THE BBC has been blasted as “callous and irresponsible” for giving air time to one of hate preacher Anjem Choudary’s henchmen in a new reality show dubbed Big Brother for Muslims.
Convicted fraudster and former boxing champion Anthony Small has expressed support for ISIS but was cleared last year of plotting to join the terror group in Syria.
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Small – who goes by the name Abdul Haqq since converting to Islam – will be on screens for two hours next month in a prime time BBC2 series called Muslims Like Us.
It is made for the BBC by Love Productions – which also produces Great British Bake Off and the controversial Channel 4 series Benefits Street.
Haqq is one of ten British Muslims with contrasting world views who are put in a house and filmed.
A leaked summary of Muslims Like Us warns of “charged exchanges” between the housemates, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Security experts criticised the BBC’s decision to give Haqq a platform on national television despite his extreme Islamist views and his close association with Anjem Choudary.
The hate preacher and his acolyte Mohammed Mizanur Rahman were jailed in September for drumming up support for ISIS.
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Professor Anthony Glees of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies said: “I think the BBC is off its collective head on this.
“Haqq has supported Islamist goals and appeared to justify Islamist attacks on London.
“This is not someone who should be given publicity by a taxpayer-funded TV company.”
Adam Deen of counter-extremism thinktank the Quilliam Foundation said: “Haqq’s views are extremely fringe.
“Given the threat of home grown extremism we should be very cautious and should not be giving air time to such views just to fill space on our screens.”
He also accused Love Productions and the BBC of trying to “sex up” the show by having Haqq in the house “which is quite callous and irresponsible”.
Small, 35, from Deptford, South London, won the British and Commonwealth light middleweight championships in 2009, and fought under the alias Sugar Ray Clay Jones Jr.
But he was ditched by his disgusted manager Frank Warren, who branded him a “disgrace” when the Sun revealed in 2010 how the boxer screamed abuse at heroic troops returning from Afghanistan.
He was one of 50 protesters calling themselves Muslims Against Crusades who chanted “Murderers” and “Baby killers” and waved placards saying “British Soldiers Go To Hell” at the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment in Barking, East London.
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Haqq has been pictured with Choudary several times and also with Siddhartha Dhar, the ISIS Jihadi John-style executioner dubbed Sid Vicious.
Haqq has also posted provocative videos online, including one appearing to justify the ISIS beheading of US journalist James Foley.
Last year he was found guilty of three counts of fraud.
Also in 2015 he was cleared of plotting to travel to Syria to fight with ISIS and was also found not guilty of disseminating terrorist publications and supporting a proscribed group.
The BBC says it was necessary to have a cross section of opinions in the show, which aims to highlight the range of views held by British Muslims on everything from sleeping arrangements to cooking.
A spokesman said: “The views of Abdul Haqq and the other contributors are robustly challenged and debated among the group as well as by the film makers.”
Choudary is appealing against his conviction and five-and-a-half-year sentence.
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