 Asharq Al-Awsat - On the first anniversary of the 7 July attacks in London, Islamists in Britain will hold a seminar in Birmingham followed by a press conference in the capital on Monday 3 July.
| A little anniversary victory celebration, is it? |
Four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three underground trains and a public bus on 7 July 2005, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds. Al Ghurabba, led by the controversial preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, organizes the conference. He bravely left London after the attacks to Beirut and has been forbidden from returning to Britain.
| "Piss off. Enjoy Beirut. Don't worry about starting your car. Nothing'll happen." |
Anjam Choudry, a British lawyer and the secretary-general of the fundamentalist al Ghurabba movement, said the conference would discuss ways to prevent a repetition of the attacks and the reasons behind them. Abu Izzadin, an Islamist activist and member of al Ghurabba, is scheduled to speak at the conference. He is a regular attendee of fundamentalist conferences and meetings and is one of Bakri’s most prominent students. He blames Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war for last year’s attacks. Audio and video films will be shown at the conference and books on al Ghurabba will also be on sale, according to organizers. Representatives from the Shariaa courts and the Muslim lawyers’ union are expected to attend the conference. Bakri is expected to address the conference from his house in Beirut. In a statement to Asharq al Awsat, Bakri said, “There is no doubt that the London bombings and the Madrid bombings in 2003 were the repercussions of the September 11 attacks. All these events were a reaction of US aggression in Islamic countries, in Palestine, Chechnya and Afghanistan.” |