Western Resistance

Voice fade-out. Richard Watson narrates
RW: "Since the London bombings, our footage, filmed last March, has been re-broadcast around the world. We're not suggesting that anyone at this meeting in London's East End took part in the recent suicide attacks, but the sentiments expressed then were a stark warning."

Abu Uzair continues:
"Islam is not the starter of wars, but if you start the war, we will continue, we won't turn the other cheek."

A bearded white man, aged 40 or so, is shown nodding. He turns as a fat Asian-appearing man in long robe enters, a small boy in tow. Nods are exchanged and the camera turns to the other bearded man at the desk. This man, Anjum Choudhury, leader of al-Muhajiroun, continues his partner's theme:
AC: "I know at the time Blair came out, George Bush came out at the same time. But what did he say? He said: "You're either with us-" He pauses. His fingers point back at himself."or you're either (sic) with the -" He pauses. His fingers now point to his audience, and sweep across at them. "Terrorists. And what did we Muslims say? We said we're not with you - we're with the -"He pauses and the audience joins him as he says with finality "The Terrorists!" Allah Akbar!
He smiles, repeating "Allah Akbar". Abu Uzair is grinning.

Image changes. High up, the camera pans around a scene of London's East End at night, looking downwards as it pans. Richard Watson narrates in voiceover:

RW: "Six months after our broadcast, Al-Muhajaroun announced that it was disbanding. We've now learned that its members have moved on to create two new organisations. One is known as the Saviour Sect, which was involved in violent protests against George Galloway at the recent election."

George Galloway is seen in a room, besides a white woman in black jogging outfit. He is being heckled. One of his hands nervously touches a large bottle of diet coke. The loudest voice heckling is that of Abu Izzadeen.

AI: "We're going to follow you. We're going to follow you George. Hey! Georgy Boy! You're frightened. You're a frightened man! I thought you was a champion! You're a coward!"

George Galloway's female attendant has walked off camera and he is visibly disturbed. His eyes look ahead, then down, then ahead. He touches the bottle of Coke. He says:

GG: "I'm feeling very threatened by your behaviour."

Scene fades to an image of a website, with animation of burning flames
A website fills screen. An animated banner of flames. In front of the flames, the words DO NOT VOTE These words aventually fade and are replaced with: VOTING IS APOSTASY.

VOICEOVER - Richard Watson narrates:
The Saviour Sect, so named because they believe only their sect represents the true Islamic path, totally rejects democracy, and wants Britain to adopt Shariah, or Islamic Law. The second closely aligned group is known as Al Ghuraaba, Arabic for "The strangers". They too want Britain to become part of a worldwide Islamic state, or khalifa.

Scene changes to a London park. Image of Richard Watson, walking with Abu Izzadeen, a tall man with a white robe nearly reaching his ankles, a white cloth loosely framing his bearded face.

VOICEOVER - Richard Watson
RW: "This man, Abu Izzadeen, describes himself as Abu Ghuraaba's spokesman. He says that Britons brought the recent suicide attacks on themselves."

They sit together on park bench. Camera is close on Abu Izzadeen's face.

AI: "Osama bin Laden, excuse me, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, he offered to the British public, and the European people at large, an offer of ceasefire. He said that if they rose up against their governments, brought their troops home, he promised not to attack them. But unfortunately the stiff upper British lip became hardheaded, and we saw what took place on 7 July.

Scene changes. It is a London park I recognise near West Ham. A man in dark western clothing, walks toward the camera. He has a red and white Arabic scarf wrapped entirely around his head, with a only a slit for him to see through.

VOICEOVER
RW: "Abu Izzadeen comes from a Christian Jamaican family living in London. He converted to Islam aged 17. This is not the first time he has courted controversy. This previously untransmitted film, obtained by Newsnight, shows him, albeit face covered, just before the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.

A banner top right of screen displays the words: January 2001. Abu Izzadeen speaks

AI: Because I believe America is one of the places where we should be bombing those...er, the Government. There are some Muslims that go to America, because obviously, you know, like firearms is available inside America, to be trained legally. So why not take that opportunity to use, the heart of the enemy that's attacking us."

Image changes, a scene of people in combat uniforms in open scrubland with guns. Top right a banner reads "Library Pictures". These continue as Richard Watson continues narration:

RW: "Today, he doesn't want to answer any questions about Jihad training or the seven months, he says, he spent in Pakistan and Kashmir. He knows he's a target for the intelligence services and, with us, tried to tread a careful line."

Image: Graphic of two portraits. One is of Abu Izzadeen, the other Abu Uzair. Beneath, the words: The British Jihad?. Music: slow chord, synth pad.

Richard Watson narrates above.

RW: "That didn't stop him expressing views that most people in this country would find abhorrent."

Image of Police, ambulance and fire emergency services in immediate wake of London bombings. Scene returns to London park, present day, with Abu Izzadeen in close-up. Richard Watson asks him:

RW: "Are you willing to denounce, right now, the London bombings which killed so many people?"
AI:"No".
RW: "Why not?"
AI: "I would never denounce Muslims".
RW: "This was murder"
AI: "No. Mujahadin activity."
RW: "It's murder. Innocent people have died."
AI: "I'm sorry- when you bomb Muslims in Afghanistan, and I saw houses....I saw women and children murdered, on a huge scale. Not fifty, there was carpet bombing in Afghanistan. Nobody called for the denounciation (sic) for the murder of Muslims."

Image of emergency services in London. Back to Abu Izzadeen's face.

RW: "People like you, with the views you hold, you're vulnerable to becoming suicide bombers. What do you say about that?"
AI: "Vulnerability, I believe it's a weakness as long as understanding. What would I say about those who do suicide operations - or martyrdom operations - 'cause suicide is a term coined by the media - they're completely praiseworthy. Martyrdom operations are commonplace - fifteen every day in Iraq ag-"
RW: "Not in Britain."
AI: "Against the British and Americans every day in Afghanistan, all around the world, in Palestine. So it's not something that's unusual. What's shocking, for many, is that it took place on their own doorsteps. But hopefully, that will make many, wake up, and smell the coffee...

SCENE CHANGE. Abu Uzair is shown in front of a black flag, with Allah's name in white letters on it, from the first footage in the programme.

VOICEOVER from Richard Watson

RW: "Remember the man we filmed last year, describing 9/11 as magnificent? Then, he believed that terrorists shouldn't attack the UK because it offered hospitality to Muslims."

Scene cuts, to more parkland, with Abu Uzair with larger beard.

AU: "We don't live in peace with you any more, which means the covenant of security is no longer, doesn't no longer(sic) exist."
RW: "But that - that essentially means that British subjects are targets?".
AU: "Yeah, that's right. That's why, those four bombers, um, er, that attacked, er, London - they believed that there was no covenant of security, and for them, their belief was, it was allowed, to attack the UK."
RW: "It can't be right, surely? It can't be right."
AU: "For them, it was allowed. For them it was particularly allowed. Because me. myself, my belief hasn't been attacked personally myself. For them, the banner has been risen for Jihad in the UK, which means, for them, it's allowed for them to attack, and they've probably got many other cells inside the UK."
RW: "Many other terrorist cells?"
AU: "You could call them terrorist cells. I would call them Muslim cells in the UK."

Scene cuts to Abu Izzadeen, in same park.

AI: "I believe many people say you shouldn't negotiate with terrorists. It's a common theme, put in the media. But I'm sure, if you asked those who passed away on the 7th of July, should we negotiate with terr- Osama bin Laden, I'm sure they'd say 'Yes'. To bring their lives back, to save themselves from the burning inferno underground, they would have said, 'Let's negotiate'."

GRAPHIC of Abu Izzadeen and Abu Uzair. Music- same synth pad. Words below: Islam and the State.

VOICEOVER:
RW: "The problem for society is that extreme Islamists, even those born in Britain, fundamentally disagree with the central tenets of democracy."

Scene: Abu Izzadeen in park.

AI: "There's always a clash of civilisations, there's always a clash of ideals. And because Islam is not written by a man, I can't change it. But because democracy's written by a man, they can change it to accommodate the Muslims. I'm born here. I have the right to call for Islam, wherever I am. And that's a problem for the British society and establishment; that the community here, the new generation of Muslims, are born in the UK. We have a British passport, and British citizenship but our allegiance is only to Islam."

Cut to Abu Uzair.

RW: "If you had information, that there's going to be another bombing in London, would you go to the police?"
AU: "I would never go to the police."
RW: "Why not?"
AU: "Never, ever."
RW: "Why not? You're a British citizen."
AU: "Because I believe that despite - as a Muslim, that is particularly not allowed at all."
RW: "You're a British citizen!"
AU: "I'm a British citizen but I'm a Muslim first, I'm a Muslim second and I'm a Muslim last."
RW: "But don't you see that as being competely incompatible with being a British citizen."

Abu Uzair is in a park speaking to interviewer Richard Watson

AU: "I'm a British citizen but I'm a Muslim first, I'm a Muslim second and I'm a Muslim last."
RW: "But don't you see that as being completely incompatible with being a British citizen?"
AU: "Yeah, but the thing is - I don't believe, even if I am British. I don't follow the values of the UK. I follow the Islamic values"

Scene reverts to Abu Izzadeen.

RW: "That's the key point. Where is your allegiance first, Islam or Britain?"
AI: "There's no issue of first and second. I have no allegiance to the British queen whatsoever and to the British society - in fact, if I see Mujahadin attack the UK, I always stand on the side of the Muslims - NEVER against the Muslims."
RW: "You'd never denounce that?"
AI: "Never! Even if my own family was to be suffered (sic) inside attacks, because we always stand with the Muslims, regardless of the consequences."

GRAPHIC- as before, same slow pad chord. TITLE: UNDER WHOSE LAW?"

VOICEOVER by Richard Watson

"Democracy, they argue, is a man-made system, and therefore haram, or banned under Islamic Law."

Abu Izzadeen's face in shown in close up

RW: "You, as I understand it, think it would be justifiable to overthrow a democratically elected government to establish that Khalifa?"
AI: "Well of course! And what's the problem with that?"
RW: "Well, it's a huge problem."
AI: "The British government are willing to overthrow Muslims in Afghanistan, to kill, and rape, and murder, to establish a democratic system."

Scenes from the park - children on swings, a boy on a bike.

AI: "If the British public don't like Shariah, it's going to be over their noses, whether they like it or not. It's going to be over Tony Blair's nose and George Bush's nose as well - and for your information - the British government knows that."

Various images are shown as Abu Izzadeen continues speaking - A Newpaper hoarding reads: "Muslims are against Western Values." A view of rows of Mulsim men's bottoms as the prostrate themselves in prayer. The dome above a mosque.

AI: "That's why they're so terrified of Islamists. I don't believe in freedom. Because freedom's an absolute term. And your freedom encroaches on my freedom. We don't believe in freedom as Muslims.
We believe we are, and every action is, restricted with the Shariah rules."
RW: "But I'm saying clearly, I don't want to live in a society like that. What do you say?"
AI: "You don't want to live in a Shariah?
Well, when it comes, I'm sure you'll change your mind!"
He laughs.

Scenes of bomb devastation in London.
Voiceover from Richard Watson:

RW: "At its height, al-Muhajaroun had fewer than a thousand activists, but as the new organisations' new leaders, Abu Ghuraaba now imply, it only takes a handful of extremists to threaten democracy and national security."

That is the broadcast. On 7th August, the Sunday Times published two articles on their undercover investigation into the sects, documenting their violence, revealing the identity of Abu Izzadeen as Omar Brooks, a 31 year old electrician, and also described a meeting at Debden House, on the edges of Epping Forest, in which would be jihadists were under the tutelage of now-exiled extremist Omar Bakri Mohammed. In one of the Times articles, Abu Izzadeen/Omar Brooks is quoted as saying that he didn't want to die "sleeping in his bed like an old woman" but claimed "I want to be blown to pieces with my hands in one place and my feet in another." The other article is here. Please read them in their entirety.