| One of the key speakers at the gathering was Yasir al-Sirri, an Egyptian, who heads the London-based "Islamic Observatory". The United States wants him extradited because of his alleged transfer of cash to Afghanistan. Also present was Abu-Hamzah al-Masri, the man in charge of "the Partisans of Shari'ah" organization, who has had his bank deposits in the United States frozen on account of his alleged membership in "the Islamic Army of Ibyan". Despite the non-attendance of Abu-Qatadah, a Palestinian fundamentalist who has not been seen in public since February 2002, he was said by leading figures at the gathering to be in hiding in a safe place. They quoted an e-mail from him in which he vowed that victory was at hand. "The battle is not yet over" Scotland Yard has been hunting for the "fugitive" Palestinian fundamentalist for more than six months. He is regarded by Western security agencies as "the spiritual leader" of Usamah Bin-Ladin's army in Europe. Abu-Qatadah's electronic message was sent under the heading "this is the ummah of Muhammad that shall never die". In a remark on the fall of the Taleban-run state, Abu-Qatadah had this to say: "The battle is not over yet; the last word in the story of the conflict has yet to be written; in the struggle between us and wrong there are many lines that are going to be written in smoke and sweat." Addressing the conference, Yasir al-Sirri launched into a personal diatribe against [US] President George W. Bush, and blasted the way in which the Guantanamo detainees caught by the US military in Afghanistan are being treated. US policies criticized Al-Sirri's speech, entitled "The prisoners of conscience in a world that has no conscience", said we have an obligation to put George W. Bush on trial as a war criminal over his violations". Al-Sirri added: "The 534 detainees at the X-ray Camp in Cuba who come from 39 countries are in a legal vacuum and they have no idea how much longer they will continue to be locked up." The Egyptian fundamentalist added that "the prisoners of war have the right to be housed under proper conditions and they are not required to disclose anything other than their name, rank, serial number and date of birth. And they ought not to be prosecuted over their possession of firearms against the enemy during the war. Plus, they should have access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. As to their denial as prisoners of war to a fair trial, that in itself is a war crime". He pointed out that the toughest problem that remains unsolved is the correct spelling of the names of the Arab suspects at Guantanamo, which has hindered the hunt for others. An intelligence officer is quoted as saying: "US authorities have handed over a list of suspects and demanded that their deposits in Saudi banks be frozen, but a Saudi official returned the list because most of the names could not be identified and they are only nicknames that apply to a large number of people. A case in point is Muhammad al-Hajj, a nickname that attaches to any Muslim that has performed the pilgrimage. A young Saudi man has threatened to take the US authorities to court for their having put his name and picture on websites as one of the hijackers of the planes involved in the 11 September bombings even though he was at the time in Saudi Arabia. "Duty of every Muslim" to defend Iraq He added "by way of covering up its failure in its war against Islam and Muslims, the US administration is planning an invasion of Iraq. It is the duty of every Muslim to rally for the defence of the people of that country and all other Muslims against the American invasion. I am urging the people of Egypt in particular to move and block the Suez Canal to the transit of warships using every possible means they can muster. They have to do this as a minimal move". Mustafa Kamil, another fundamentalist from Egypt, said that driven by "malice", the US Treasury Department had frozen his funds. Kamil added: "Because of the US campaign against Muslim communities in Europe, some Muslims have felt the need to change certain distinctive features and so many have shaved their beards or adopted another dress style. Others have even changed their names for fear that they would otherwise be persecuted." Harassment of Muslims in Europe Muslims in Europe, he said, are in for further harassment because the Arab nations have joined the Bush camp against their will. He contended that the West does not mind Islamic movements but that it fears Islamic tenets that advocate jihad and the veil for women. He urged Muslims not to invest their funds in the West and to move their deposits to their home countries. He also urged Muslims to make their stay in Britain as short as possible in order for them not to be subjected to the same fate as Bosnia's Muslims. He denied any association with the fundamentalist cell that has been broken up in Seattle. He indicated that the FBI was investigating a number of fundamentalists in the Seattle district. These are held to be supporters of Usamah Bin-Ladin's Al-Qa'idah and to have sought to set up a training camp for terrorists in Oregon. According to US sources, more than 100 persons associated with a shuttered mosque in Seattle named "Dar al-Salam." US federal agents suspect that many of those are core members in a terror cell. The American sources maintain that this cell has links to Abu-Hamzah al-Masri in London, a fundamentalist that Washington believes is associated with Usamah Bin-Ladin or Al-Qa'idah. Abu-Hamzah al-Masri, responding to these allegations, said: "I have followers and supporters everywhere." He noted that Finsbury Mosque in north London where he gives his weekly sermons is now better known than Harrods and Buckingham Palace. Al-Muhajirun The meeting, which took place the day before yesterday, was organized by "Al-Muhajirun", the largest fundamentalist group in the United Kingdom. The United States charges that Al-Muhajirun encourages its members to join jihad outside the United Kingdom and that it looks to turn Britain into an Islamic state. Omar Bakri, the leader of "Al-Muhajirun" addressed the gathering under the heading "The prelude to an invasion by India against the backdrop of the Indian-Pakistani dispute over Kashmir". Usamah Bin-Ladin and the Taleban movement, he vowed, belong to "the community seen by God as the one that will achieve victory as indicated by the Prophet Muhammad". The Taleban movement, he added, is admired only by a believer and is hated only by hypocrites. Bakri announced that he was disowning "Al-Ash'ariyyah," whose adherents follow the tradition of Imam Abu-al-Hassan al-Ash'ari. He had come back to the creeds of the Sunnis and the group that followed the road of the reformists, said Bakri. Anjam Shaudri, a lawyer who is the secretary-general of "Al-Muhajirun" also gave a speech under the heading "The democratic terror that is being practised by tyrannical regimes". A member of "Al-Muhajirun group" gave a speech in which he said that we are talking about the wrongs to which Muslims are subjected in the West. The Associated Press reports that this group plans to show a videotape of brutalities that are committed in Muslim lands. The fundamentalist conference was held at the auditorium of the "Friends House" in London in preference to a mosque. The idea was to make it easier for non-Muslims to attend. Meanwhile, leading figures in the Muslim community in the United Kingdom have said that they do not attend conferences like this one and that this anti-Americanism does not reflect the sentiments of the Muslim community in the United kingdom. |
