A leading British Muslim politician should be killed for committing âapostasyâ by supporting anti-terrorist policies, a Muslim extremist has claimed.
The warning to Lord Ahmed â one of the first Labour peers appointed by Tony Blair and an outspoken critic of fundamentalism â was issued at a meeting of al-Muhajiroun, a radical London-based group. The organisation, led by the Syrian-born preacher Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, is alleged to have sent Britons to terrorist training camps and one of its followers attempted a suicide bombing in Israel.
| But it still somehow remains in business... |
Al-Muhajirounâs threat was witnessed by an undercover Sunday Times reporter who attended the groupâs meetings as a potential convert to Islam. In his public statements Omar avoids threats of violence against British politicians, but his followers are less guarded. The sessions, although outwardly religious, included statements in support of terrorism, from praise for the September 11 attackers to calls for the violent establishment of a Muslim state in Britain. The threat against Ahmed, 46, was delivered this month by Abu Saliah, a regular speaker at al-Muhajiroun meetings. He claimed that the peer had âallied himselfâ with non-Muslims and was guilty of âapostasyâ, a crime âpunishable by death. No doubt about itâ. Saliah stopped short of calling outright for the murder of Ahmed, a businessman from Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
| "Punishable by death. No doubt about it." That's stopping short? That's not very short. |
The peer, ennobled in 1998, has tempered his criticism of Islamic extremism with opposition to the Iraq war. He angered some Muslims recently by urging that clerics should be forced to take tests in English language and culture. He said he had expected to become the subject of a fatwa (religious pronouncement), âthough not, I should add, one that sentences me to deathâ.
Al-Muhajiroun recruits in mosques and universities. It also uses a market stall in Whitechapel Road, east London, the heart of the capitalâs Bangladeshi community. Targets include white Britons who are confused about their religious beliefs or who have personal problems. The reporter, white and from a Christian background, was invited to meetings after approaching the stall. He claimed that he had become disillusioned with Christianity and had a theological query about language in the Koran. Staff at the stall urged the reporter to attend weekly meetings of the Central London Muslim Association, a name used by al-Muhajiroun. The group uses a room at the Weavers Field community centre, a former school in Bethnal Green, east London. The reporter went to three gatherings over the past month. They attracted between 30 and 40 people, mostly Asian and mostly men but with a small group of women. At meetings, the reporter was assigned to a follower in his early twenties called Azaz to learn of the groupâs beliefs. The speeches consist almost entirely of attacks on the Blair government, British society and moderate Muslims. Speakers generally used quiet, measured tones. The audience gave murmurs of assent. The style was in sharp contrast to rabble-rousing preachers such as Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric from Finsbury Park, north London.
| Only because of the two different audiences... |
Statements included: o Praise for the killing of American marines in Falluja.
o A description of the September 11 attacks as âmagnificentâ.
o Criticism of Muslims who co-operate with police or MI5 by alerting them to terrorists.
o A warning that Britain must accept the âblack flag of Islam flying over 10 Downing Streetâ or âlive in terrorâ. Speeches are recorded on video for distribution to sympathisers. They are punctuated by prayers and rounded off with a question and answer session. Last week the meeting was able to boast a new convert. The man, a white Briton identified as a reformed alcoholic called Wayne, had been recruited about two months after first attending the Whitechapel stall. The man, in his late twenties or early thirties and with a ponytail, was wearing traditional Pakistani dress. After reciting the shahada â the pledge of total belief in Allah â he took the Muslim name Osama amid screams of âAllahu akbarâ.
| I wonder if he'll change sides again after the Islamists pull of their multi-thousands slaughter, wherever it's successful? |
Earlier in the meeting one speaker, a bespectacled civil engineer in his thirties, had claimed that it was only through ignorance that people criticised the September 11 attacks, âwhen the two planes magnificently went through those buildingsâ. He also claimed that the use of terrorism by Al-Qaeda had helped to recruit converts. He said: âWhy do you think that after 9/11 people started looking at Islam? . . . If you fear something, you seek knowledge about it.â
| And one day, not too far in the future, the West is going to start looking very closely at the converts, along with the immigrant fifth column... |
During the same meeting, the reporter was asked three times whether he, too, was ready to convert but he claimed he was still making up his mind. Al-Muhajiroun has more than 2,000 Muslims, mainly men in their late teens to thirties from Asian, African or West Indian backgrounds. Despite concern from mainstream mosques, police and MI5, it is a legal group. It has found an audience among disaffected young Muslims, particularly in London, Derby and Luton.
Omar, formerly known as al-Fostock, was born in Aleppo, Syria. He lived in Saudi Arabia but was expelled in 1986 for belonging to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir (Liberation party). He claimed asylum in Britain and 10 years later founded al-Muhajiroun, which means âthe emigrantsâ in Arabic. In 1991 he was interviewed by police after allegedly calling for the assassination of John Major. At the meetings, members of the group rejected their nationality. âWeâre not British. Either you are British or you are Muslim. You canât be both,â said Saliah. âWhat does âBritishâ mean? âBritishâ means you give your allegiance to the Queen. Is the Queen Muslim? Of course she is not.â
He said of non-Muslims: âWe do not take them as friends. We do not take them as allies. So how is it I can go to the British government or the authorities and say, âLook, here is our Muslim brother. Take himâ. Unfortunately Lord Ahmed released this statement â we know this man. Heâs not Muslim, heâs an apostate . . . Apostasy in Islam is a crime which is punishable by death. No doubt about it . . .â Other speakers at recent meetings included Omar Brooks, 27, a fibre-optics engineer and convert from Christianity. Brooks claimed âall Jews are racistâ, said the Blair government would begin to murder Muslims in Britain and praised the killing of Americans in Iraq. Azaz, the reporterâs religious âminderâ, made clear the groupâs admiration for Bin Laden, particularly his financial support for the families of fighters. âA lot of people now call their sons Osama because he is the one who has been looking after thousands of families. The soldiers of Allah â he looks after them,â said Azaz.
Ahmed shrugged off the warning against him this weekend. âI am not afraid of them,â he said. âI am deeply concerned not for myself but the type of incitement that al-Muhajiroun and Abu Hamza are preaching. That is why in the House of Lords about two weeks ago I asked the government to revoke the British citizenship of Hamza and Omar Bakri.â Omar said this weekend that âgreat scholarsâ in Saudi Arabia had also branded the peer an apostate but that he did not agree. He said Ahmed was merely âignorantâ. |