Abu Qatada: “The time of victory is near”
Posted on 07/14/2002 2:34:20 PM PDT by knighthawk
LONDON, July 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Missing Muslim scholar Abu Qatada, suspected of being a key Al-Qaeda operative, has sent an e-mail calling on Muslims here to martyr themselves, a British daily newspaper said.
The e-mail from the Palestinian-born religious scholar, who disappeared last December, was read out to a meeting of Muslims in London on Friday night, July 12, the Observer said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“I have never felt more confident of the victory of almighty Allah and never more certain that the faith will be victorious,” the e-mail read, according to the paper.
Qatada, whose assets have been frozen by Washington and who is wanted by Jordanian authorities for his alleged role in a plot to blow up hotels there on millennium eve, said Muslims were now in a time of calamity.
“The time of victory is near. All over the world Muslims are sacrificing more and contributing more to the struggle,” the message said.
“May Allah accept us all to be martyred,” Qatada, recently described by a Spanish judge as “the spiritual head of the mujahideen in Britain,” said at the end of his e-mail.
Qatada’s message was read out by Omar Bakri, the leader of the Al-Muhajiroun group which organized the meeting, the paper said.
The group has been implicated in sending volunteers to fight with the Taliban, it added.
The meeting was also addressed by Abu Hamza, the controversial prayer leader from a Finsbury Park mosque in north London, who has been accused of recruiting and fundraising for Muslims in Afghanistan and Yemen.
Qatada, 40, left his west London home hours before new anti-terrorist legislation allowing his detention without trial came into effect.
On Saturday, July 13, the meeting hit out over the “oppression” of Muslims across the world since the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
During the conference in central London, Abu Hamza said that western governments of “trying to terrorize Muslims as much as they terrorize western people.”
Egyptian Muslim activist Yasser Al-Siri criticized the conditions in which Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners were being held in a U.S. Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba.
“We should put George Bush on trial as a war criminal for committing these violations.”
“The U.S. did not give any explanation about why they have been arrested,” he said.
Siri is suspected of involvement in the assassination last year of Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood, said AFP.
Washington wants him extradited from London, but Siri declined to comment on this, saying he did not want to talk about “personal matters.”
According to the BBC’s online news service, mainstream Muslim leaders stayed away from the meeting, insisting that the views expressed were not shared by the vast majority of Muslims.
The message from the conference was one of resentment towards the U.S. and what was seen as the oppression being inflicted on Muslims, said the BBC.
President Bush’s war on terror, they said, was against Islam and the West was blackmailing Muslim states to arrest fundamentalists.
Al-Masri, who lost his hands and left eye fighting in Afghanistan and now preaches at Finsbury Park mosque in London, said the U.S. government was spiteful, BBC reported.
He said: “They are trying to shut me up. I am one of the people who speaks openly.”
Inayat Bungalawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said the meeting reflected the views of a small minority.
He said: “No mainstream Muslim organization will touch Al-Muhajiroun with a barge pole. Some of these people have made really outrageous statements. It is relentless anti-Western rhetoric that is alienating most Muslims.”
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Abu Qatada: “The time of victory is near”
If its such a good deal, you go first Abu.
It's an oxymoron.
He didn't specify whose victory.
Finally something we can agree on.
Which would be doing all of the rest of us a favor. Just don't take anybody else out with them.
Looks like Ed Asner. 
Hey, don't forget. "Taleban" means "student". For that matter, who took the American Embassy in Tehran hostage in 1980? "Students" of course. It's a cultural term (/sarcasm).
" Looks like Ed Asner."
LOL,,yeah old ed's got a very punchable face too;-)
17 July 2002 : British Muslims Should Prepare For Martyrdom
| London (Azzam) : Western press sources have claimed that Abu Qatada has advised British Muslims to prepare themselves for martyrdom, and that victory is very near. It was reported that he said that Muslims all around the world sacrificing greatly and the British Muslims shouldpartake in this. The Sunday Times reported that this message was receivedby email. Abu Qatada has been in hiding since last December, his present whereabouts are unknown. He is currently wanted for questioning by various Western intelligence agencies. He has been accused of being the 'spokesman' for Al-Qaeda in Europe, a claim he has consistently denied. The message was also transmitted by Omar Bakri Muhammed, leader of Al- Muhajiroon. It is unknown where Omar Bakri obtained the message. http://www.azzam.com Daily news, articles and interviews on the Jihad in Afghanistan http://www.maktabah.net Maktabah Al-Ansaar: Sole distributors of Azzam Publications products throughout the World |
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