topic by
John Calvin
7/15/2002 (19:57) |
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Cleric urges Muslims in UK to become martyrs
Jason Burke, chief reporter
Sunday July 14, 2002
The Observer
Abu Qatada, the missing hardline Islamic cleric suspected by intelligence officials of being a key al-Qaeda operative in the UK, has broken his silence to call on British Muslims to martyr themselves in a holy war against oppression.
An email from the Palestinian-born religious scholar, who disappeared last December, was read out to a meeting of hardline Islamic campaigners in London on Friday night.
There has been frenzied speculation over Qatada's location. Last week French officials told Time magazine that the scholar was being held in an MI5 safehouse.
However, Qatada's ability to send messages to his followers would indicate that he is not being held by the security services. MI5, the Metropolitan police Special Branch and its Anti-Terrorist Branch have all denied to The Observer that they know of Qatada's whereabouts or that he is an agent.
Organisers of the meeting told The Observer yesterday that the email was 'very recent'.
'I have never felt more confident of the victory of almighty Allah and never more certain that the faith will be victorious,' it read.
Qatada, whose assets have been frozen by the US Treasury and who is wanted by Jordanian authorities for his alleged role in a plot to blow up hotels there on millennium eve, said Muslims were now in a time of calamity. But, he added: 'The time of victory is near. All over the world Muslims are sacrificing more and contributing more to the struggle.'
The message accused Muslims worldwide of suffering 'defeats and calamities' because they had abandoned the true path of Islam.
Qatada also praised the Taliban for their 'sacrifice to protect their Islamic brothers' and 'refusal to compromise their Islamic beliefs', before calling on his followers to give their lives.
'May Allah accept us all to be martyred,' Qatada, recently described by a Spanish judge as 'the spiritual head of the mujahideen in Britain', said at the end of his message provoking shouts of 'Allah Akbar' (God is the greatest) from the 400-strong crowd.
Qatada's message was read out by Omar Mohammed Bakri Fostok, the leader of the al-Muhajiroun group which organised the meeting. The group has been implicated in sending volunteers to fight with the Taliban and other hardline forces. Fostok has said that he wanted Britain to become an Islamic state and has endorsed the use of violence.
Most of the listeners were young men, though around 50 women, sitting in a segregated section, were also present. Around the hall - the Quaker's Friends Meeting House in Euston - banners condemning the oppression of Muslims in Kashmir and the Israeli-occupied West Bank had been hung.
The meeting - the first of its kind since the 11 September attacks - was also addressed by Abu Hamza al-Masri, the controversial prayer leader from Finsbury Park mosque in north London, who has been accused of recruiting and fundraising for Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Yemen, and Yasser al-Sirri, who is facing extradition to the US on charges of sending funds to Afghanistan. Both men deny all the charges against them.
Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon South called on the security services to 'redouble their efforts to find and detain' Qatada.
The cleric, who is 40 and came to Britain in 1993, left his home in Acton, west London, hours before new anti-terrorist legislation allowing his detention without trial came into effect. He has not been seen since.
Mainstream Muslim groups in Britain have distanced themselves from al-Muhajiroun.
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