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UK preacher gets 6 1/2 years for promoting terrorism in sermons

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Undated photo issued by England\'s West Midlands Police, issued Thursday Sept. 28, 2017, showing Muslim cleric preacher Kamran Hussain. 40-year old Muslim cleric Kamran Hussain has been given a 6½-year prison sentence Thursday at court in London, for backing the Islamic State extremist group and encouraging terrorism through his sermons. (West Midlands Police via AP)

LONDON – A Muslim cleric in England has been given a 6 1/2-year prison sentence for using his sermons to back the Islamic State group and encourage terrorism.

Police secretly recorded 40-year-old Kamran Hussain last year giving sermons in which he told children that martyrdom was better than school.

Judge Rebecca Poulet said that Hussain preached “hatred and division” when she sentenced him on Thursday at London’s Old Bailey courthouse.

Hussain claimed during his trial that he was exercising his right to free speech, but he was found guilty of supporting IS and encouraging terrorism.

The judge said the sermons represented a serious, persistent advocacy of terrorism.

Hussain preached at a charity-funded mosque in Stoke-on-Trent, a city 155 miles (250 kilometres) northwest of London.

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