Posted on 03/28/2002 1:26:03 PM PST by knighthawk
LONDON: The Briton suspected of plotting the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan was deeply moved by his experience of the Bosnian war, the possible start of a journey to Muslim extremism, a friend said on Thursday.
The trial of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh begins in Karachi on Friday. He is charged with the abduction and killing of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl.
Asad Khan took Omar, then in his late teens, on a mission to bring aid to Muslims in the Balkans a decade ago, an experience that apparently led to his conversion to a radical and violent form of Islam.
Khan told Reuters at his London home that he was not convinced of Omar's guilt, but said Muslims like him everywhere felt repressed. The backlash caused by events in the Middle East and Afghanistan could be devastating, he predicted.
"He had a clear mind," Khan said of Omar, recalling the trip to Croatia and Bosnia in the early 1990s, when war raged among Serbs, Croats and Muslims.
"He knew what was right and wrong, and from what I remember there was no grey area. He felt there was a great wrong being done" against Muslims in the Balkans.
British media have reported that Omar was impressed by the violent zeal of mujahideen fighters based in Bosnia during his visit with Khan's charity, the Convoy of Mercy, and that the fighters recommended him to an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.
Khan said Omar was sick during the trip and could not have made direct contact with fighters, although the voyage did open his eyes to the plight of Muslims overseas.
Khan added that the student who dropped out of the London School of Economics (LSE) felt embarrassed by his illness, and raised funds for the charity after his return to Britain.
The next thing Khan knew, Omar was in the headlines in 1994 when Indian police arrested him and accused him of involvement in the kidnapping of three Britons and an American tourist.
Warnings
"Certainly something must have happened along the way," Khan said.
He warned that thousands of Muslims could follow a similar path, given the alienation they felt where they lived, heightened by perceived injustices against Palestinians and Afghans.
"The more the repression of Muslims the greater the reaction will be. It is a bomb ticking...thousands of (Osama) Bin Ladens are being created."
Saudi-born Bin Laden is accused by Washington of masterminding the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington which triggered its "war on world terror".
Possible links between his al-Qaeda network and the alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid were being investigated by Pearl when he disappeared. A gruesome video later surfaced in Karachi showing he had been murdered.
Omar could face the death penalty in the United States if found guilty of a role in Pearl's abduction and death. Pakistan says it would only consider handing Omar to US authorities once it had completed its own trial.
They should all pi$$ off back to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. If Muslims are so hard done by they should go home and create a society they’d be happy to live in.
This Omar a$$ has made his choices now he pays the price.
You mean to say the Izetbegovic government invited these vicious mujihadeen to torture, terrorise and kill "infidels"? But wait, my TV told me it was all the Serbs' fault! Say, you don't think the mainstream media could have fibbed, do ya??? [/sarcasm]
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