A taxi driver from Bradford has been jailed for a minimum of 27 years for the “barbaric, premeditated” murder of a shopkeeper in Glasgow.

Tanveer Ahmed, from Toller, had admitted to repeatedly stabbing Asad Shah to death outside his shop in the Shawlands area of the city in March this year in a sectarian attack motivated by hatred of Shah’s religious views.

Glasgow murder of Asad Shah spurred by sectarianism in Pakistan Read more

Ahmed, 32, a Sunni Muslim, confessed to confronting and then attacking Shah because the newsagent was an open adherent of the Ahmadi branch of Islam, which believes the prophet Muhammad was not the final Muslim prophet.

As he was led from the dock on Tuesday, Ahmed raised a clenched fist and shouted in Arabic: “Praise for the Prophet Muhammad, there is only one Prophet.” His cry was repeated by some supporters in the public gallery.

James Matthews (@jamesmatthewsky) Friend of Tanveer Ahmed says shout in court was: "Mohammed is the prophet, he is the only one"

Passing sentence at the high court in Glasgow in a rare televised hearing, Lady Rae said the killing was an “appalling display of merciless violence” and a “barbaric, premeditated and wholly unjustified killing of a much-loved man”.

Describing the murder as “in effect an execution”, she told Ahmed: “Your determination to kill Mr Shah was obvious. What is so chilling is that what you did was calculated and deliberate. You did not know the deceased but you decided that you had a duty to kill him.”

It quickly emerged that Ahmed had singled Shah out because the shopkeeper, a father of three, was openly proselytising on social media and describing himself as a prophet.

The belief that Muhammad is the final prophet is a central tenet of mainstream Islam; to believe otherwise is regarded as blasphemous. Sunni leaders in Pakistan and the UK, including several followed by Ahmed, have openly condemned Ahmadis for holding that other prophets have emerged since Muhammad.

Ahmed had first called Shah by phone to challenge him, and then decided to travel to Glasgow to confront him. Ahmed had watched a video of Shah on his mobile phone en route, and was heard in a phone message stating: “Listen to this guy, something needs to be done, it needs nipped in the bud.”

Asad Shah, the shopkeeper murdered in Glasgow.

Arriving at the shop on 24 March, he ordered Shah to stop describing himself as a prophet, warned he would kill him and began plunging a knife into Shah. As Shah’s brother and a shop assistant struggled to prevent the attack, Ahmed dragged Shah outside onto the pavement, stabbing, punching and stamping on him, shattering bones in his face.

In a statement released through his lawyer after a court appearance in early April, Ahmed had admitted the murder, claiming: “This all happened for one reason and no other issues and no other intentions. Asad Shah disrespected the messenger of Islam the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Mr Shah claimed to be a prophet.”

The Scottish government is to review the law covering religiously aggravated crimes in the wake of the case.



The Crown Office decided the circumstances of the killing did not meet the “statutory test for an offence to be aggravated by religious prejudice” but Scotland’s chief law officer, James Wolffe QC, the lord advocate, has now written to the justice secretary as he believes the case highlighted a “potential gap” in legislation. If charged with an offence aggravated by religious prejudice, Ahmed could have faced a longer minimum sentence.

Shah’s death led to an outpouring of grief among his customers and neighbours, and exposed significant levels of animosity and discrimination faced by the UK’s Ahmadi minority from other Muslims, particularly Pakistani Sunnis. Supporters of the Shah family accuse Sunni Muslim leaders from Glasgow Central Mosque of failing to condemn the ideology behind Ahmed’s stance, despite condemning the murder, and of being reluctant to support multi-faith vigils.

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The Shahs are also said to be upset about what they perceive as the local Ahmadi leadership’s use of the murder to highlight the broader conflicts with orthodox Muslim thinking. One source said they felt his death had been turned into a “political football”.

There is due to be an Ahmadi community press conference later on Tuesday in Glasgow but family sources say the Shahs were never consulted about the community leadership’s statements.

In a statement issued on behalf of Shah’s family, their lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said many family members had either left or were preparing to leave Scotland, as a result of his murder and its impact on them. They had originally moved to Glasgow in 1990 to escape state-sanctioned religious persecution in Pakistan.

“Asad’s family have lost a peaceful, kind and loving brother, son and uncle who can never be replaced. Most of his family have now left or are in the process of leaving Scotland, a country they came to seek safety in,” Anwar said.

“They are grateful to the lord advocate, Crown Office and Police Scotland for their hard work and compassion. For those who choose to speak on behalf of Asad, his family say they have no permission to do so and request their privacy is respected.”

An Ahmadi spokesman insisted they had not sought to speak for the family, but for the community in general. Describing his death as a “sacrifice”, they said it was very disturbing that Shah had become the first Ahmadi killed in the UK because hatred of their beliefs had seeped over from Pakistan.

Rafiq Hayat, the national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK, said the community had found security and peace in British cities such as Glasgow, which upheld their right to follow their beliefs.

“In Glasgow, as in many parts of the world, we have witnessed the evil of a warped and poisonous ideology of hate, that is at war with the whole of humanity,” Hayat said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr Shah and his family who have suffered immensely as a result of this brutal killing. No one should suffer or be murdered, least of all for their faith.”

Scotland’s chief law officer, James Wolffe QC, the lord advocate, said: “Asad Shah was a well liked and respected member of the community who was savagely murdered by a total stranger,” Wolffe added. “This was a brutal, unprovoked and relentless attack on an unsuspecting victim. It has left his family and friends devastated at the loss of a kind and peace-loving man.”