Posted on 10/01/2001 10:29:31 PM PDT by Ymani Cricket
Scotland Yard investigates North London militant
BY STEWART TENDLER
BRITISH authorities began moves yesterday to crack down on militant Muslims who use the country as a sanctuary for fundraising and inciting terrorism. Scotland Yard has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the activities of Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, leader of the al-Muhajiroun group. Ministers have criticised Sheikh Omar, who is based in North London, for issuing a death threat against General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, two weeks ago.
The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that it had asked police to investigate whether Sheikh Omar had breached the Terrorism Act 2000 or incited racial hatred in his speeches and writings.
Anti-terrorist branch detectives also arrested a suspected terrorist fundraiser at his London office and searched his home. The 43-year-old man was being questioned at Paddington Green police station in West London over allegations that he collected money for the Islamic Jihad group, which is one of the 21 organisations banned by the Government.
Last night anti-terrorist branch sources revealed that the man, who uses the name Sulayman Bilal Zain-ul Ibidin, was arrested at the offices of an Islamic fundamentalist security firm in southwest London. Special Branch has been monitoring the activities of Sakina Security Ltd, which has links to al-Muhajiroun, for more than a year.
The firm offers Muslim youths “The Ultimate Jihad Challenge”, with weapons training at its firing range in the United States. It also provides training for snipers, ambushing and making explosive devices.
Concern about the company’s activities were raised in Parliament in May last year by the Labour MP Andrew Dismore. The then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, said that the police were investigating.
Officers have been told to scrutinise the websites of militant Muslim groups which, it is suspected, channel money abroad. Among the sites under investigation is that of Sheikh Omar. He claims to have recruited young British Muslims to fight “holy wars” abroad. During an interview on BBC Radio, Sheikh Omar, a Syrian by birth, said that General Musharraf should be put on trial. “The fatwa declares General Musharraf apostate and therefore Muslims in the army should not support him. They should punish him for his crimes,” he said.
The fatwa was immediately condemned by Peter Hain, the Foreign Office Minister for Europe, and David Blunkett, the Home Secretary. A CPS spokesman said the police would also “look at more general matters”. These include breaches of Section 59 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which covers the incitement or support of terrorism abroad.
Police will also look at any breaches of the Public Order Act 1986, which bans incitement to racial hatred.
Sheikh Omar moved to Britain in 1986 after being expelled from Saudi Arabia. He claimed political asylum but is not recognised as a refugee.
He claims to have recruited at least 700 British volunteers to fight in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Kashmir. He operates his group, whose name means the Emigrants, from an office on an industrial estate in Tottenham. It is already under police investigation over a series of leaflets attacking Israel and Jews, which were left in Stamford Hill, a nearby enclave of Orthodox Jewry.
News of the moves came as two men suspected of being key figures in Osama bin Laden’s European network were handed over to French investigators. British authorities at the weekend agreed to send Kamel Daoudi, 27, to Paris for questioning.
He is alleged to have gone into hiding in Leicester after escaping from France just as security agents were about to arrest him as a suspected bomb-maker involved in a plot to attack the US Embassy in Paris and Nato headquarters. The swift handover of Mr Daoudi is seen as evidence that Britain is speeding up its co-operation with European and US authorities on terrorist investigations. Mr Daoudi is believed to have been named by Djamel Beghal — another alleged agent of bin Laden — who was arrested in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Beghal, 35, is believed to have lived in Britain for three years and been a visitor to the mosque in Finsbury Park, North London, led by the militant Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.
Yesterday Mr al-Masri said that it was possible that Mr Beghal had attended the mosque but that he would not know him by name.
It wouldn't surprise me!
Parts of Britain are very 'multi-cultural'. Within a radius of a mile from where I live in West London, there is a Mosque; 2 Hindu Temples; 2 Gurdwaras (Sikh temples); including the largest one outside India; a Synagogue and a B'hai meeting place... there's the usual jumble of Christian denominations/spinoffs too.
Oddly enough, everyone gets on pretty well, in this part of the country, at least.
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