Neil_Hindu_Sikh_Kashmiri
2005-08-02 09:04:37 UTC
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2005/july/0712_london_havenp.shtml
London a Longtime Haven for Radical Muslim Figures
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
July 12, 2005
(CNSNews.com) -- Terrorism experts have long warned that Islamists espousing
violence enjoy a haven in London, an assertion that has come into sharp
focus again with the July 7 bombings in the British capital.
For years, Britain tolerated the presence of high-profile and outspoken
Islamic clerics whose fiery sermons frequently extolled jihad against the
West. Since 9/11, however, anti-terror legislation has been tightened, some
groups have been outlawed, terror rings have been broken and some
controversial figures have been arrested.
One of them, Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri, went on trial this week at
London's Old Bailey courthouse, where he faces more than a dozen charges
include inciting terrorism and racial hatred.
Al-Masri was formerly the imam at a North London mosque linked to confessed
al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid, who tried to blow
up a U.S.-bound flight from Europe with explosives hidden in his shoe.
He also is wanted in the United States and Yemen on terror-related charges.
For years before his May 2004 arrest, al-Masri used the Finsbury Park mosque
as a base to speak for what he insisted were political causes.
Despite his radical rhetoric and close links to a group that claimed
responsibility for attacks including the Oct. 2000 bombing of the USS Cole
in Yemen, it was only in 2003 that the authorities acted against him,
stripping him of his British citizenship and barring him from preaching at
the mosque.
Al-Masri then took to addressing his followers -- mostly young British- and
foreign-born Muslims -- on the street outside the building.
Britain also detained another London-based extremist cleric, Abu Qatada,
whose sermons were found in the 9/11 hijackers' apartment in Germany.
But other radical leaders remained free, among them Omar Bakri Mohammed, a
Syrian-born cleric who has promoted and praised violence against Israel,
America and Britain for years.
Yael Shahar of the Israel-based International Policy Institute for
Counter-Terrorism (ICT) said that although London had been a center for
Islamic extremism for years, the British security services only started
taking the threat seriously after 9/11.
Before that, Shahar said, "the firebrand clerics who preached jihad and
hatred of the West were dismissed as 'armchair warriors' by British
intelligence."
Even since 9/11, however, critics have questioned Britain's apparent
tolerance for highly-controversial Muslim figures.
As recently as last year, the government allowed a visit by Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, a Egyptian cleric who has publicly voiced support for suicide
bombers. London's leftwing Mayor Ken Livingstone, who has called al-Qaradawi
a "man of peace," welcomed him as an honored guest (see related story).
Exploiting democracy
In 2000, Bakri told Cybercast News Service in an interview: "We will use
your democracy to destroy your democracy."
Britain's legal system and its willingness late last century to offer asylum
to figures like Bakri, al-Masri and Abu Qatada made it a magnet for exiled
radical organizations.
"In the past decade, the United Kingdom's undisputed political, economic,
and cultural center has also become a major world center of political Islam
and anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American activism," writes Hebrew
University of Jerusalem academic Robert S. Wistrich, in online excerpts of
an article to be published soon.
"Through its Arabic-language newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses,
not to mention its flourishing network of bookshops, mosques, and community
centers, radical Islam has taken full advantage of what British democracy
has to offer for its anti-Western goals, reaping the benefits of London's
significance as a hub of global finance, electronic media, and mass
communications technology."
Osama bin Laden himself laid the groundwork for a London-based network,
according to terrorism researcher Yossef Bodansky.
In his biography on bin Laden, written before 9/11, Bodansky wrote that the
al-Qaeda leader based himself in the London suburb of Wembley in 1994. By
the time he left, after the Saudis began demanding his expulsion, "he had
consolidated a comprehensive system of entities" in the city.
In Nov. 1998, Bakri hosted a conference in London called Western Challenge
and Islamic Response, attended by more than a dozen extremist groups. At the
gathering, Bakri voiced support for Osama bin Laden's jihad and said recent
anti-U.S. attacks such as those in Saudi Arabia and East Africa were
"legitimate acts."
Following 9/11, Bakri was one of the first Islamist figures to publicly
applaud the attacks.
Since then he has spoken often of his support for violent jihad, even
admitting to signing up recruits for Islamist campaigns in places like
Kashmir and Israel.
A number of governments -- including those of India, Algeria, Sri Lanka and
Egypt -- have long complained about the presence in Britain of groups
connected to violent campaign in those countries.
Extremists recruited in Britain for terrorist acts abroad include "shoe
bomber" Reid, eight men involved in kidnappings in Yemen, and two men who
carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in 2003.
Bakri insisted that fighters were never recruited to carry out violent acts
inside Britain itself, although he did say it was his dream to see the
Islamic banner flying over Downing Street.
After the fall of the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies in Afghanistan in late
2001, a member of Bakri's organization, Hassan Butt, told the BBC from
Pakistan that British Muslim volunteers who had been fighting in Afghanistan
would return to Britain where they would "strike at the heart of the enemy."
In an interview with a Portuguese magazine in April 2004, Bakri said attacks
on London were "inevitable."
One "very well organized" group in London called itself al-Qaeda Europe, he
said. "I know that they are ready to launch a big operation."
Copyright © 1998-2005 CNSNews.com - Cybercast News Service
London a Longtime Haven for Radical Muslim Figures
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
July 12, 2005
(CNSNews.com) -- Terrorism experts have long warned that Islamists espousing
violence enjoy a haven in London, an assertion that has come into sharp
focus again with the July 7 bombings in the British capital.
For years, Britain tolerated the presence of high-profile and outspoken
Islamic clerics whose fiery sermons frequently extolled jihad against the
West. Since 9/11, however, anti-terror legislation has been tightened, some
groups have been outlawed, terror rings have been broken and some
controversial figures have been arrested.
One of them, Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri, went on trial this week at
London's Old Bailey courthouse, where he faces more than a dozen charges
include inciting terrorism and racial hatred.
Al-Masri was formerly the imam at a North London mosque linked to confessed
al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid, who tried to blow
up a U.S.-bound flight from Europe with explosives hidden in his shoe.
He also is wanted in the United States and Yemen on terror-related charges.
For years before his May 2004 arrest, al-Masri used the Finsbury Park mosque
as a base to speak for what he insisted were political causes.
Despite his radical rhetoric and close links to a group that claimed
responsibility for attacks including the Oct. 2000 bombing of the USS Cole
in Yemen, it was only in 2003 that the authorities acted against him,
stripping him of his British citizenship and barring him from preaching at
the mosque.
Al-Masri then took to addressing his followers -- mostly young British- and
foreign-born Muslims -- on the street outside the building.
Britain also detained another London-based extremist cleric, Abu Qatada,
whose sermons were found in the 9/11 hijackers' apartment in Germany.
But other radical leaders remained free, among them Omar Bakri Mohammed, a
Syrian-born cleric who has promoted and praised violence against Israel,
America and Britain for years.
Yael Shahar of the Israel-based International Policy Institute for
Counter-Terrorism (ICT) said that although London had been a center for
Islamic extremism for years, the British security services only started
taking the threat seriously after 9/11.
Before that, Shahar said, "the firebrand clerics who preached jihad and
hatred of the West were dismissed as 'armchair warriors' by British
intelligence."
Even since 9/11, however, critics have questioned Britain's apparent
tolerance for highly-controversial Muslim figures.
As recently as last year, the government allowed a visit by Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, a Egyptian cleric who has publicly voiced support for suicide
bombers. London's leftwing Mayor Ken Livingstone, who has called al-Qaradawi
a "man of peace," welcomed him as an honored guest (see related story).
Exploiting democracy
In 2000, Bakri told Cybercast News Service in an interview: "We will use
your democracy to destroy your democracy."
Britain's legal system and its willingness late last century to offer asylum
to figures like Bakri, al-Masri and Abu Qatada made it a magnet for exiled
radical organizations.
"In the past decade, the United Kingdom's undisputed political, economic,
and cultural center has also become a major world center of political Islam
and anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American activism," writes Hebrew
University of Jerusalem academic Robert S. Wistrich, in online excerpts of
an article to be published soon.
"Through its Arabic-language newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses,
not to mention its flourishing network of bookshops, mosques, and community
centers, radical Islam has taken full advantage of what British democracy
has to offer for its anti-Western goals, reaping the benefits of London's
significance as a hub of global finance, electronic media, and mass
communications technology."
Osama bin Laden himself laid the groundwork for a London-based network,
according to terrorism researcher Yossef Bodansky.
In his biography on bin Laden, written before 9/11, Bodansky wrote that the
al-Qaeda leader based himself in the London suburb of Wembley in 1994. By
the time he left, after the Saudis began demanding his expulsion, "he had
consolidated a comprehensive system of entities" in the city.
In Nov. 1998, Bakri hosted a conference in London called Western Challenge
and Islamic Response, attended by more than a dozen extremist groups. At the
gathering, Bakri voiced support for Osama bin Laden's jihad and said recent
anti-U.S. attacks such as those in Saudi Arabia and East Africa were
"legitimate acts."
Following 9/11, Bakri was one of the first Islamist figures to publicly
applaud the attacks.
Since then he has spoken often of his support for violent jihad, even
admitting to signing up recruits for Islamist campaigns in places like
Kashmir and Israel.
A number of governments -- including those of India, Algeria, Sri Lanka and
Egypt -- have long complained about the presence in Britain of groups
connected to violent campaign in those countries.
Extremists recruited in Britain for terrorist acts abroad include "shoe
bomber" Reid, eight men involved in kidnappings in Yemen, and two men who
carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in 2003.
Bakri insisted that fighters were never recruited to carry out violent acts
inside Britain itself, although he did say it was his dream to see the
Islamic banner flying over Downing Street.
After the fall of the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies in Afghanistan in late
2001, a member of Bakri's organization, Hassan Butt, told the BBC from
Pakistan that British Muslim volunteers who had been fighting in Afghanistan
would return to Britain where they would "strike at the heart of the enemy."
In an interview with a Portuguese magazine in April 2004, Bakri said attacks
on London were "inevitable."
One "very well organized" group in London called itself al-Qaeda Europe, he
said. "I know that they are ready to launch a big operation."
Copyright © 1998-2005 CNSNews.com - Cybercast News Service