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London a Longtime Haven for Radical Muslim Figures
CNSNews
July 8, 2005
Terrorism experts have long warned that Islamists espousing violence enjoy a
haven in London, an assertion that has come into sharp focus again with
Thursday's 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.
SEE}
EXPOSED: New Preacher of Hate
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.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi came to Britain to speak at the opening
of a conference on Muslims in Europe organised by the European Council for Fatwa
and Research of which he is President. He was greeted by London's Mayor
Ken Livingstone who said he agreed with many of the Islamic cleric's views on
Israel. [al-Qaradawi is banned from
the US - because of his support for Palestinian 'martyrdom operations' in
Israel]
Tears welling in his eyes London Mayor Ken Livingstone
pauses as he makes a statement, July 8, 2005,
about yesterday's bombings in London.
Over 50 people were killed with over 700 injured
Exploiting democracy
In 2000, Bakri told Cybercast News Service in an interview: "We will use your
democracy to destroy your democracy." [How many
of them are are laughing?]
U.S.
democracy condemns the Koran {SEE for yourselves]
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. [India has
suffered its share of attacks]
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.
Sound familiar?
By Omar M. Ahmad - Council on
Islamic-American Relations (CAIR)
"Islam isn't in
America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant.
The Koran
should be the highest authority in America
and Islam the only accepted
religion on Earth" \Treason
in America
For some reason - the leaders don't believe them. How many schools, hospitals
or malls have to be attacked before they do?
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."
In keeping with their Koran - a fact that the 'moderate'
Muslims are lying about:
004.101
When ye travel through the
earth, there is no blame on you if ye shorten
your prayers, for fear the Unbelievers May attack you: For
the Unbelievers are unto you open enemies.
009.005
fight and slay
the Pagans ''''wherever''''
ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and
lie in wait for them
in every stratagem of war.
008.067
It is not fitting for a prophet that he should have
prisoners of war [slay them]
until he hath thoroughly subdued the land.
033.061
They shall have a curse on them: whenever they are found,
they shall be seized and slain without mercy.
009.029
Fight those who believe not in Allah
nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and
His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the
People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with
willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
004.104
And slacken not in
following up the enemy: If ye are suffering
hardships, they are suffering similar hardships.
009.039
Unless ye go forth, He will punish you
with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place.
The leaders of the west obviously believe those teachings
planted with the children will raise them into loving merciful adults....because
they keep preaching... "Islam is a
religion of peace"....and the rest of us
are to ignore those teachings....and the future they promise to ALL.
They have taken away the New Testament - the
ONLY Foundation of peace laid by God Himself - and left a huge void to fill -
and fill it - the Koran will.
Some Jewish religions ignore many Old
Testament Scriptures - but for this one - there is NO excuse:
Jer 31:31
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.
[So, what ever happened to the Torah's New
Covenant?]
Hbr 8:13
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.
The command was:
2Jo 1:10
If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine
[of Christ], receive him not into your
house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jo 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil
deeds. [thereby taking part in the hands that
have blood upon them]
1Jo 3:15
And ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
But the western leaders. nor any voices are speaking out
with the truth...
Isa 65:12
Therefore will I number you to the sword [remove His
protection], and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when
I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before
mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
He delights in mercy
Mic 7:18
- of which the New Testament commands from ALL!
Gal 6:7 Be
not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap:
The Koran does not teach humans to be merciful
to other humans who refuse that god
047.004
Therefore, when ye meet the
Unbelievers in fight,
[jihad]
smite at their necks.
[Behead them!]
Where is the mercy in that?
Why are the leaders allowing it?
Over 50 people were killed with over 700 injured
Introduction
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