A British Muslim whose public praise of Muslim militants earned him notoriety in Britain said in an interview with the CBS programme 60 Minutes he has renounced his views and now opposes violence. Hassan Butt first gained notoriety in Britain for telling the BBC in 2002 that Britons would fight the West in Afghanistan and would return to launch attacks in the United Kingdom. Butt admits in the interview to be broadcast on Sunday(today) to actively recruiting young Britons to join extremist organisations and raising funds for jihad. But he now says the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings of three subways and a bus in London have led him to question and ultimately abandon his commitment to radicalism.
Hassan said he turned away from violence because no religious leaders were able to convince him it was sanctioned by Islam. “I’ve come to realise that killing in the name of Islam is completely and utterly prohibited,” he said in a summary of the interview provided by CBS. “There’s a big disease and a cancer in the Muslim world and it needs to be dealt with.” One tactic to find recruits was to focus on young men who were being forced into arranged marriages, Hassan said. |