In July 2014, Israel had launched an offensive in Gaza after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank by Palestinian terrorists with links to Hamas.
In the same years, Isis captured swathes of territory in north-western Iraq and eastern Syria as it took advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. In its quest to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region, it persecuted Christians and Shia Muslims, also publishing videos of the executions of Western journalists and aid workers.
Mr Hussain also encouraged the crowd to boycott Israel, claiming people were “killing” Palestinians “one by one” by supporting companies such as Coca Cola and McDonalds.
Asked whether he stood by his 2014 remarks, he told The Telegraph: “I hold strongly to my position that acts of violence inflicted upon a civilian population for political motivations should be classed as terrorism, be such acts carried out by an individual, a political body/entity or even a state.
“Clearly, in the context of this speech, I expressed my belief that the offensive being carried out by the state of Israel upon an unarmed and besieged population, which resulted in over 2,000 deaths, was an act of terror.
“To understand my reference made to Isis here, the speech must be contextualised within the political makeup of the time. Isis would have naturally come to mind as an example of terror, simply because it was the most prominent terrorist body at the time.”
‘Emotions unning extremely high’
Mr Hussain said he also “holds strongly” to his beliefs on the “importance of economic, and at times cultural boycotts for the purposes of combating apartheid systems, occupations in breach of international law, and sieges upon a civilian population”.
The MP said that, when he made the comments, “emotions were running extremely high, clouding my ability to always articulate my point clearly”.
He added that “hindsight and the maturing of 10 years, has resulted in my understanding that I would now articulate and word certain aspects of what I said 10 years ago a lot differently, in a bid not to allow the space for nuance to arise.”