A convicted terrorist is taking a pub to court after he claimed to be deeply offended by the sign outside the venue.
Khalid Baqa, who has previously spent four years behind bars for preparing Jihadi propaganda, wants more than £1,000 from the Saracen’s Head Inn in Chesham, Buckinghamshire.
He has criticised what he described as the racist ‘depiction of a bearded Arab/Turk’ on the pub’s sign and also insisted the depiction ‘incites violence’.
Baqa has asked for £1,850 from the landlord and has also announced plans for take on over 30 other pubs with the same name if successful.
However, the landlord of the pub is fighting back against the lawsuit which he has slammed as a ‘complete joke.’
Speaking to The Sun, Robbie Hayes said: ‘This has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years.
‘He’s just chancing his hand. Of course it worries me – you never know with people like this.’
The 52-year-old added that none of his pubgoers are racist and that he did not believe the sign or the name were racist but instead were ‘simply historic’.
Khalid Baqa, who has previously spent four years behind bars for preparing Jihadi propaganda, wants over £1,000 from the Saracen’s Head Inn in Chesham for what he described as the racist ‘depiction of a bearded Arab/Turk’ on the pub’s sign
Baqa said the sign – which depicts a brown-skinned man of Arab or Turkish descent – ‘instilled worry and fear in me since it was clearly xenophobic, racist and inciting violence to certain people’
Speaking to The Sun , Robbie Hayes (pictured) said: ‘It’s a complete joke. This has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years’
Baqa has filed a ‘claim of money’ form an application to county court for a sum of cash a person believes they are owed.
His application was previously referred to a small claims court.
In a submission explaining the reason behind his claim, Baqa said the sign – which depicts a brown-skinned man of Arab or Turkish descent – ‘instilled worry and fear in me since it was clearly xenophobic, racist and inciting violence to certain people.’
He goes on to claim to have contacted the pub four times and even visited the public house in person. However staff at the Saracen’s Head Inn have no record.
In 2018, Baqa was jailed for four years and eight months after admitting five counts of dissemination of Terrorist publications.
Speaking to The Sun, he claimed to have always been offended by pub names like the Buckinghamshire pub.
Saracen was a term used until the 5th century to refer to Arabs and and then also Muslims years later.
It is among the most popular name for a pub in the UK alongside titles such as the Red Lion.
Despite the name harking back to the time of the crusades, this pub was only built in 1530.
MailOnline have approached the Saracen’s Head Inn for a comment.
