UK's new extremist deportation laws
Controversial imams
(Filed: 20/07/2005)
The Government is looking at introducing new anti-terror measures that would ban radical Islamics whose sermons could incite racial hatred.
Four of the names frequently mentioned as being anti-Western are Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi; Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed; Mohammed al-Massari and Abu Qatada.
Below are brief outlines of who they are and what they say;
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam linked to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, condemned both the July 7 London terror attacks and the September 11 attacks, but defends suicide bombers in Israel.
Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, was put under pressure to refuse him entry after the London attacks. This followed Tony Blair's call for a clampdown on extremist preachers.
The 79-year-old Egyptian is considered one of the most influential men in modern Sunni Islam.
Through his weekly Sunday night spot on al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel, as well as through his prolific use of the internet, his religious pronouncements touch the lives of tens of millions of Muslims every day.
The sheikh belongs to a school of Islamic thinkers called the New Islamists, who emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Faced with the awesome achievements of the industrialised West, the New Islamists tried to find different ways to interpret the Koran to encourage liberal democracy.
As a student in his native Egypt in the 1940s he studied under Hassan el-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, who established the intellectual basis for violent anti-Western Sunni Muslim groups, including al-Qa'eda.
In the early 1950s he volunteered to fight the British occupation of the Suez Canal and in 1954 his connection to the brotherhood led to the first of several arrests by Egyptian authorities.
In 1962, Qaradawi moved to Qatar to be the director of a religious institute.
He has made passionate endorsements of Palestinian suicide bombers and in 2003 he issued a fatwa endorsing resistance in Iraq. By regional standards he is a moderate, but the sheikh's reputation in the West was ruined and he had his American visa annulled.
Qaradawi has written at least 50 books attempting to reconcile Islam with democracy and human rights and he is one of the most important proponents of women's rights in contemporary Islam.
He has consistently said that Muslims need to think for themselves, which means they need be free of government control. This is not a message that goes down well with Arab governments.
He holds a multiple entry visa to the UK.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi on:
Child bombers in Israel
"The Israelis might have nuclear bombs but we have the children bomb and there human bombs must continue until liberation."
Killing Israeli civilians
"We must all realise that the Israeli society is a military society - men and women, We cannot describe the society as civilian … they are not civilians or innocent."
Suicide bombing in Israel
"It is not suicide; it is martyrdom in the name of God. I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an indication of the justice of Allah almighty. Allah is just. Through his infinite wisdom, he has given the weak what the strong do not posses and that is the ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do."
Jihad
"We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America!"
Non-believers
"It has been determined be Islamic law that the blood and property of people of Dar Al-Harb (non-Muslims) is not protected, because they fight against and are hostile towards the Muslims, they annulled the protection of his blood and his property."
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the so-called Tottenham Ayatollah, is the spiritual leader of Islamic fundamentalist group al-Muhajiroun, which he founded in Saudi Arabia in 1983.
He is originally from Syria, but moved to north London in 1986 after being expelled from Saudi Arabia.
He has approved the American embassy bombings in Africa and, in 1990, was interviewed by Special Branch after allegedly calling for the assassination of John Major, the then Tory Prime Minister. He denied this and was never charged.
He has been particularly outspoken about suicide bombers in Israel, and praised British would-be suicide bomber Omar Khan Sharif, who drowned in Tel Aviv after failing to blow himself up.
After the July 7 terror attacks in London in which 56 people died, Bakri Mohammed blamed the Government and British voters.
He has been accused of supporting Osama bin Laden, and helping recruit suicide bombers and fighters for Israel, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Chechnya.
It is considered unlikely that Bakri Mohammed will be deported to his native country, as the British Government has no arrangement with Syria guaranteeing the safety of any deportees.
He could be stripped of his leave to stay in Britain and could face prosecution under proposed new laws targeting those who incite, glorify or condone terrorist acts.
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed on:
Deportation of radical preachers
"I don't believe that deportation will solve the problem and can be in any way a cure for what happened. I believe that my presence and the presence of many radical Muslims, as you like to call us, we are part of the solution and not part of the problem."
Osama bin Laden
"Why I condemn Osama bin Laden for? I condemn Tony Blair. I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims."
July 7 bomb attacks
"I blame the British Government, the British public and the Muslim community in the UK because they failed to make the extra effort to put an end to the cycle of bloodshed which started before 9/11 and on July 7 was devastating for everybody."
September 11
"I believe September 11 was a direct response to the evil American policy in the Muslim world. We do not want another event like this in the West. If there is an attack by the British Government against Muslims abroad, then Muslims abroad have the right to retaliate and defend themselves ... We are giving sincere advice to the British Government and the British public so they understand the consequences of playing with fire."
Suicide bombers in Israel
"I knew [would-be bomber] Sharif very well and he used to attend regularly at my sessions. He was my brother and I am very proud of him and any Muslim who will do the same as he did."
Mohammed al-Massari
Mohammed al-Massari, a prominent Saudi Arabian academic and dissident, has lived in Britain since 1994 as a political refugee.
He is another emigre who may face scrutiny following the Home Secretary's announcement that those who glorify terrorism could be deported.
This will not be the first time Massari, 55, has faced expulsion. The Home Office twice tried to deport him in 1996, first to Yemen and then to the Caribbean island of Dominica.
But immigration appeal tribunals blocked both attempts, saying that Massari's life could be placed in danger.
The dissident fled Saudi Arabia in 1994 after he and other members of a pro-democracy group were arrested and tortured.
In 1996 he helped Khalid al-Fawwaz, another Saudi dissident, set up an office in London. Fawwaz was establishing Osama bin Laden's press office.
Bin Laden is said to have telephoned Massari to thank him for helping Fawwaz.
He has also been linked to a website that raises funds and enlists volunteers for al-Qa'eda.
In an interview for a recent BBC programme, The New Al-Qa'eda, he defended posting on his Tajdeed website videos of beheadings and suicide bombings together with an online terror training manual.
Massari now lives in north London as a political refugee.
September 11
"When a regime is helping somebody like Israel attack you and if someone attacks you it is war … If a Muslim decides he can do something about that and take retaliatory action, then why not? An eye for an eye as an old book said.
Osama bin Laden
"He's a fighter and fighting according to his beliefs … Anyone who fights according to his beliefs is a hero."
Al-Qa’eda fundraising
"Those who put up the website don't care about those who try and ban them. Those who believe that Muslims should support Jihad and raise funds for it will continue … The other side will try and close down the accounts and the sites. The fight will continue."
Abu Qatada
London-based cleric Abu Qatada has been described as "Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", an inspiration for terrorists, and "a truly dangerous individual".
He was also described by the Home Office as the most significant Islamic fundamentalist in Britain and an "inspiration for terrorists both here and abroad...often providing the religious 'legitimacy' for the atrocities that are planned or committed".
was jailed in 2001 under powers contained in the Anti-Terrorism Act, but released in January 2005 after law lords ruled that his detention was unlawful.
He could now face deportation to Jordan after the British Government reached agreement with Aman to allow deportation of its nationals without fear of them being mistreated.
Palestinian-born but spending most his life in Jordan, Qatada travelled to Afghanistan to help the mujihadeen against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.
The cleric is thought to have met Osama bin Laden in 1989 while working as a teacher in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, close to the Afghan border.
Qatada arrived in Britain on a forged passport in 1993, accompanied by his wife and children, and claimed asylum.
He has been convicted in absentia in Jordan and sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in terrorist attacks there in 1998 and for a Millennium bomb plot.
Britain wanted to expel him after the September 11 attacks but human rights laws meant that he could not be sent back to a country where he might be ill-treated.
Instead Qatada was held in Belmarsh jail, south-east London, for more than three years until the House of Lords said that he and a dozen other suspected foreign terrorists were being detained unlawfully.
He was released and is currently subject to a control order at an undisclosed address. His bail conditions prevented him from preaching at mosques.
Abu Qatada on:
Suicide attacks
"The time of victory is near. All over the world, Muslims are sacrificing more and contributing more to the struggle. May Allah accept us all to be slaughtered."
Osama bin Laden
"If he spent only a few minutes in my house I would be arrested. I have not met him, but it would not be a crime to do so. I would be honoured, as a Muslim, if I did meet him."
Palestinians
"Palestine was my homeland. When it was lost nothing else mattered. That is enough for me, I cannot really have much sympathy for anyone else. I do not want your help or your sympathy. But don't ask me to be on your side."
(Filed: 20/07/2005)
The Government is looking at introducing new anti-terror measures that would ban radical Islamics whose sermons could incite racial hatred.
Four of the names frequently mentioned as being anti-Western are Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi; Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed; Mohammed al-Massari and Abu Qatada.
Below are brief outlines of who they are and what they say;
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based imam linked to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, condemned both the July 7 London terror attacks and the September 11 attacks, but defends suicide bombers in Israel.
Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, was put under pressure to refuse him entry after the London attacks. This followed Tony Blair's call for a clampdown on extremist preachers.
The 79-year-old Egyptian is considered one of the most influential men in modern Sunni Islam.
Through his weekly Sunday night spot on al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel, as well as through his prolific use of the internet, his religious pronouncements touch the lives of tens of millions of Muslims every day.
The sheikh belongs to a school of Islamic thinkers called the New Islamists, who emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries. Faced with the awesome achievements of the industrialised West, the New Islamists tried to find different ways to interpret the Koran to encourage liberal democracy.
As a student in his native Egypt in the 1940s he studied under Hassan el-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, who established the intellectual basis for violent anti-Western Sunni Muslim groups, including al-Qa'eda.
In the early 1950s he volunteered to fight the British occupation of the Suez Canal and in 1954 his connection to the brotherhood led to the first of several arrests by Egyptian authorities.
In 1962, Qaradawi moved to Qatar to be the director of a religious institute.
He has made passionate endorsements of Palestinian suicide bombers and in 2003 he issued a fatwa endorsing resistance in Iraq. By regional standards he is a moderate, but the sheikh's reputation in the West was ruined and he had his American visa annulled.
Qaradawi has written at least 50 books attempting to reconcile Islam with democracy and human rights and he is one of the most important proponents of women's rights in contemporary Islam.
He has consistently said that Muslims need to think for themselves, which means they need be free of government control. This is not a message that goes down well with Arab governments.
He holds a multiple entry visa to the UK.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi on:
Child bombers in Israel
"The Israelis might have nuclear bombs but we have the children bomb and there human bombs must continue until liberation."
Killing Israeli civilians
"We must all realise that the Israeli society is a military society - men and women, We cannot describe the society as civilian … they are not civilians or innocent."
Suicide bombing in Israel
"It is not suicide; it is martyrdom in the name of God. I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an indication of the justice of Allah almighty. Allah is just. Through his infinite wisdom, he has given the weak what the strong do not posses and that is the ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do."
Jihad
"We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America!"
Non-believers
"It has been determined be Islamic law that the blood and property of people of Dar Al-Harb (non-Muslims) is not protected, because they fight against and are hostile towards the Muslims, they annulled the protection of his blood and his property."
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the so-called Tottenham Ayatollah, is the spiritual leader of Islamic fundamentalist group al-Muhajiroun, which he founded in Saudi Arabia in 1983.
He is originally from Syria, but moved to north London in 1986 after being expelled from Saudi Arabia.
He has approved the American embassy bombings in Africa and, in 1990, was interviewed by Special Branch after allegedly calling for the assassination of John Major, the then Tory Prime Minister. He denied this and was never charged.
He has been particularly outspoken about suicide bombers in Israel, and praised British would-be suicide bomber Omar Khan Sharif, who drowned in Tel Aviv after failing to blow himself up.
After the July 7 terror attacks in London in which 56 people died, Bakri Mohammed blamed the Government and British voters.
He has been accused of supporting Osama bin Laden, and helping recruit suicide bombers and fighters for Israel, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Chechnya.
It is considered unlikely that Bakri Mohammed will be deported to his native country, as the British Government has no arrangement with Syria guaranteeing the safety of any deportees.
He could be stripped of his leave to stay in Britain and could face prosecution under proposed new laws targeting those who incite, glorify or condone terrorist acts.
Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed on:
Deportation of radical preachers
"I don't believe that deportation will solve the problem and can be in any way a cure for what happened. I believe that my presence and the presence of many radical Muslims, as you like to call us, we are part of the solution and not part of the problem."
Osama bin Laden
"Why I condemn Osama bin Laden for? I condemn Tony Blair. I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama bin Laden or any Muslims."
July 7 bomb attacks
"I blame the British Government, the British public and the Muslim community in the UK because they failed to make the extra effort to put an end to the cycle of bloodshed which started before 9/11 and on July 7 was devastating for everybody."
September 11
"I believe September 11 was a direct response to the evil American policy in the Muslim world. We do not want another event like this in the West. If there is an attack by the British Government against Muslims abroad, then Muslims abroad have the right to retaliate and defend themselves ... We are giving sincere advice to the British Government and the British public so they understand the consequences of playing with fire."
Suicide bombers in Israel
"I knew [would-be bomber] Sharif very well and he used to attend regularly at my sessions. He was my brother and I am very proud of him and any Muslim who will do the same as he did."
Mohammed al-Massari
Mohammed al-Massari, a prominent Saudi Arabian academic and dissident, has lived in Britain since 1994 as a political refugee.
He is another emigre who may face scrutiny following the Home Secretary's announcement that those who glorify terrorism could be deported.
This will not be the first time Massari, 55, has faced expulsion. The Home Office twice tried to deport him in 1996, first to Yemen and then to the Caribbean island of Dominica.
But immigration appeal tribunals blocked both attempts, saying that Massari's life could be placed in danger.
The dissident fled Saudi Arabia in 1994 after he and other members of a pro-democracy group were arrested and tortured.
In 1996 he helped Khalid al-Fawwaz, another Saudi dissident, set up an office in London. Fawwaz was establishing Osama bin Laden's press office.
Bin Laden is said to have telephoned Massari to thank him for helping Fawwaz.
He has also been linked to a website that raises funds and enlists volunteers for al-Qa'eda.
In an interview for a recent BBC programme, The New Al-Qa'eda, he defended posting on his Tajdeed website videos of beheadings and suicide bombings together with an online terror training manual.
Massari now lives in north London as a political refugee.
September 11
"When a regime is helping somebody like Israel attack you and if someone attacks you it is war … If a Muslim decides he can do something about that and take retaliatory action, then why not? An eye for an eye as an old book said.
Osama bin Laden
"He's a fighter and fighting according to his beliefs … Anyone who fights according to his beliefs is a hero."
Al-Qa’eda fundraising
"Those who put up the website don't care about those who try and ban them. Those who believe that Muslims should support Jihad and raise funds for it will continue … The other side will try and close down the accounts and the sites. The fight will continue."
Abu Qatada
London-based cleric Abu Qatada has been described as "Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", an inspiration for terrorists, and "a truly dangerous individual".
He was also described by the Home Office as the most significant Islamic fundamentalist in Britain and an "inspiration for terrorists both here and abroad...often providing the religious 'legitimacy' for the atrocities that are planned or committed".
was jailed in 2001 under powers contained in the Anti-Terrorism Act, but released in January 2005 after law lords ruled that his detention was unlawful.
He could now face deportation to Jordan after the British Government reached agreement with Aman to allow deportation of its nationals without fear of them being mistreated.
Palestinian-born but spending most his life in Jordan, Qatada travelled to Afghanistan to help the mujihadeen against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.
The cleric is thought to have met Osama bin Laden in 1989 while working as a teacher in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, close to the Afghan border.
Qatada arrived in Britain on a forged passport in 1993, accompanied by his wife and children, and claimed asylum.
He has been convicted in absentia in Jordan and sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in terrorist attacks there in 1998 and for a Millennium bomb plot.
Britain wanted to expel him after the September 11 attacks but human rights laws meant that he could not be sent back to a country where he might be ill-treated.
Instead Qatada was held in Belmarsh jail, south-east London, for more than three years until the House of Lords said that he and a dozen other suspected foreign terrorists were being detained unlawfully.
He was released and is currently subject to a control order at an undisclosed address. His bail conditions prevented him from preaching at mosques.
Abu Qatada on:
Suicide attacks
"The time of victory is near. All over the world, Muslims are sacrificing more and contributing more to the struggle. May Allah accept us all to be slaughtered."
Osama bin Laden
"If he spent only a few minutes in my house I would be arrested. I have not met him, but it would not be a crime to do so. I would be honoured, as a Muslim, if I did meet him."
Palestinians
"Palestine was my homeland. When it was lost nothing else mattered. That is enough for me, I cannot really have much sympathy for anyone else. I do not want your help or your sympathy. But don't ask me to be on your side."
Labels: Hindu Human Rights
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home