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| Britain |
| European al-Qaeda supporters openly call for jihad |
| 2004-04-26 |
| The call to jihad is rising in the streets of Europe, and is being answered, counterterrorism officials say. In this former industrial town north of London, a small group of young Britons whose parents emigrated from Pakistan after World War II have turned against their families' new home. They say they would like to see Prime Minister Tony Blair dead or deposed and an Islamic flag hanging outside No. 10 Downing Street. They swear allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his goal of toppling Western democracies to establish an Islamic superstate under Shariah law, like Afghanistan under the Taliban. They call the Sept. 11 hijackers the "Magnificent 19" and regard the Madrid train bombings as a clever way to drive a wedge into Europe. On Thursday evening, at a tennis center community hall in Slough, west of London, their leader, Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad, spoke of his adherence to Osama bin Laden. If Europe fails to heed Mr. bin Laden's offer of a truce — provided that all foreign troops are withdrawn from Iraq in three months — Muslims will no longer be restrained from attacking the Western countries that play host to them, the sheik said. "All Muslims of the West will be obliged," he said, to "become his sword" in a new battle. Europeans take heed, he added, saying, "It is foolish to fight people who want death — that is what they are looking for." On working-class streets of old industrial towns like Crawley, Luton, Birmingham and Manchester, and in the Arab enclaves of Germany, France, Switzerland and other parts of Europe, intelligence officials say a fervor for militancy is intensifying and becoming more open. In Hamburg, Dr. Mustafa Yoldas, the director of the Council of Islamic Communities, saw a correlation to the discord in Iraq. "This is a very dangerous situation at the moment," Dr. Yoldas said. "My impression is that Muslims have become more and more angry against the United States." Hundreds of young Muslim men are answering the call of militant groups affiliated or aligned with Al Qaeda, intelligence and counterterrorism officials in the region say. Even more worrying, said a senior counterterrorism official, is that the level of "chatter" — communications among people suspected of terrorism and their supporters — has markedly increased since Mr. bin Laden's warning to Europe this month. The spike in chatter has given rise to acute worries that planning for another strike in Europe is advanced. "Iraq dramatically strengthened their recruitment efforts," one counterterrorism official said. He added that some mosques now display photos of American soldiers fighting in Iraq alongside bloody scenes of bombed out Iraqi neighborhoods. Detecting actual recruitments is almost impossible, he said, because it is typically done face to face. And recruitment is paired with a compelling new strategy to bring the fight to Europe. Members of Al Qaeda have "proven themselves to be extremely opportunistic, and they have decided to try to split the Western alliance," the official continued. "They are focusing their energies on attacking the big countries" — the United States, Britain and Spain — so as to "scare" the smaller states. Some Muslim recruits are going to Iraq, counterterrorism officials in Europe say, but more are remaining home, possibly joining cells that could help with terror logistics or begin operations like the one that came to notice when the British police seized 1,200 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a key bomb ingredient, in late March, and arrested nine Pakistani-Britons, five of whom have been charged with trying to build a terrorist bomb. Stoking that anger are some of the same fiery Islamic clerics who preached violence and martyrdom before the Sept. 11 attacks. On Friday, Abu Hamza, the cleric accused of tutoring Richard Reid before he tried to blow up a Paris-to-Miami jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoe, urged a crowd of 200 outside his former Finsbury Park mosque to embrace death and the "culture of martyrdom." Though the British home secretary, David Blunkett, has sought to strip Abu Hamza of his British citizenship and deport him, the legal battle has dragged on for years while Abu Hamza keeps calling down the wrath of God. Also this week, over Mr. Blunkett's vigorous objection, a 35-year-old Algerian held under emergency laws passed after Sept. 11 was released from Belmarsh Prison. The man, identified only as "G," suffered from severe mental illness, his lawyers told a special immigration appeals panel, which let him out of prison and put him under house arrest. Mr. Blunkett insisted that that should not be the final judgment on a man already found by one court "to be a threat to life and liberty." In an interview on the BBC over the weekend, Mr. Blunkett advocated a stronger deportation policy, initially focused on 12 foreign terror suspects held without charge since the Sept. 11 attacks. Despite tougher antiterrorism laws, the police, prosecutors and intelligence chiefs across Europe say they are struggling to contain the openly seditious speech of Islamic extremists, some of whom, they say, have been inciting young men to suicidal violence since the 1990's. One chapter in Sheik Omar's lectures these days is "The Psyche of Muslims for Suicide Bombing." The authorities say that laws to protect religious expression and civil liberties have the result of limiting what they can do to stop hateful speech. In the case of foreigners, they say they are often left to seek deportation, a lengthy and uncertain process subject to legal appeals, when the suspect can keep inciting attacks. That leaves the authorities to resort to less effective means, such as mouse-trapping Islamic radicals with immigration violations in hopes of making a deportation case stick. "In many countries, the laws are liberal and it's not easy," an official said. At a mosque in Geneva, an imam recently exhorted his followers to "impose the will of Islam on the godless society of the West." "It was quite virulent," said a senior official with knowledge of the sermon. "The imam was encouraging his followers to take over the godless society." While such a sermon may be incitement, recruitment takes a more shadowy course, and is hard to detect, a senior antiterrorism official said. "Believers are appealed to in the mosques, but the real conversations take place in restaurants or cafes or private apartments," the official said. While some clerics, like Abu Qatada — said to be the spiritual counselor of Mohamed Atta, who led the Sept. 11 hijacking team — remain in prison in Britain without charge, others like Sheik Omar, leader of a movement called Al Muhajiroun, carry on a robust ideological campaign. "There is no case against me," Sheik Omar said in an interview. Referring to calls by members of Parliament that he be deported, he added, "but they are Jewish" and "they have been calling for that for years." Among his ardent followers is Ishtiaq Alamgir, 24, who heads Al Muhajiroun in Luton and calls himself Sayful Islam, the sword of Islam. He says there are about 50 members here but exact numbers are secret. Most days, he and a handful of his followers run a recruitment stand on Dunstable Road much to the chagrin of the Muslim elders of Luton. Mainstream Muslims are outraged by the situation, saying the actions of a few are causing their communities to be singled out for surveillance and making the larger population distrustful of them. Muhammad Sulaiman, a stalwart of the mainstream Central Mosque here, was penniless when he arrived from the Kashmiri frontier of Pakistan in 1956. He raised money to build the Central Mosque here and now leads a campaign to ban Al Muhajiroun radicals from the city's 10 mosques. "This is show-off business," he says in accented English. "I don't want these kids in my mosque." Other community leaders look to the government to do something, if only to help prevent the demonization of British Muslims, or "Islamophobia," as some here call it. "I think these kids are being brainwashed by a few radical clerics," said Akhbar Dad Khan, another elder of the Central Mosque. He wants them prosecuted or deported. "We should be able to control this negativity," he said. In Slough, Sheik Omar spent much of his time Thursday night regaling his young followers with the erotic delights of paradise — sweet kisses and the pleasures of bathing with scores of women — while he also preached the virtues of death in Islamic struggle as a ticket to paradise. He spoke of terrorism as the new norm of cultural conflict, "the fashion of the 21st century," practiced as much by Tony Blair as by Al Qaeda. "We may be caught up in the target as the people of Manhattan were," he told them. And he warned Western leaders, "You may kill bin Laden, but the phenomenon, you cannot kill it — you cannot destroy it. Our Muslim brothers from abroad will come one day and conquer here and then we will live under Islam in dignity." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #26 HEH HEH HEH |
| Posted by: WhiteHouseDetox 2004-04-27 5:43:39 AM |
| #25 HEH HEH HEH |
| Posted by: WhiteHouseDetox 2004-04-27 12:01:39 AM |
| #24 ISLAMIST MAGGOT,GETTING TO PARADISE:"YOU MEAN THAT YOU ACTUALLY SAID WE WOULD GET A 72YEAR OLD VIRGIN??? |
| Posted by: WhiteHouseDetox 2004-04-26 11:58:39 PM |
| #23 I SAY WE CARPET BOMB MECCA WITH BACON BITS. |
| Posted by: WhiteHouseDetox 2004-04-26 11:54:59 PM |
| #22 Note to European appeasers and PC types: if you're lucky, you might be able still to save yourselves. Otherwise, enjoy what you've created. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-04-26 10:28:52 PM |
| #21 Frankly, I don't think we're fully awake yet, ourselves. Definitely we've hit the snooze bar here in the US. If someone were to show the planes hitting the buildings again in regular time (no music, no slo-mo) I think it would have the effect of cold water being thrown on any sleeper. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-04-26 5:48:32 PM |
| #20 The Left is starting to wake up. IIRC, this is the second semi-honest article that the NYT has run on the threat. The more that I read, the more that I am convinced that Europe is the strategic decisive point for this war. It's not that the Arab lands aren't important, I just don't see any opportunity for decisive action there yet. If we secure our strategic flank in Europe, then we can take the war to Dar al Arab. And when I say secure our European flank, I don't mean in the Kerry-esque manner of being buddies with the French. We need a fundamental Lockean revolution on the Continent. Some of that is already happening in East Europe. Others, like Sabine Herold are trying to effect this change in old Europe. We don't need Europe to fight Islamism, but Islamists need Europe to fight us. The task before us is to destroy 2nd International Socialism and replace it with Lockean government and Hayekian economics. If we don't, the Islamists will triangulate between Europe and us. Nuclear armed France in particular seems to be fond of coddling the Islamists. Meanwhile, the Islamists will continue to infiltrate a nihilistic and demographically dying Europe with the goal of conquest through high birth rates. As long as Europe continues to absorb Dar al Islam's excess population and subsidizes and supports corrupt and theocratic governments, decisive action in the Arab core will be impossible. The Arab people need to feel the effects of their medieval policies. And by "feel" I dont mean not being able to buy the lastest in wide screen TV's. I mean starvation, civil war, and death. When these conditions exist that will mean that the Europeans have stopped enabling Arab backwardness. Then we can take decisive action against the Saudi and Iranian oilfields and begin drying up the money that funds International Jihad. B: I agree and disagree. We have indivduals condemning Guantanamo. Europe has whole governments condemning Gitmo. Meanwhile, most EU states have anti-terror laws that make the Patriot Act look downright utopian. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-04-26 2:55:02 PM |
| #19 #13para 1: "Killing someone while defending your stuff can get you a decade in jail." Not bad,Rupercht,not bad at all.LOL |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-04-26 2:30:20 PM |
| #18 Old Patriot - I think a more pertinent arguement is that where in time the polytheistic Romans came to embrace Christianity, their descendants resisted Islam and for at least awhile drove it out of most of Europe, and the resistance became stronger over time. The problem is the current state of the lack of self-preservation in certain European cultures such as France and Spain. Those of us who are Christian, and prize Western Civilization, yet do not neccesarily take a Revelationist view of the future see a more practical opposition to the Islamists. Christianity and Judaism values life, Islamism seeks death. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-26 1:56:22 PM |
| #17 It's going to end up being either them or us. It's not going to be "them" as long as I draw breath. It'll be a lot easier to start now, while we still have more people on our side. Islam is the religion of the loser. Mohammed was pissed that Isaac, although born second, inherited the birthright of Abraham, instead of Ishmael, who was born of the servant Hagar. The Bible says that Isaac is the son of Abraham through his wife Sarah, which in old-testament times, would give him the highest claim. Islam is a re-write of history to "prove" that in actuality, it is Ishmael and his descendants (the Arabs) that actually are the "chosen of God", not the Jews. We have the same thing being done in our leftist "institutions of higher learning" today, with modern history. There are only two ways to end the argumaent: God Himself will have to come and judge, or one side kills the other off completely. Islam is betting on the second option. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-04-26 1:35:06 PM |
| #16 "Sheik Omar spent much of his time Thursday night regaling his young followers with the erotic delights of paradise — sweet kisses and the pleasures of bathing with scores of women." Then he says "Our Muslim brothers from abroad will come one day and conquer here and then we will live under Islam in dignity," he said. Okay okay okay okay okay. LOL!!! This is so rich: Living under Islam in dignity (everyone got that bullsh-t picture? ) Compare with what comes to mind here: "the pleasures of bathing with scores of women." (You mean, an orgy, right?) Okay okay okay okay okay. So. (LOL!) This is how it goes: If you, as a Moslem man, degrade and oppress your females now--through the destruction of their self-worth and individuality, lack of educational opportunities, the horrors of infibulation, other various and sundry maltreatments, and by forcing them to wear silly outfits that constrict and "bury" their femininity--and then blow yourself up, killing a sufficient number of westerners along with you--you can then "graduate" to the grand level of going on to further debase "scores" of (very beautiful, flawless, in-perfect-condition, young--at least under 25 years of age--virginal) women (where'd they come from, again?) by placing them in the position (sorry) of being your private sex objects in some ridiculous, weak, teenage fantasy, where you're the star player and all these thousands of women, without question, somehow willingly, and with utter abandon, flock to pamper and tease "your very own" (and "oh, so special") ugly, absurd, lewd, lecherous, nastiness with "sweet kisses" and, ah-hem, other such things!? They've got to be kidding? How unreal can these guys get? Talk about self-deception! Talk about a structured, sanctioned, justification for what these guys must engage in thinking about when they're by themselves . . . ( I will pause for a moment while we empty the contents of our stomachs . . .) And this is what they talk about in their "RELIGIOUS" mosques?!! And we in the West are worried about offending "sensibilities"--their "HONOR"--We're worried about transgressing on the supposed "holiness" of their places of "worship"? LOL!!! Come on! (And as one thinks about what they are actually worshiping in those places, the meaning of "pagan temple" suddenly gains new meaning . . . "worthy of destruction" comes to mind . . . ) Like I've always said, the WOT, from their perspective, is all about an attempt to affirm their empty, pathetic, impotent form of "masculinity." This is the only way their little story could work (annoyed sigh): the "paradise" babes have 1) been "healed" miraculously of the mutiliation of their genitals--and all is simply forgiven and forgotten on that account (tra-la-la!), 2) have become totally "immodest" in polar-opposite contrast to their life here on earth (if you want to put it that way--I mean, WOW--goodbye burka, huh?!) and 3) have left their underdeveloped brains, as well as whatever smidgen of personhood they ever possessed, back on earth, in order to become the eternal single-focus sex slaves of some Islamotwerp who's totally in love with himself. Well, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it. But, they must be alien paradise babes. That's it. Alien babes from the planet Ditz-o-rama. Then these guys say they will "impose the will of Islam on the godless society of the West" and that "the imam was encouraging his followers to take over the godless society." WE'RE "godless?" US?!! LOL!! These guys need to go home and figure out how to love their wives and raise their daughters. Good grief! You know, this Islamic nonsense just keeps getting better and better. Yet, once again, my motto rings true: All Islamic pseudo-men need to die. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-04-26 12:34:40 PM |
| #15 ruprecht - Why doen't the Brits spread a few rumors around. and A rumor that a vast majority of bullets and weapons in the UK are packed using Pigs grease to get the Jihadists reluctant to use them. Or an annoucement that pig fat has been used in the wood treatment on most caskets in the UK and although the process is being changed... ruprecht - Chicharones or "Fried Pig Skins" very popular in the US would be another thing to spread around. We could send some to any creative person in the UK to maximize stress of the jihadis. The only question is, With or without chili powder? |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-26 12:16:43 PM |
| #14 "Dave - the alternative is too awful to contemplate." Not for me, it isn't. Not any more. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-04-26 11:44:40 AM |
| #13 Why doen't the Brits spread a few rumors around. For example they could say that there is gold and stuff in a few of these cleric's homes or Mosques. That would increase the chances of a crook being hurt when the Cleric and his folks defend their stuff from the breakin. Killing someone while defending your stuff can get you a decade in jail. Or perhaps spread the rumor around that there is a large batch of ammonia nitrate being held at x location. When the Jihadists come to grab it a work accident can be arranged. A rumor that a vast majority of bullets and weapons in the UK are packed using Pigs grease to get the Jihadists reluctant to use them. Or an annoucement that pig fat has been used in the wood treatment on most caskets in the UK and although the process is being changed... Might convince a few immigrants to go somewhere else in case they get killed and buried. Or an annoucement that that all cell phone calls and trips to Islamic nations are being monitored. Spreading rumors should be done in the most denyable way possible of course. They can and should be denied by the government as untrue. But for a conspiricy addled culture there will be believers. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2004-04-26 11:29:27 AM |
| #12 Dave - the alternative is too awful to contemplate. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-04-26 10:58:16 AM |
| #11 "To bad it is going to take mass slaughter to wake-up Old Euorpe.Thats what it took here." Frankly, I don't think we're fully awake yet, ourselves. We're still trying desperately to hang on to our open, tolerant society, and still denying what is becoming increasingly self-evident: that Islam may be fundamentally incompatible with a free society. I'm becoming more and more discouraged about our "Arab Democracy Experiment" in Iraq. While I'm willing to keep the faith a while longer, my hopes are running out. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-04-26 10:49:59 AM |
| #10 is there not any laws in euro regarding sedition? |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-04-26 10:49:56 AM |
| #9 To bad it is going to take mass slaughter to wake-up Old Euorpe.Thats what it took here. |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-04-26 10:40:31 AM |
| #8 11A5S - I don't think you should condemn our EU counterparts over this one. We have plenty among our own ranks who are upset over the fact that they don't get prime rib for breakfast in Guantanamo. |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-26 9:50:49 AM |
| #7 I don't think we're pissed-off with you over Guantanamo - Whilst some are concerned I think the man in the street understood the need for some such facility - thankfully we have our own Guantanamo - HMP Belmarsh. The returnees from Guantanamo should have stood trial for treason and been hung if found guilty. I dread to think who's being held in here - make Cap'n Hook look like a pussycat. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-04-26 9:30:38 AM |
| #6 In an interview on the BBC over the weekend, Mr. Blunkett advocated a stronger deportation policy, initially focused on 12 foreign terror suspects held without charge since the Sept. 11 attacks. ...and the Brits are pissed at us about Guantamano? Ho much you want to be that each EU country has a similar number being held without charges? |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-04-26 9:26:33 AM |
| #5 Son of Tolui, if you read the article carefully you'll see that the incitements started in the 1990s .... |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-04-26 8:27:13 AM |
| #4 Rafael - I attended a football match recently where I stupidly referred to one of the Arsenal players as a gypsy. I did this within earshot of a policeman who threatened me with arrest for incitement. However, we have this guy, publicly spouting the worst kind of hatred in the same neighbourhood and he's not being touched. The law is simply not being applied to Hamza - prob due to the 'flypaper' theory one rantburger came up with recently. It's very handy for MI5 to leave this guy in situ and infiltrate his mob. I bet some of the nutters listening to him on a Friday morning are MI5/6 anyway. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-04-26 4:45:13 AM |
| #3 Maybe it's time for tougher incitement laws. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-04-26 4:17:36 AM |
| #2 typical ny times blames it on bush invasion of iraq--which the twin tower bombers had a premonition of--not |
| Posted by: SON OF TOLUI 2004-04-26 1:59:27 AM |
| #1 Native EUropeons excel at two endeavors: Totalitarianism and Genocide. As the EU morphs into the Neo-Third Reich should there be significant Islamo-fascist terrorism look for the Native EUropeons to send Muslim men, women and children to the ovens. |
| Posted by: Garrison 2004-04-26 1:07:34 AM |