ties to Extremism
The British media has labeled CAGE as “terror apologists” for defending the freedom of hate preachers to radicalise young British Muslims with their sermons, only one day after the government announced intentions to crack down on extremism in May 2015. Additionally, CAGE has said that Britain is now dominated by a “politics of fear,” and has condemned Prime Minister David Cameron’s measures as a “severe threat to all rights.”
According to Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terror legislation for the UK government: “At the very least, CAGE are guilty of sloppy thinking and very unwise language.” “Before they can command any credibility from the wider community, they should make it clear that they reject the murder by ISIL of Christians and of Muslims who disagree with their views, and that they reject beheading and burning people alive. They should also give clear advice that joining ISIL constitutes a criminal act,” he added.
In a response to UK’s announcement of the crackdown on extremism, with the Government threatening to close mosques accused of hosting hate-filled sermons, CAGE Spokesman, Ibrahim Mohamoud, commented by saying: “The vilification of groups merely because they oppose unjust foreign and domestic policies and then using this to label them extremists and deny them the right to free speech, violates the values of British society.
Dr. Asim Qureshi, CAGE’s Director of Research, regularly hailed some of the UK’s most deadly terrorists as “Jihadi John,” characterizing him as a “very lovely, peaceful, and beautiful young guy.” Additionally, Moazzam Begg and Asim Qureshi voiced support for the notion of establishing an Islamic caliphate, including strict execution of Sharia law, in an interview included in Episode 5 of Julian Assange's World Tomorrow broadcast by RT on 15 May 2012.
The National Post’s Terry Glavin labeled the organisation as “a front for Taliban fanatics and Al Qaida adherents that deceptively portrays itself as a human rights group.” Also, The Daily Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan, called Cage a “terrorist advocacy organisation” who spreads a “myth of Muslim oppression.”
