Undercover police infiltrated a circle of radical Muslims, which recruited young men to wage jihad in Afghanistan, a jury was told.They used religious stalls, known as dawars, at Longsight market to distribute material aimed at converting young British men to Islam before grooming them for jihad to fight in Afghanistan, a jury was told.
Two undercover policemen, using the names Simon and Ray, infiltrated a group of four radical Muslims for a year until November 2009, a jury at Manchester Crown Court heard on Thursday. The officers recorded conversations with the men and posed as vulnerable, young men who were likely candidates for jihad, the court heard.
Opening the case for the crown, Andrew Edis QC told the jury the most influential member of the group was Munir Farooqi, a Pakistani-born British national from Longsight.
In 2001, Mr Farooqi went to Afghanistan to help the Taliban, the court was told.
When police searched Mr Farooqi's home, they found jihadi publications as well as DVD and CD copying equipment in the basement. Among the publications were two books described as "classic jihadi texts". One, called in English, The Absent Obligation, was authored by a man hanged in 1982 over the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The book compels Muslims to fight for an Islamic state, said Edis.
The other, called Defense of Muslim Lands, boasts an admiring dedication to the dead author from Bin Laden.
| That would be to the dead author from the now-dead bin Laden. Their conversations in the unexpected depths of Hell must be considerably more interesting than planned. |
In them, the writings of an imam, Yousuf Ul-Ayiri, are translated and explained by Anwar al-Awlaki.
Another part of the recruitment process was to create outrage by using powerful images of Muslim victims of Israel. Edis told the jury they would be shown these images during the course of the trial, saying: "They are unpleasant. They are designed to invoke outrage, anger and shock, the desire for retaliation, for revenge and for action."
Mr Farooqi, a married father of three, and the other defendants visited five mosques in and around Manchester in the effort to groom potential soldiers in Afghanistan, the jury heard.
| Jihadis aren't really soldiers, although they fondly consider themselves members of that august group. They're more like gangsters with a religious gloss. |
Edis said: "Sheikh Farooqi, it appears, is an inspirational man. He was introduced to Ray and Simon by the defendants. Whatever his intention may have been, it appears that the defendants regarded him as a successful addition to their method of radicalisation."
Munir Farooqi, 54, his son, Harris Farooqi, 27, Matthew Newton, 29, and Israr Malik, 22, are charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism by attempting to recruit others as terrorists to engage in violence abroad.
Munir Farooqi is also accused of three counts of soliciting to murder -- two of which relate to the the undercover officers - and a count of distributing terrorist literature.
Newton also faces two charges of distributing terrorist literature.
And Malik faces two counts of soliciting to murder.
The defendants deny all of the charges.
| Good luck with that, guys. Really. Maybe it will get you into one of those prisons where the arrow actually points toward Mecca instead of somewhere else. Not all sign painters have a strong knowledge of compass points, you see. |