White supremacist terror case sparks fear among Scots Muslims

Sam Imrie was convicted of terrorism offences

The case of a white supremacist who idolised right-wing mass killers has caused "anxiety and fear" among Scotland's Muslim communities.

Zara Mohammed, secretary general of The Muslim Council of Britain, said the case of 24-year-old Sam Imrie in Fife was "shocking and worrying".

Imrie, from Glenrothes, was convicted of terrorism charges on Wednesday.

He was arrested in 2019 for posting messages online saying he was planning to set fire to the Fife Islamic Centre.

Ms Mohammed, who is based in Glasgow, told BBC Scotland's The Nine programme: "Not only is it shocking to believe that someone would want to do this, especially to places of worship, but the hatred that fuelled his intensions.

Zara Mohammed is the secretary general of The Muslim Council of Britain

"For Muslim communities in Scotland it has built a bit of anxiety and fear that people are willing to carry out such horrible acts towards our community."

During the trial, the High Court in Edinburgh was told that Imrie was a loner who left school at 14.

He became "steeped" in right-wing ideology and started to "hate" Muslims after looking at extremist content on websites such as 8Chan and messaging app Telegram.

Imrie posted online: "All my heroes are mass murderers."

He was said to have "glorified" the activities of Anders Breivik - the terrorist who slaughtered 77 people in Norway in 2011.

And he also studied the exploits of the far right activist who slaughtered Muslim praying at their mosques in New Zealand, in 2019.

Imrie had posted a comment online about how he was thinking about carrying out an attack and was considering live-streaming it.

In court he said his comments were a joke and he was not serious about setting a mosque on fire.

Ms Mohammed said the New Zealand attack had been "fuelled" online and the terrorist was actually live-streaming his killing.

She said Imrie appeared to have been inspired by that.

"I think we can't take it for granted how serious these things are and how they impact real lives and the consequences of them," Ms Mohammed said.

"It is worrying that we are seeing a rise in far right activity against mosques and Muslim communities and we need more done to resolve this."

The 24-year-old threatened to target the Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes

Ms Mohammed said she had previously visited the Fife Islamic Centre.

She said: "I visited before and I have been in touch with local communities. It is a nice close knit community, it is really family centres and I think the shock that anyone would want to do this, especially to places of worship.

"These are places where kids have classes. It has put a lot of fear in our local communities and a lot of worry too."

On Wednesday, Imrie was convicted of a terrorism charge of making statements on Telegram and Facebook which encouraged acts of terrorism.

A second charge stated Imrie made a "record of information" which would be useful to somebody who was committing acts of terrorism.

He was acquitted of a terrorism charge which stated that he engaged in conduct in "preparation" of terrorism acts.

Pat Campbell, Police Scotland's Assistant Chief Constable for Organised Crime, Counter Terrorism and Intelligence, said: "Sam Imrie was a socially-isolated-individual who displayed hateful intentions and the potential consequences of his actions do not bear thinking about.

"Police Scotland welcomes the outcome of the trial, which brings to a close what was an extremely complex investigation."

Imrie is expected to be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on 24 November.