News.Scotland.Org

“Atif is innocent, he is not a terrorist he is just a young muslim”, said this father talking to the media. The distressed family of Mohammed Atif Siddique, a Scottish student who was convicted for al-Qaeda terrorist offence states that there son has fallen prey of sheer mis-interpretation. They told that Atif embraced a strict Islamic way of life which made great differences with the family leading to his ill-fate.

The family said Atif was like any other Muslim boy just he had a quest for al-Queda and the so called war on terror. He had a strong desire to do an in-depth study of al-Queda, and nothing more than this. For this mistake he was convicted, his actions were not strange pointing towards any terrorist intentions; thousands of people also do such acts.

Giving his insight to the incident, Mohammed Siddique the father of Atif says, my son is the first person to be convicted under the new terror laws in Scotland, if this is what people have to face then it will curb the civil liberties. The grief sticken father in a message to the parents tell’s that “all parents should stop their children going on the internet or in case they will end up in jail.

He further added “The sad thing is why our young people shouldn’t be able to find out what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Does it mean every child that goes on to a website is considered to be a terrorist? Thousands of young people in the Muslim community will have accessed the same material.”

On the part of Atif, he thought its his right to know what’s going on with Muslims as this could also happen to him. There were few questions haunting his mind for which he needed answers. His questions were the Taleban encouraging people to carry out suicide bombings was all that justified. Many more such questions were there in his mind.

In the past two years Atif had some hard times and was reported to be eloped from home on two occasions after some differences with family. At that time he developed some contacts with some other people from England. Since then he was under doubt. Now his case is under trial and time will tell what will be his fate.

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