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September 6, 2006

UK: Islamic Terror School Had Child Abuse Allegations

Since we last reported on the issues of the potential terror training camp at the East Sussex Jameah Islamiyah Islamic school, more revelations have surfaced. Lucy Manning on Channel Four News stated yesterday that the school, before being closed down, had been the subject of child sex abuse allegations.

The Mirror revealed that the school had also been used by police in their training exercises. About 20 police and civilians from the East Sussex police force had been booked into the Jemaah Islamiyah where they learned about Islam, as part of their community skills development. One day courses were provided by the school, free of charge.

From the Sussex Police HQ in Lewes, one source said: "It's an embarrassing situation. We carried out extensive checks on the place via our Special Branch. We knew Abu Hamza had been there a few years ago, but we were happy it was now 'clean'......It goes without saying none of our officers had the faintest idea about what's alleged. We don't know if MI5 and Scotland Yard knew our officers were training there. All who attended were in plain clothes."

The source claimed that if the school was unaware of the supposed terror camps being held in its grounds, then officers would continue to be sent to learn about Islam.

Also on Monday, EFE via Expatica stated that four of the fourteen people who had been arrested on the night of Sept 1 to 2 had been in Spain earlier this year. The four, who ranged in age from 21 to 49, had come to Spain from France, stayed two days and then took a ferry to Morocco. They returned to Spain later before going to France.

Three of these people were under surveillance when they were in Spain last year, when authorities suspected they were trying to set up a terror training camp in Granada. These were a 49-year old from Tanzania, a native Briton, and a 29-year old from Somalia.

While fourteen people were arrested in London raids on Friday night/Saturday morning, two others had been arrested in Cheetham Hill in Manchester, in raids unconnected to the London operations. The Sun reported on Monday that one of these individuals arrested in Manchester was a close friend of Hassan Butt, aged 26. Butt has openly boasted of recruiting 200 British mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan.

Hassan Butt was a spokesman for Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed's now disbanded group Al-Muhajiroun. In 2002, Butt told journalists he would personally encourage attacks upon military targets in the UK. At 6 am on Saturday morning, this friend of Hassan Butt was taken into custody. The other individual apprehended in the region is said to be the brother of Butt's friend. Three houses were raided in all in the Greater Manchester area at the weekend.

Also on Monday, the Sun stated that there were up to five more terror training camps being investigated in Britain, in addition to the Jameah Islamiyah camp. 12 of the 14 people arrested in London had visited the Jameah school. The Sun quoted one security source, who had said that the individuals had been monitored as they went on camping trips around the South East of England. The source stated: "They mingled with ordinary members of the public. They must have seemed like innocent nature-lovers enjoying the outdoor life and the best that England can offer. But in reality we believe they were planning mass murder."

Another source maintains that one of the lead suspects was heard telling the group that they should kill as many people as possible: "He was heard to say, 'Let's kill them - let's kill them all'. It was damning proof they were intent on murder and it put the wind up us."

The Sun also relates that neighbours in Mark's Cross, where the Jameah Islamiyah school is situated, could hear gunshots coming from the direction of the school.

The Times revealed on Tuesday that the radical imam from Finsbury Park Mosque, Abu Hamza, had also tried to but the school for use in "jihad" training. The preacher, currently in jail for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, tried to buy the school in the late 1990s. When this failed, he turned his attentions onto the Dog Cry ranch in Bly, Oregon. He is under an extradition order from the United States for trying to set up the Oregon training camp.

The Times also stated that the Charity Commission is now investigating the school's activities. Jameah Islamiyah was regsistered as a charity on 20 May,1994, under the name Jameatul-Uloum-al-Islamiyah, registration number 1037827. Its named correspondent is a Mr Ahmed Muhammed Hakim, but its submission of its accounts is incomplete.

Its last statement of expenditure was for the financial year ending in May 31, 2004. Then it said that it had received an income of £45,302 and had an expenditure of 44,417. The trustees for the school are listed as Mr Hakim, Bilal Patel (who runs the school), Mohammad Anas and Muhammad Iqbal.

The Times quotes a spokesperson for the Charities Commission, who said: "We are in touch with the charity's trustees with regard to a meeting to discuss the police action and other matters concerning the administration of the charity. Any breach of the criminal law is primarily a matter for the law enforcement agencies...we will remain in close touch with those agencies while the police investigation continues."

Abu Hamza is said to have visited the school five times in the 1990s, bringing with him his followers. They camped in the grounds. The school was bought by four individuals in 1993, but Land Registry records do not give the amount that was used to purchase the building.

Abu Hamza looked at the possibility of buying other properties in Lancashire and Wales before examining the Dog Cry ranch in Oregon, 50 miles east of Klamath Falls.

According to the Associated Press, via the International Herald Tribune, the allegations of abuse were first described in the Evening Standard, a local but popular London based newspaper. The allegations had been mentioned by Abdul Jalil Sajid, who is a former adviser to Tony Blair. He said: "There were many allegations of abuse - we found 103 specific problems with the school, including the abuse, so we called for immediate closure. Before the abuse allegations were taken further, the school was closed."

The Daily Mail yesterday noted that five of the 14 people arrested in London at the weekend were recent converts to Islam. One of these converts is 40-year old Mousa Abdullah Brown, a painter and decorator from Walthamstow. He is of West Indian origin, but was born and raised in London.

Another of the converts was 24-year old Gilbert Teye Baiden, who worked in Blockbuster Video. his ex-wife Nyarko told the Mirror newspaper that she believed he converted two years ago, after they had divorced.

UPDATE: The Daily Mail today, expanding on the claims from Spanish officials, reports that four of the suspects went to extremist camps in North Africa. They quote from a statement given yesterday by the Spanish Interior Ministry:

"At the beginning of April the suspects crossed through a land border in the north of Spain and left two days later in a commercial ferry towards north Africa. A short time later they returned to Spain by the same route and left Spain in the direction of France by a land frontier. They only used Spanish territory as a passageway. Interested foreign intelligence services were notified. There were four other men on the trip with them."

The Spanish statement gave the names of the suspects as M.H., born in Tanzania in 1957, M.A.B. born in the UK in 1966, K.D., born in 1983 and S.J., born in 1985.

UPDATE 2: News from Associated Press via the Melbourne Age and the International Herald Tribune states that two of the fourteen suspects arrested at the weekend have been released. The Metropolitan police stated that the two individuals, who were arrested in London on September 1, were released last night. The polie appear to be uncertain whether to charge three of the remaining suspects, or to seek more custody time from a judge. It is expected that the other nine individuals will be held until Friday.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 6, 2006 1:13 AM

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