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A suspect accused of attempting to plant a bomb on New York's Times Square has ties with the Islamic preacher who inspired a US soldier to kill 12 comrades at Fort Hood and the Christmas Day would-be bomber. Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen has told interrogators that he been inspired to take up the cause of al Qaeda and radical Islam by the internet messages of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based imam. Awlaki, who was born in America, was accused of grooming Nidal Hasan in a series of emails before the US soldier opened fire at the Texas military base...

The number of Islamic extremist security suspects in Britain has increased by 50 percent since the deadly suicide bombings in London last year, The Observer newspaper said on Sunday. A senior intelligence source at the country’s domestic spy agency MI5 was quoted as saying that they were targeting 800 such suspects before the bombings on July 7 last year, but that figure now stood at 1,200. In September 2001, the number of people deemed a “risk to national security” was 250, the newspaper said. The unnamed MI5 source did not give a reason for the apparent rise in radicalisation but...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "Boys as young as five can barely hold up the machine guns and pistols in their hands as they take aim at imaginary targets in the Pakistan desert. But this is no sick game, it is their first step along the way to becoming al-Qaeda terrorists as they are taught about military combat and how to launch suicide missions. At hidden camps terrorist chiefs also use toys to teach the boys how they can blow up buildings and mount roadside bomb attacks. One chilling image from a video filmed inside one camp shows children, barely old...

A London-based Muslim cleric was arrested by anti-terrorist officers on Monday amid allegations that he urged Muslims to kill Jews and non-believers, police sources said. Abdullah el-Faisal, 38, was seized by Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch officers in a dawn raid at his home in east London on Monday. Born in Jamaica and a convert to Islam, he had been touring Britain urging followers to kill Jews and non-believers, police said. Members of parliament had called for action to be taken against the cleric after it was reported that video tapes carrying his message were on sale in Islamic bookshops in ...

HATE PREACHER JAILED A race-hate Muslim cleric convicted of calling for his followers to murder non-believers has been jailed for nine years. An Old Bailey judge also recommended that Abdullah el-Faisal, 39, be deported when his sentence was served. El-Faisal was found guilty last month of three charges of soliciting murder and three charges involving stirring up racial hatred. The Jamaican told young British Muslims it was their duty to kill non-believers, Americans, Hindus and Jews. Shock He promised schoolboys they would be rewarded with 72 virgins in paradise if they died in a holy war. In his defence, Faisal...

His style was that of a celebrity lecturer, spreading "enlightenment" in a rich baritone with the help of jokes and references to pop stars as he addressed rapt audiences the length of Britain. News of the arrival of the extremist Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal would spread by word of mouth, and he attracted crowds of up to 150 people at a time. But beneath his jocular manner lay a philosophy skewed by hatred of "kuffars", or unbelievers, and shared by a web of associates allegedly leading back to Osama bin Laden.Yesterday Faisal, 39, was convicted of soliciting murder and stirring...

Feb. 24, 2003 London cleric convicted for soliciting murder in sermons By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Muslim cleric who allegedly urged followers to kill "nonbelievers" was convicted Monday of soliciting murder. A jury at the Old Bailey found Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal guilty of three charges of soliciting murder, and three charges of incitement of racial hatred. Sentencing was set for March 7. El-Faisal, 39, denied encouraging anyone to commit murder, making threatening or abusive tape recordings and stirring up racial hatred. Prosecutors said el-Faisal preached across Britain and sold Arabic-language tapes of his speeches in specialist shops. They said his...

LONDON - A Muslim cleric accused of inciting followers to murder "nonbelievers" was granted bail on Wednesday, after a judge ruled that prosecutors had not released documents to his defense team quickly enough. Prosecutors say Abdullah el-Faisal, 38, circulated cassettes of his sermons in which he called on Muslims to kill Hindus, Jews and other nonbelievers. He was arrested in February and denied bail after a judge ruled there was a chance he would go into hiding and commit further offenses. But sitting at London's Old Bailey criminal court on Wednesday, Judge Peter Beaumont granted el-Faisal bail, on condition he...