Muslims In Police Will Rise Up, Bakri Insists (UK)

By Mike Hirst and Adam Lusher, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:02am GMT 21/01/2007

Moderate British Muslims in the police, Armed Forces and Civil Service will one day revolt against the system to "crush it from within", according to Omar Bakri Mohammed, the notorious Islamic extremist.

Omar Bakri Mohammed claimed that the world was a better place after the July 7 bombings in London

In claims condemned as a cynical attempt to create division, the co-founder of the extremist al-Muhajiroun group said that Britain was "digging a deep hole" for itself by allowing Muslims into the Services and Whitehall.

Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph in Lebanon, where he moved in August 2005 — at about the time it emerged the British authorities might charge him with incitement to treason — he claimed police officers, soldiers and civil servants would one day become radicalised.

"When you start to ask Muslims to join your Army and your police you are making a grave mistake. That British Muslim who joins the police today will one day read the Koran and will have an awakening," he said.

"Those moderates are one day going to be practising Muslims. Now what happens if they are British police or in the Army and they have weapons? How much information do they have about you that they will use to serve the global struggle?

"They will revolt against the system if they have been failed by your foreign policy which is oppressive against Islam, or have been contacted by people who believe Britain is a domain of war."

In remarks almost certain to cause widespread anger among the survivors and relatives of victims, he also claimed that the world was a better place after the July 7 bombings in London. "I believe it is a better place for Islam and Muslims… but not for non-Muslims. What's happening around the world is good and positive for Islam."

The comments were condemned by moderate Muslim leaders. Ibrahim Mogra, the chairman of the Interfaith Relations Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "This is part of an attempt to create divisions both within the Muslim community and the wider society.

"On the contrary, the more a Muslim police officer becomes a practising Muslim, the more loyal he will become, the more he will realise his duty to his country and the need to contribute to its well-being."

He added: "People are entitled to their views, but we actually have our own scholars and imams, who are still in this country, not abroad, and who talk about contributing to Britain and the responsibilities that we have to it."

Bakri Mohammed came to Britain in 1985 after being expelled from Saudi Arabia. He was rapidly derided as "the Tottenham Ayatollah". His inflammatory pronouncements have included calling the September 11 terrorists the "Magnificent 19".

He disbanded al-Muhajiroun in 2004. Shortly after the July 7 attacks Tony Blair announced the group would be banned as part of a series of measures against condoning or glorifying terrorism.

After Bakri Mohammed left for Beirut he was banned from returning to Britain. The Government deemed his presence "no longer conducive to the public good".

In Beirut last week, a relaxed Bakri Mohammed sipped freshly-squeezed strawberry juice in an upmarket restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean.

He took pleasure in hearing media reports about Abid Javaid, 41, of Thornton Heath, Surrey, a civil servant in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, who was exposed late last year as a leading member of the extremist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), which Mr Blair had wanted to ban.

This was despite Bakri Mohammed's admission: "I left HT in 1996 and they condemn what I stand for."

Bakri Mohammed readily confirmed that he had officiated at the wedding of Pc Alexander Omar Basha, his relative by marriage.

In October, however, when the diplomatic protection officer faced controversy after being excused guard duties at the Israeli embassy, Bakri Mohammed admitted Pc Basha's views were far more moderate than his own and even complained: "If I'd have known [he was a policeman at the time of the wedding] I would never have married them. My advice to all Muslims in the police is to leave their jobs."

I think there is another issue as well. Many years ago a priest said to me that he thought that Christianity (and he was talking about Catholicism in particular when he said this) had become or was becoming 'too easy'. He meant this in the sense that it didn't demand anything from the individual anymore. I think he meant that sermons etc. had become kind of PC in order to avoid offending anyone and that we weren't challenging ourselves enough. In that context he said that he thought that was what was behind the appeal of some of the 'Eastern' religions that some youth were gravitating toward. It gave them a sense of meaning because it asked something from them.

That's a long-winded way of saying that whereas I totally agree with you that it would be wonderful if the Islamic radicals could see the beauty and worth in simple pleasures, I think it is equally true that we need to step back a bit and think about just what is the meaning in our lives. Probably many people think that the young men and women who have died in Iraq died 'without meaning', but to me nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that even though they died young, they died attempting to achieve something very noble. When you contrast that with what many people fill their lives with, it becomes clear (at least in my opinion) that the lives without meaning are not the ones lost in places like Iraq.

I'm sorry. It's almost 1 am here and I'm getting into one of those late night philosophical moods.

When will people sit up and take these people at their word?

Right
Hundreds attend funeral of Indian-born U.S. soldier killed in Iraq
YAHOO NEWS ^ | 4th September, 2005
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477166/posts

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of grieving Muslims on Sunday attended the funeral of an Indian-born U.S. soldier killed in a rocket attack in Iraq last month.

The body of 23-year-old Hatim Kathiria was flown to Dahod in Gujarat on Sunday, accompanied by U.S. officials and his wife, Lissy Jean-Pierre.

"He was my only son. His ambitions took him to the U.S. and then to Iraq. We lost him, but he died a martyr's death," said a grief-stricken Shirin, Kathiria's mother.

More than 2,000 people thronged the streets of the Muslim-dominated town, south of the state capital, Gandhinagar, shouting "long live the Indian martyr" and showering flower petals on the wooden coffin.
(snip)
"He was a true Indian who fought against terrorism," said Rehman Faiz, a local Muslim priest in Dahod.

_________________________________________________

Muslims in the Military
By JOHN P. AVLON
April 21, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/31393
His call sign is "Hadji," meaning "one who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca."

"It's a pilot thing," explains Colonel Douglas Burpee, the highest ranking Muslim officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Now in his 23rd year of military service, Colonel Burpee recently returned from flying helicopters in Afghanistan.

"Everyone knows I'm a Muslim. When I fly, attached to my dog tags, I wear a pendant with a passage from the Koran," he says. "I try to set a good example based upon what I believe.... I can be a soldier and a Muslim at the same time. I have no problem with that."
(snip)
faiths.

Certainly that's Colonel Burpee's view. "These people who commit terrorism have just adopted the face of Islam - nothing they say or do have anything to do with Islam," he says. "The Taliban is a terrorist organization - they are bad people doing bad things and they've attached religion to it. They are ruthless when it comes to killing people, but that's how you move helpless people around - you use fear."

Out of the 1.4 million service men and women serving actively in the American military, an estimated 3,700 are Muslim, according to the Department of Defense
(snip)

__________________________________________

Columbus, Ohio, native, Sunni Muslim fights in Global War on Terrorism (as a MARINE!)
Marine Corps News ^ | July 27, 2005 | Cpl. Ken Melton

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1451921/posts
Posted on 07/27/2005 6:47:32 PM CDT by SandRat

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (July 27, 2005) -- As the Marines with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment continue their fight in the Global War on Terrorism, most of them think of it as business and not personal.

However, for some Marines who are of the Islamic faith, the war in Iraq hits a personal note. Cpl. Mohammed N. Rahman, who is a Sunni Muslim, fights not only to free the people of Iraq from the insurgents grip and to protect his country (America), but also to redeem his beloved religion.

“This is a personal offense, not only to me but others who share my faith,” said the 23-year-old infantryman with 2nd Platoon, Company L. “The insurgents have scarred the image of my religion.”

Rahman was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh where he learned to speak Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic during his childhood, before moving the United States with his family at age 12.

Upon arriving in America, he strove to learn the English language while adjusting to the busy and culturally different society.

He joined the Marine Corps in 2001 because of its discipline and its tradition that closely mirrored the practices of his beliefs.
(snip)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.