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Olde Tyme Religion

Not Permissible for Muslims to Join Non-Muslim Parties- Omar Bakri

2010-03-02

Muslim preacher Omar Bakri, the spiritual guide of the banned extremist Islamist al-Ghurabaa movement told Asharq Al-Awsat in a telephone interview from Tripoli, Lebanon, where he currently resides that "engaging in the political process, meaning a Muslim joining a non-Islamic British [political] party, is something that is not permissible, and this is a sin and something that I do not encourage. However I do not doubt the sincere intentions of the Muslims who engage in the political process, and the Prophet peace be upon him told us that God will grant Islamic victory, even against the immoral." Omar Bakri, who was the former leader of the now disbanded al-Muhajiroun movement, added that "the fundamentalist secularists will target Muslim preachers and youth regardless of whether they take part in the political process and [join] political parties in Britain, and this will have a positive impact on Muslim preaching in the future because people will realize that the al-Ghurabaa movement and the [al-Muhajiroun] movement and others have been banned as a result of a strategy to target Islam under the pretext of combating terrorism." Bakri also asked "[what is] the meaning behind the West's fear of some Muslims becoming involved in non-Islamic political parties?" Omar Bakri moved to Britain in 1986, where he went on to become one of the most famous radical clerics in the country. In 2005, following the London July bombings, Bakri left Britain for Lebanon, and the British government promptly banned him from returning after the British media launched a media campaign against him as a result of his extremist views. He once described the September 11 hijackers as "the Magnificent 19" and called on all Muslims to emigrate from Britain. Bakri also told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the call to God is the message of the prophets, and the work of the Islamic organizations, and this is something promoted and protected by the Islamic faith, and God said 'Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious' [Surat an-Nahl; Verse 125]. We praise God according to His call that "Who is better in speech than one who calls (men) to Allah, works righteousness, and says: I am of those who bow in Islam?" [Surat al-Fussilat; Verse 33]. Therefore it is not surprising that among those Muslims in the West, and in Britain in particular, there are those who are preaching Islam and working towards establishing divine Shariaa law. We have succeeded in sowing the seeds of preaching [the message of God] and Islamic concepts."

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India-Pakistan

'Terrorism's root causes need to be addressed'

2010-01-27

[Dawn] Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday said the hydra-headed menace of terrorism was our common enemy and no one country could battle it out alone. Certainly not, if more than one country's generating it... He termed the Friends of Democratic Pakistan "a collective determination against an evil mindset" and urged the international community to address root causes of terrorism such as poverty and unemployment. But the "Magnificent 19" weren't poor, and their employment prospects would have been very good in most places, had they not hijack two aircraft and smashed them into skyscrapers in New York, another one to smash into the Pentagon, and yet another one into the ground in Pennsylvania. Osama bin Laden was reputed to have a personal fortune of $300 million. So perhaps we can discount poverty and unemployment as root causes, since Haitians, who're poorer than your run-of-the-mill Arab or Pak and even less employed, haven't been committing acts of terrorism world wide. The foreign minister was addressing the Friends of Democratic Pakistan's Public-Private Partnership Conference in Dubai. He said the three-year plan of reconstruction and rehabilitation in Malakand comprised close to 500 projects and would cost about $ 300 million. Which leaves us with the intellectual problem: if the roots of terrorism aren't in poverty and unemployment, where are they? What single factor do 95 percent of all terrorists working today have in common? The five year development plan, based on Post-crisis Needs Assessment, would cost around $1.2 billion, and the FoDP must expedite its process to complete these projects, the minister said. Oh, what can it be? Pakistan has suffered huge economic losses of over $35 billion since September 11 in terms of infrastructure, investment and exports, Qureshi said. Actually, we see next to no terrorism emanating from those places where the religious ethic is Lutheran or Catholic or Buddhist or Hindoo or Shinto or Taoist. The worshippers at the shrine of the Risen Elvis don't explode. When was the last time a Wiccan took a hostage? When was the last time a Jew wiped out a pizza parlor or shot up a bat mitzvah? No military adherent of the Church of the Subgenius has ever gotten up on a table and shot up his fellows. This amount, he said, is indeed negligible, as compared to the billions of dollars being spent in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Perhaps it would be to the world's advantage to push translations of Marcus Aurelius or Thomas Aquinas or the collected works of John Knox or the Rg Vedas into the reluctant hands of the beturbanned masses. Qureshi said that Pakistan prefers foreign investments in building joint ventures, public-private partnerships, investment and trade under frameworks and mechanisms that can be sustained in the years to come. We don't even have to hand out bibles to the benighted Mohammedans. Mere study groups extolling the logic and virtues of agnosticism would go a long way toward removing the edge of bloodthirst. I wouldn't go so far as to push atheism, mind you, since they don't want little kiddies to be allowed to enjoy Christmas, but a bit less certainty of the truth of Arabian superstition wouldn't hurt.

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Home Front: WoT

What's good for Nazis works for jihadis

2010-01-08

President Obama was right when he declared after convening the post mortem on the Detroit debacle that "we have to do better." The simple fact is that $42 billion later, Americans do not feel much safer getting on an airplane than they did eight years ago. Despite the post- Sept. 11 upgrades in security, despite the long lines, the inconveniences of removing shoes and belts and coming soon to an airport near you - full body scans - we are not reassured that the next disaster is not lurking just around the corner. People are concerned we aren't doing enough to fight the enemy and we're still not sure we've fully identified the enemy. The administration and its Republican critics are still arguing whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's Ft. Hood massacre constitutes an act of terrorism. That dispute is reflected in a larger debate of whether we are still in a "war against terror" and whether individuals like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should be treated as enemy combatants or read their Miranda Rights as common criminals. But however that debate shakes out, there is an important move, that would cost little but could strike a blow against extremism and make our skies a little safer: The president admitted that the current watch list is inadequate. But America needs to immediately expand its terrorist watch list. Consider this fact: While the United States has a database of 500,000 individuals implicated in criminal activity, only 1,700 of those names are on the terrorist watch list banning entry into the United States. Compare that to the watch list developed by the U.S. Justice Department of suspected Nazi war criminals. Developed in the 1980s, 40,000 individuals were initially listed, but later the list expanded beyond 70,000 when the Office of Special Investigations on Nazi War Crimes (OSI) included the entire roster of the Nazi SS - and all others who belonged to groups that abetted genocide. Most of those aging genociders are in their 80s or 90s today and the hunt for Nazi war criminals will soon reach its biological solution. But not so Islamist terrorism - only in its genesis - which is the scourge of all humanity at the dawn of the new decade. It is inconceivable that in fighting the existential threat of terrorism, that we can be operating with a list of only 1,700 people to bar from entering the United States. To better protect the flying public and to strike a blow against extremists who today regularly indescriminantly slaughter fellow Muslims, the Department of Homeland Security should take a page from the Nazi watch list and immediately add those who openly support and abet terrorism. In practical terms, it means immediately listing the many thousands of names of all known members and enablers of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Indonesia's Jemmah Islamiyah and other terror groups listed by the State Department and the European Union. And there are others who never fired a bullet, or strapped themselves to a ticking bomb, who nevertheless deserve to be publicly placed on America's terror watch list. They include Al Jazeera's Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, whose online fatwa insists that Palestinian women have the right to attain martyrdom by blowing themselves up amidst Israelis. There is Omar Bakri Muhammad, who once claimed to be a recruiter for al Qaeda and organized the "Magnificent 19" (Sept. 11 bombers) in London. Jordan's Dr. Ibrahim Zayd Al-Kilani, who said this: "killing a transgressing American soldier" is an obligation and a kind of jihad. There are the followers of Indonesia's notorious Abu Bakar Bashir, Jamaica's Abdullah el-Faisel, and Libyan-born Abu Yaha al- Libi, who defends the "legitimacy" of violent jihad as a "religious obligation." And of course, Yemen's favorite American Anwar al-Awlaki who served as spiritual mentor and validator to Ft. Hood's Maj. Hasan and the Northwest Airlines terrorist. We have no doubts that a simple e-mail to all U.S. embassies by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would flush out many more terror enablers. To be sure, errors will be made and anyone who stands accused of such activity must be given recourse to clear their names. It may also be true that not everyone who belongs to a terrorist group will become a suicide bomber, but let them suffer the consequences - why should Americans have to take that risk? By compiling a true terror watch list, the United States and allies will reassure the shaken flying public that no one committed to terrorism against innocent civilians is aboard their flight. Such a policy will also help strengthen the hand of moderates across the Arab and Muslim world struggling against these extremists. And by providing the guardians of our borders with accurate and timely information about all those who promote and deploy terrorism against our nation, we can help co-opt the need to turn to blanket racial and ethnic profiling. The time to act is now.

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Britain

Radical imam's daughter works as "exotic" dancer

2008-09-26

THE daughter of hate cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed is a POLE DANCER, The Sun can reveal. Busty Yasmin Fostok, 27, leads a secret life after rebelling against her fanatical Muslim dad -- who rants against Western "depravity". She has performed in London pole dancing bars and gyrated half-naked in cages at club nights. And she admitted: "I'm willing to go topless if the venue is right." "Define 'right.'" "Somebody's there and they give me money." "Like me? Like this fiver?" "Sure. [STR-I-I-I-I-I-P!] These're my uds!" "Whoa! Now, them's gen-yew-wine!" Yasmin, a party-loving girl who quit the family home in North London four years ago, added: "I don't get on with my dad." I'd say leaving home was a good idea ... Bakri, 50 -- in Lebanon after being kicked out of Britain -- told The Sun: "I am deeply shocked." Bakri is a Muslim preacher of hate who wants all women to be covered from head to toe. He hailed the 9/11 terrorists as the "Magnificent 19". His daughter says: "I don't agree with his views -- I just get on with my life and that's it." "We all have our little foibles. I'm a stripper, he's a dishpit." Photo at the link. She's cute.

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Britain

Mooselimbs in police will rise up, Bakri insists

2008-01-21

Moderate British Muslims in the police, Armed Forces and Civil Service will one day revolt against the system to "crush it from within", according to Omar Bakri Mohammed, the notorious Islamic extremist. Extremist, eh? Perhaps one day they'll refer to him as a 'terrorist'. In claims condemned as a cynical attempt to create division, the co-founder of the extremist al-Muhajiroun group said that Britain was "digging a deep hole" for itself by allowing Muslims into the Services and Whitehall. Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph in Lebanon, where he moved in August 2005 — at about the time it emerged the British authorities might charge him with incitement to treason — he claimed police officers, soldiers and civil servants would one day become radicalised. "When you start to ask Muslims to join your Army and your police you are making a grave mistake. That British Muslim who joins the police today will one day read the Koran and will have an awakening," he said. "Those moderates are one day going to be practising Muslims. Now what happens if they are British police or in the Army and they have weapons? How much information do they have about you that they will use to serve the Global Struggle™? "They will revolt against the system if they have been failed by your foreign policy which is oppressive against Islam, or have been contacted by people who believe Britain is a domain of war." In remarks almost certain to cause widespread anger among the survivors and relatives of victims, he also claimed that the world was a better place after the July 7 bombings in London. "I believe it is a better place for Islam and Muslims but not for non-Muslims. What's happening around the world is good and positive for Islam." The comments were condemned by moderate Muslim leaders. Ibrahim Mogra, the chairman of the Interfaith Relations Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "This is part of an attempt to create divisions both within the Muslim community and the wider society. "On the contrary, the more a Muslim police officer becomes a practising Muslim, the more loyal he will become, the more he will realise his duty to his country and the need to contribute to its well-being." He added: "People are entitled to their views, but we actually have our own scholars and imams, who are still in this country, not abroad, and who talk about contributing to Britain and the responsibilities that we have to it." Bakri Mohammed came to Britain in 1985 after being expelled from Saudi Arabia. He was rapidly derided as "the Tottenham Ayatollah". His inflammatory pronouncements have included calling the September 11 terrorists the "Magnificent 19". He disbanded al-Muhajiroun in 2004. Shortly after the July 7 attacks Tony Blair announced the group would be banned as part of a series of measures against condoning or glorifying terrorism. After Bakri Mohammed left for Beirut he was banned from returning to Britain. The Government deemed his presence "no longer conducive to the public good". In Beirut last week, a relaxed Bakri Mohammed sipped freshly-squeezed strawberry juice in an upmarket restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean. He took pleasure in hearing media reports about Abid Javaid, 41, of Thornton Heath, Surrey, a civil servant in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, who was exposed late last year as a leading member of the extremist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), which Mr Blair had wanted to ban. This was despite Bakri Mohammed's admission: "I left HT in 1996 and they condemn what I stand for." Bakri Mohammed readily confirmed that he had officiated at the wedding of Pc Alexander Omar Basha, his relative by marriage. In October, however, when the diplomatic protection officer faced controversy after being excused guard duties at the Israeli embassy, Bakri Mohammed admitted Pc Basha's views were far more moderate than his own and even complained: "If I'd have known [he was a policeman at the time of the wedding] I would never have married them. My advice to all Muslims in the police is to leave their jobs." "And to hook up on welfare, as allan intended the Master Religion™'s members to do so".

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Britain

Cleric preaches violence is part of Islam

2007-05-02

The “fertiliser bomb plotters” recently imprisoned in Britain were influenced by a radical cleric who preaches that violence and terrorism are “a part of Islam”, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph. Omar Bakri Mohammed “encouraged his small band of followers to turn their ideological zeal to violence, training them in boxing and urging them on,” writes Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph report. “It was at one such meeting that Omar Khyam, the leader of the fertiliser plotters, first came into contact with radical Islam as an impressionable teenager. It was Bakri’s boundless energy that drew together the various parts of the radical group he had founded,” writes Gardham. Living on disability benefit in north London, Bakri drove round the UK encouraging members of radical group al-Muhajiroun. His radical ideology called for the establishment of a worldwide Muslim Caliphate and the black flag of Islam flying at No 10. Bakri helped organise a seminar after the September 11 attacks in favour of the “Magnificent 19” and went on to call the July 7 bombers the “Fantastic Four”. In documents seen by The Daily Telegraph, al-Muhajiroun claimed: “Terrorism is a part of Islam” and “Allah made it obligatory to prepare and to terrify the enemy of Allah”. The article advised: “The kuffar of USA and UK are without doubt our enemy. There is no such thing as an innocent kafir, innocence is only applicable for the Muslims. Not only is it obligatory to fight them, it is haram [forbidden] to feel sorry for them.” Al-Muhajiroun included several distinct groups – the fertiliser plotters Omar Khyam and Waheed Mahmood became involved in Crawley, Anthony Garcia in east London and Salahuddin Amin in Luton. In Pakistan, after September 11, those groups came together under the guidance of Mohammed Babar, an al-Muhajiroun member from New York, and others, including allegedly Hassan Butt from Manchester, says the Telegraph report. Babar and Butt allegedly set up an “AM” office in Lahore, with Butt said to have boasted of sending British recruits to fight allied forces in Afghanistan. Another young man inspired by Bakri was Omar Sharif, from Derby, a student at King’s College London who went on to become a suicide bomber in Israel. Six months after the arrest of the fertiliser plotters in 2004, Bakri announced that he was closing down al-Muhajiroun but other organisations have been set up by his followers. The New York Police Department said last year it believed that al-Muhajiroun and its successors had connections with Islamic societies in 21 British towns and cities as well as student bodies, publishers and a software company. In a recent article in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Sharq al-Awsat, a former leader of one group said: “The students of Omar Bakri continue to preach on campuses.” Bakri now lives in the Lebanon and has been banned from returning to Britain, although his wife and seven children still live in London. In a sermon in English, given over a secure Internet site by Bakri last week, he talked of anti-terrorism arrests as a “good sign”. He said: “When you put people under pressure everywhere, I think you are leading to explosion.”

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Britain

We mustn't rile the terror-mongers

2006-07-10

From Jewish World Review online. We all have watched what is happening to Britain, but this brings it home. By Diana West Just in time for the one-year anniversary of 7/7, a poll conducted for The Times of London indicates that 13 percent of British Muslims believe that the four Islamic suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London last July should be regarded as "martyrs." With a Muslim population in Britain estimated at 1.6 million, this means that some 208,000 British Muslims regard these killers with what can only be described as a worshipful attitude. Which is despicable. But Mother England, it seems, is home to an awful lot of despicable people. One of them, surely, is Anjem Choudary, who made related news this week. Choudary is a former leader of Al Mujahiroun — a defunct, jihad-inciting group, whose venomous pronouncements on Islamic supremacy have earned him a strange prominence in the British media. He refuses to condemn the 7/7 attacks, says Muslims shouldn't help police combat jihad terror, and advocates sharia (Islamic law) for Britain. During a BBC "Newsnight" appearance this year, the host asked Choudary why he didn't simply move to a sharia state like Iran. "Who says you own Britain, anyway?" Choudary replied. "Britain belongs to Allah. The whole world belongs to Allah. ... If I go to the jungle, I'm not going to live like the animals, I'm going to propagate a superior way of life. Islam is a superior way of life." And there you have it, folks. The Superior Way of Life™ defense. If you want to reason with the likes of him, go howl at the moon. It will be more productive. In a way, the 39-year-old Essex man was just found guilty of a charge connected to propagating that "superior way of life." It all started last February when Choudary organized a march on the Danish Embassy in London to protest Muhammad cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper. This wasn't one of those anti-Danish protests in which people were killed — hundreds died around the Islamic world in this year's Days of Cartoon Rage — but it was definitely murder-minded. "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," said one placard. "Slay Those Who Insult Islam," said another. "Kill Those Who Insult Islam," and (for variety) "Butcher Those Who Mock Islam," said others. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through London, praising the 7/7 killers, or calling for the murder of journalists who publish Mohammed cartoons. And the police stood by. More accurately, they made sure the protest went off smoothly, as the Times Online reported. "People who tried to snatch away (the placards) were held back by police," the newspaper said. "Several members of the public tackled senior police officers guarding the protesters, demanding to know why they allowed banners that praised the 'Magnificent 19' — the terrorists who hijacked the aircrafts used on Sept. 11, 2001 — and others threatening further attacks on London." Why, indeed. The "Newsnight" show on which Choudary subsequently appeared included news footage of an English bobby vigorously silencing such a citizen, described as a van driver, who, according to the televised report, had angrily criticized the Muslim protesters. It is tragically enlightening. "Listen to me, listen to me," said the policeman, shaking his finger at the van driver. "They have a right to protest. You let them do it. You say things like that you'll get them riled and I end up in (trouble). You say one more thing like that, mate, and you'll get yourself nicked (arrested) and I am not kidding you, d'you understand me?" Van driver: "They can do whatever they want and I can't?" Policeman: "They've got their way of doing it. The way you did it was wrong. You've got one second to get back in your van and get out of here." Van driver: (bitter) "Freedom of speech." This vignette wasn't law and order in action. It was desperate, craven appeasement. As the bobby put it, "You say things like that, you'll get them riled." And we mustn't get them riled. Let Choudary and his band of thugs praise mass killings, threaten more attacks and advocate murder by beheading on London streets in broad daylight — but don't get them riled. Still, Choudary did end up in a British court of law, and this week a British judge handed down a verdict. Choudary has been found guilty of ... staging a demonstration without giving the required six days' written notice. Tsk, tsk. That'll be $1,400 in fines, please — easy enough to pay since Choudary, the Online Sun reports, receives more than twice that per month in government handouts. All of which makes Pax Britannica seem quite cheap at the price.

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Britain

Hizb-ut-Tahrir threatens Blair

2005-08-05

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s pledge to ban militant Islamic groups will be seen by Muslims as “stifling legitimate political dissent”, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir said today. Imran Waheed, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said the group would fight any ban through the courts and insisted it was a “non-violent political party”. I think it's pretty well established that it's an al-Qaeda front organization. He added: “There will be serious repercussions in terms of community relations if this ban goes ahead. We have a lot of support among the Muslim community in Britain and it will be seen by the Muslim community as stifling legitimate political dissent. Sounds like a threat to turn Britain into something like Karachi on a hot day... “Hizb ut-Tahrir is a non-violent political party. It has had a history of non-violence for the last 50 years and these measures are like what we have seen in Uzbekistan where President Karimov has been burning his political opponents alive. Our members are all for political expression, not for violence.” Hizbut's members also all call for the establishment of a caliphate to rule an Islamic world. They take the phrase "over my dead body" literally and look forward to it with anticpation. Mr Waheed said the group had made its position on the London bombings clear - that it was “not justified to take innocent lives”. "But since they're already dead, we should just move on. There's certainly no reason to actually do something about it." “We have been very clear about that and we will fight any ban through the legal system. We will continue our work. Our work is totally non-violent.” But he added: “Our views are very similar to those in the Muslim community. We want an end to Western interference in Muslim countries.” In that case, you'll have nothing against those Muslim communities being moved to Karachi and left to their own devices... Mr Waheed rejected shadow defence minister Gerald Howarth’s comments that Muslims opposed to the British way of life should leave the country even if they are UK citizens. “This is nothing to do with not liking the country,” he said. “We were born in Britain and there is nothing precluding a Muslim from a being a decent citizen in this country. By doing this, he (Mr Blair) is setting an example to the tyrant rulers of the Muslim world, encouraging them to further suppress their populations.” There's nothing precluding a Muslim being a decent citizen of Britain. That doesn't explain why those who aren't decent citizens shouldn't be dumped... The Hizb ut-Tahrir website says the group’s aim is to “resume the Islamic way of life and to convey the Islamic da’wah (teachings) to the world”. A statement posted following the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, last month said the “colonialists, especially America and Britain, harbour a hidden hatred against Islam and the Muslims". We just hide it really well, since we as nations go out of our way not to offend the sensitive little beasties... It continued: “They forget their differences when it comes to Islam and the Muslims. The London explosions, which took place at the time of the G8 summit, revealed this crusader viewpoint and hatred of Islam and the Muslims to the extent that every Muslim in Britain, even British citizens, have come under suspicion where even some British organisations have begun calling openly for ‘waging a crusader war to expel Muslims from the streets of Europe’. Only those who've declared war against the host country. I use the term "host country" descriptively, to describe a nation that's afflicted with destructive parasites. Parasites, in fact, like Hizb ut-Tahrir... “You can see these states, especially the colonialist states and those which have ambitions over our countries, may disagree on everything but they are united against you and against your Deen (faith).” The site has several question and answer-style pages arguing that America is trying to create an “evil empire which will control the whole world”. That's why we've imposed a tax on the countries we've liberated, right? That's why we've removed their treasure to our own countries. That's why we've slaughtered their military age males in batches... Oh. Wait. That's what Muslims would do. That's what Saddam did, in fact. Other statements read: “Western capitalism is a shameful and licentious civilisation for which there is no precedent known in history. Abnormal behaviour, mutilation and nudity can be found amongst human beings.” If you don't like it, don't indulge. If you don't like being around it, go back to Karachi. The difference between Western civilization and Islamism is that we in the West have over the course of the years tamed our impulses somewhat to tell other people how to live their lives. The common link between Al Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahir is Sheikh Omar bin Bakri bin Mohammed. Bakri Mohammed has been investigated by police over his allegedly inflammatory language, but no charges have ever been brought. We'll believe the Brits have actually caught on when he's booted... After living in Syria and Lebanon, he was expelled from Saudi Arabia as an extremist and arrived in Britain in 1986. He set up a branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), which recruited from mosques and colleges. He split from the group in 1996 and created Al-Muhajiroun (The Eyes and Ears of the Muslims), which praised the “Magnificent 19” hijackers after September 11. Last October, Bakri Mohammed announced he was disbanding Al-Muhajiroun in the interests of unity in the Muslim world, and has since adopted a lower profile. Which means he's working behind the scenese and thinking of going underground if he thinks Tony's serious this time. Tony faces the choice to be Churchill or Musharraf... However, he is now head of one of the “successor organisations” referred to by Mr Blair today – the Saviour Sect (Ahl ul-Sunnah wal Jammah), which disrupted a Muslim Council of Britain press conference in April. I think he sees this as a British equivalent of Jamaat-e-Islami... A group of chanting militants stormed the meeting, condemning the Council as “a mouthpiece” of Mr Blair’s and claiming that voting in the General Election would go against Islam. There were chaotic scenes as a group of more than a dozen men, two of them masked, broke down the door of the library in the Central London Mosque in Regent’s Park. The men who burst in said they represented the Saviour Sect, from the disbanded Al Muhajiroun group and headed by cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. They also targeted election candidates George Galloway and Oona King in violent scuffles during hustings in London’s East End in April. Sounds a lot like the Islami Jamiat Talaba and the festivities at Punjab University, doesn't it? Another Al-Muhajiroun offshoot is known as Al Ghurabaa, or “The Strangers”. This week, Al Ghurabaa spokesman Abu Izzadeen refused to condemn the July 7 bombings and said he hoped they would make people “wake up and smell the coffee”. We're all hoping exactly the same thing, bub.

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Britain

British Gitmo Terrorists Return to UK After "1000 Days of Hell"

2005-01-22

Although the Guardian reports that a solicitor for two of the men demands that they should be treated as "torture victims" rather than terror suspects, security forces take a sterner view The angle British newspapers take on the imminent return of four terror suspects from Guantanamo Bay tells you a lot about each paper's philosophy. The Independent, for example, screams "1000 Days of Hell" - a reference to the time one of the prisoners has spent in Camp X-Ray since his arrest in Afghanistan. The Guardian,typically, calls in the social workers, warning that the men may need "extensive counselling at least" for many years after their release. Good idea. Make sure they have their heads examined... However, The Times, not to mention the British authorities, expect that the returned prisoners may need something rather more than psychiatric care when they are released: 24-hour police surveillance. Although the Guardian reports that a solicitor for two of the men demands that they should be treated as "torture victims" rather than terror suspects, security forces take a sterner view. The Times reports that the men are unlikely to face trial in the UK, despite US accusations that they attended terrorist camps, volunteered on suicide missions and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The report adds that British intelligence service MI5 has compiled substantial dossiers on the men following interrogation in Camp X-Ray. However, this evidence is not admissible in British courts as the men had no legal representation and had not been cautioned when the interviews took place. That does nothing to lessen the truth of the reports. Intel information is seldom suitable for introduction as evidence in court. Think how much of the evidence gathered against the Magnificent 19 in the wake of the 9-11 attacks would be admissible... The government's only alternative, it seems, is to keep the men under round-the-clock surveillance. Indeed, Britain's foreign secretary Jack Straw has admitted that one of the conditions of the mens release was that their activities would be monitored "very closely." A similar situation arose last year, when the first batch of British terror suspects were released by the US. We reported then that surveillance could cost the taxpayer around £1 million per man annually. The Times' leader asks some tough questions. It will be fascinating, the paper says, to hear their explanations of what took them to Afghanistan, "which was not a popular tourist destination at the time," it adds, dryly.

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Home Front: WoT

Either You're with the Muslims or with the Infidels

2004-09-06

The London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that the extremist Islamic movement Al-Muhajiroun had announced a convention in London, titled "The Choice is in Your Hands: Either You're with the Muslims or with the Infidels," to mark the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The organization had planned a similar anniversary event a year ago, called "The Magnificent 19 [Suicide Attackers]," but had cancelled it at the last minute. The following is a summary of the report: [1] Al-Muhajiroun leader Omar Bakri, a Syrian residing in London, told the paper by phone that the convention would feature Al-Qa'ida "surprises," with the screening of a never-before-shown video. He said that the convention will focus on "the anniversary of the division of the world into two great camps — the camp of faith and the camp of unbelief," and would take place September 11, 2004 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Bakri added: "On this day, we will talk about the ramifications of these [9/11] operations for Afghanistan and Iraq
 We want the world to remember this operation 
 that lifted the head of the [Muslim] nation." Bakri called 9/11 "a cry of Jihad against unbelief and oppression," and said that the aim of remembering it is to "revive the commandment of Jihad among the youth of the [Muslim] nation."

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Terror Networks

"The Choice is in Your Hands: Either You're with the Muslims or with the Infidels

2004-09-04

From MEMRI... The London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that the extremist Islamic movement Al-Muhajiroun had announced a convention in London, titled "The Choice is in Your Hands: Either You're with the Muslims or with the Infidels," to mark the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The organization had planned a similar anniversary event a year ago, called "The Magnificent 19 [Suicide Attackers]," but had cancelled it at the last minute. The following is a summary of the report: Al-Muhajiroun leader Omar Bakri, a Syrian residing in London, told the paper by phone that the convention would feature Al-Qa'ida "surprises," with the screening of a never-before-shown video. He said that the convention will focus on "the anniversary of the division of the world into two great camps — the camp of faith and the camp of unbelief," and would take place September 11, 2004 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Bakri added: "On this day, we will talk about the ramifications of these [9/11] operations for Afghanistan and Iraq
 We want the world to remember this operation 
 that lifted the head of the [Muslim] nation." Bakri called 9/11 "a cry of Jihad against unbelief and oppression," and said that the aim of remembering it is to "revive the commandment of Jihad among the youth of the [Muslim] nation." Bakri said that the convention will also feature a lecture about the Islamic religious roots of "slaughtering the infidels," that is, beheading foreigners in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and that there will be films by Al-Qaida, the Tawhid and Jihad organization, and the Brigades of the Two Holy Places in the Arabian Peninsula, and that there will also be a film on the most recent operations in Chechnya. He added that one of the speeches, by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, known to be Al-Qaida's military commander in Iraq, will be translated. Another lecture, he said, would be dedicated to the memory of three Al-Qa'ida commanders: Abd Al-Aziz Al-Muqren (Abu Hajer), killed in June 2004 by Saudi security forces; his predecessor Yousef Al-Ayyiri, killed in June 2003 in a clash with Saudi security forces, and Abu Hafs Al-Masri, a top Al-Qa'ida military officer, killed in the U.S. attack on Kandahar in late 2001. According to Bakri, the anticipated criticism of Al-Muhajiroun for the organization's insistence on memorializing 9/11 will be "a simple sacrifice in comparison with what we must actually do — that is, support the Jihad led by bin Laden." Attorney Anjam Choudry, secretary-general of Al-Muhajiroun in Britain, said, "A large hall has already been secured for the convention, but the announcement came only two days ago for fear that the British police would try to cancel it, as happened with the previous convention."

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Britain

European al-Qaeda supporters openly call for jihad

2004-04-26

The call to jihad is rising in the streets of Europe, and is being answered, counterterrorism officials say. In this former industrial town north of London, a small group of young Britons whose parents emigrated from Pakistan after World War II have turned against their families' new home. They say they would like to see Prime Minister Tony Blair dead or deposed and an Islamic flag hanging outside No. 10 Downing Street. They swear allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his goal of toppling Western democracies to establish an Islamic superstate under Shariah law, like Afghanistan under the Taliban. They call the Sept. 11 hijackers the "Magnificent 19" and regard the Madrid train bombings as a clever way to drive a wedge into Europe. On Thursday evening, at a tennis center community hall in Slough, west of London, their leader, Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad, spoke of his adherence to Osama bin Laden. If Europe fails to heed Mr. bin Laden's offer of a truce — provided that all foreign troops are withdrawn from Iraq in three months — Muslims will no longer be restrained from attacking the Western countries that play host to them, the sheik said. "All Muslims of the West will be obliged," he said, to "become his sword" in a new battle. Europeans take heed, he added, saying, "It is foolish to fight people who want death — that is what they are looking for." On working-class streets of old industrial towns like Crawley, Luton, Birmingham and Manchester, and in the Arab enclaves of Germany, France, Switzerland and other parts of Europe, intelligence officials say a fervor for militancy is intensifying and becoming more open. In Hamburg, Dr. Mustafa Yoldas, the director of the Council of Islamic Communities, saw a correlation to the discord in Iraq. "This is a very dangerous situation at the moment," Dr. Yoldas said. "My impression is that Muslims have become more and more angry against the United States." Hundreds of young Muslim men are answering the call of militant groups affiliated or aligned with Al Qaeda, intelligence and counterterrorism officials in the region say. Even more worrying, said a senior counterterrorism official, is that the level of "chatter" — communications among people suspected of terrorism and their supporters — has markedly increased since Mr. bin Laden's warning to Europe this month. The spike in chatter has given rise to acute worries that planning for another strike in Europe is advanced. "Iraq dramatically strengthened their recruitment efforts," one counterterrorism official said. He added that some mosques now display photos of American soldiers fighting in Iraq alongside bloody scenes of bombed out Iraqi neighborhoods. Detecting actual recruitments is almost impossible, he said, because it is typically done face to face. And recruitment is paired with a compelling new strategy to bring the fight to Europe. Members of Al Qaeda have "proven themselves to be extremely opportunistic, and they have decided to try to split the Western alliance," the official continued. "They are focusing their energies on attacking the big countries" — the United States, Britain and Spain — so as to "scare" the smaller states. Some Muslim recruits are going to Iraq, counterterrorism officials in Europe say, but more are remaining home, possibly joining cells that could help with terror logistics or begin operations like the one that came to notice when the British police seized 1,200 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a key bomb ingredient, in late March, and arrested nine Pakistani-Britons, five of whom have been charged with trying to build a terrorist bomb. Stoking that anger are some of the same fiery Islamic clerics who preached violence and martyrdom before the Sept. 11 attacks. On Friday, Abu Hamza, the cleric accused of tutoring Richard Reid before he tried to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoe, urged a crowd of 200 outside his former Finsbury Park mosque to embrace death and the "culture of martyrdom." Though the British home secretary, David Blunkett, has sought to strip Abu Hamza of his British citizenship and deport him, the legal battle has dragged on for years while Abu Hamza keeps calling down the wrath of God. Also this week, over Mr. Blunkett's vigorous objection, a 35-year-old Algerian held under emergency laws passed after Sept. 11 was released from Belmarsh Prison. The man, identified only as "G," suffered from severe mental illness, his lawyers told a special immigration appeals panel, which let him out of prison and put him under house arrest. Mr. Blunkett insisted that that should not be the final judgment on a man already found by one court "to be a threat to life and liberty." In an interview on the BBC over the weekend, Mr. Blunkett advocated a stronger deportation policy, initially focused on 12 foreign terror suspects held without charge since the Sept. 11 attacks. Despite tougher antiterrorism laws, the police, prosecutors and intelligence chiefs across Europe say they are struggling to contain the openly seditious speech of Islamic extremists, some of whom, they say, have been inciting young men to suicidal violence since the 1990's. One chapter in Sheik Omar's lectures these days is "The Psyche of Muslims for Suicide Bombing." The authorities say that laws to protect religious expression and civil liberties have the result of limiting what they can do to stop hateful speech. In the case of foreigners, they say they are often left to seek deportation, a lengthy and uncertain process subject to legal appeals, when the suspect can keep inciting attacks. That leaves the authorities to resort to less effective means, such as mouse-trapping Islamic radicals with immigration violations in hopes of making a deportation case stick. "In many countries, the laws are liberal and it's not easy," an official said. At a mosque in Geneva, an imam recently exhorted his followers to "impose the will of Islam on the godless society of the West." "It was quite virulent," said a senior official with knowledge of the sermon. "The imam was encouraging his followers to take over the godless society." While such a sermon may be incitement, recruitment takes a more shadowy course, and is hard to detect, a senior antiterrorism official said. "Believers are appealed to in the mosques, but the real conversations take place in restaurants or cafes or private apartments," the official said. While some clerics, like Abu Qatada — said to be the spiritual counselor of Mohamed Atta, who led the Sept. 11 hijacking team — remain in prison in Britain without charge, others like Sheik Omar, leader of a movement called Al Muhajiroun, carry on a robust ideological campaign. "There is no case against me," Sheik Omar said in an interview. Referring to calls by members of Parliament that he be deported, he added, "but they are Jewish" and "they have been calling for that for years." Among his ardent followers is Ishtiaq Alamgir, 24, who heads Al Muhajiroun in Luton and calls himself Sayful Islam, the sword of Islam. He says there are about 50 members here but exact numbers are secret. Most days, he and a handful of his followers run a recruitment stand on Dunstable Road much to the chagrin of the Muslim elders of Luton. Mainstream Muslims are outraged by the situation, saying the actions of a few are causing their communities to be singled out for surveillance and making the larger population distrustful of them. Muhammad Sulaiman, a stalwart of the mainstream Central Mosque here, was penniless when he arrived from the Kashmiri frontier of Pakistan in 1956. He raised money to build the Central Mosque here and now leads a campaign to ban Al Muhajiroun radicals from the city's 10 mosques. "This is show-off business," he says in accented English. "I don't want these kids in my mosque." Other community leaders look to the government to do something, if only to help prevent the demonization of British Muslims, or "Islamophobia," as some here call it. "I think these kids are being brainwashed by a few radical clerics," said Akhbar Dad Khan, another elder of the Central Mosque. He wants them prosecuted or deported. "We should be able to control this negativity," he said. In Slough, Sheik Omar spent much of his time Thursday night regaling his young followers with the erotic delights of paradise — sweet kisses and the pleasures of bathing with scores of women — while he also preached the virtues of death in Islamic struggle as a ticket to paradise. He spoke of terrorism as the new norm of cultural conflict, "the fashion of the 21st century," practiced as much by Tony Blair as by Al Qaeda. "We may be caught up in the target as the people of Manhattan were," he told them. And he warned Western leaders, "You may kill bin Laden, but the phenomenon, you cannot kill it — you cannot destroy it. Our Muslim brothers from abroad will come one day and conquer here and then we will live under Islam in dignity."

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