Blair’s ban fails to silence Muslim preachers of hate

Abul Taher:

ISLAMIC extremists are targeting British Muslims with violent Al-Qaeda propaganda, in defiance of Tony Blair’s announcement four months ago that he would clamp down on preachers of hate.

London-based foreign extremists are using websites to post video footage of suicide operations and attacks by insurgents against coalition forces in Iraq. There are also postings of the execution of Russian soldiers by mujaheddin rebels in Chechnya.

There is growing exasperation among the Saudi authorities about the government’s apparent reluctance to tackle two Saudi citizens who are responsible for some of the most blatant incitement.

Muhammad al-Massari, a London-based Saudi extremist, has been allowing the forum pages of his website — www.tajdeed.net — to be used by terrorist groups. They include Al-Qaeda in Iraq, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was responsible for the murder of Ken Bigley, the British hostage.

A second Saudi, Saad al-Fagih, uses his website and satellite radio broadcasts to incite an uprising against the House of Saud.

Ferej Alowedi, the Saudi chargé d’affaires in London, said: “We have been requesting the British authorities to have them extradited. We can give written assurance that we will not execute or torture them.”

Last week The Sunday Times disclosed that al-Massari’s website carried an attack on the Queen as one of the “severest enemies of Islam” from Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden’s second in command. This was in defiance of a declaration by Blair that the “rules of the game” were changing. He said after the London bombings: “The new grounds [for deportation] will include fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person’s beliefs, or justifying or validating such existence.”

Yet al-Massari’s website, which was shut down in May, has returned and has messages that incite Muslims to join the global jihad, and glorify the Al-Qaeda attack in Amman that left at least 60 people dead on November 9.

The Saudi dissident advocates the beheading of homosexuals and describes the September 11 attacks as the “blessed conquest in New York and Washington”. Al-Massari was not available for comment.

In his response to the terrorist killing of 52 commuters on July 7, Blair also announced that the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir and the offshoots of Al-Muhajiroun would be banned.

He said: “Those that. . . incite hatred or engage in violence against our country and its people have no place here.” A few days after his announcement, 10 foreign preachers were arrested. They are in police custody awaiting court hearings about their deportations.

But, more than four months later, Hizb ut-Tahrir remains active and is lobbying Muslims to challenge the new anti-terror legislation.

Al-Ghuraaba and the Saviour Sect, two offshoots of Al-Muhajiroun, which had kept a low profile since the summer, announced on Friday that they had merged into a stronger organisation.

The new group — Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah (ASWJ) [Followers of the Prophet] — is headed by Anjem Choudary, who was second in command to the cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed before Al-Muhajiroun disbanded early this year.

Bakri is in Lebanon now. Although he was widely thought to be the first cleric to be deported after Blair’s announcement, he managed to slip out of Britain in August.

At a press conference this weekend, the leaders of ASWJ mocked Blair’s efforts to ban them.

Abu Izzedine, also known as Omar Brooks and a prominent member, said: “Blair decided to ban us almost a year after we disbanded. The British government is one of the worst governments on the planet.”

He previously said of the London bombings: “I would never denounce the bombings, even if my own family was to suffer, because we always stand with the Muslims, regardless of the consequences.”

Another member of ASWJ, Abu Yahya, denounced the Queen. He said: “The Queen is enemy to Islam and Muslims. We see in reality her actions all around the earth, her forces, army, navy, her air force bombing, destroying Muslims, killing our families, destroying our properties and occupying our land.

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