Former terrorist takes legal action against 'offensive' historic pub name

Khalid Baqa told The Independent that if he won his claim, the money would be donated to orphans in Gaza or Syria

By SHIR PERETS DECEMBER 24, 2024 03:35 Updated: DECEMBER 24, 2024 03:36

The Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, was established in 1530 and is owned by Greene King (photo credit: SCREENSHOT FROM GOOGLE MAPS)

A second pub by the name of ‘Saracen’s Head’ has been threatened with legal action from a terrorist over its “deeply offensive” name, The Telegraph reported on Sunday.

Khalid Baqa, a convicted terrorist who was previously jailed for distributing jihadist propaganda, reportedly sent a letter demanding the owner, Simon Belsey, change the name of his pub in Hereford, England. This came just days after filing a suit against The Saracen’s Head Inn, a pub owned by Robbie Hayes in Amersham.

According to The Independent, Baqa was jailed for two years in 2013 after admitting to having 300 computer discs of terrorist material in his car and home. 

He was again jailed five years later for spreading jihadi CDs and leaflets.

Last week, Baqa told The Sun he has “stopped all the terrorism stuff now.”

Saracen’s Head Inn (credit: FACEBOOK)

According to the report, Baqa said the term ‘Saracen,’ which was a term used to describe an Arab or Muslim originating in Ancient Greece, was “highly offensive, xenophobic, racist, inciting and glorifying violence against a certain type of people and extremely discriminatory.”

The Telegraph reported that Baqa announced that if successful, he plans to file additional lawsuits against 30 other establishments with the same name.

Additionally, Baqa told The Independent that if he won his claim, the money would be donated to orphans in Gaza or Syria.

 Belsey, who took over the 300-year-old pub in May, told The Telegraph that he feared he might have to close his doors if he lost the case.

“It’s always been the Saracen’s Head,” he said in the report. “It’s in the history books here."

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“It goes back longer than the cathedral – the stonemasons that built the cathedral stayed here," he added.

A 'complete joke'

Hayes told The Sun he believed the suit to be a  “complete joke.”

“This pub has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years. No one at this pub is racist; we don’t believe the sign is racist, and the name is simply historic,” he said.

Baqa is claiming hundreds of pounds in compensation and that the pubs change their names.

“He’s just chancing his hand. Of course, it worries me — you never know with people like this,” Belsey said.

“I don’t see how people can come in and start saying what we can do in our pubs that have been here for years," he added.