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July 31, 2007

Will Gordon Brown Maintain the US "Special Relationship"?

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

On Sunday July 30 Gordon Brown, Britain's unelected prime minister, flew to the United States, to have dinner and a sleep-over at Camp David with George W. Bush. His Monday schedule included meetings with Congressional representatives and meeting Ban-Ki Moon at the UN building in New York. The visit has been marked by questions about whether or not Brown will maintain the "Special Relationship" which has been maintained between Britain and the United States since 1943, when Winston Churchill became the first British leader to be entertained at Camp David.

Before arriving at Camp David, Gordon Brown made a point of echoing Churchill's words, even though Churchill was a political animal of a caliber far removed from the Scottish bureaucrat who began his career parroting socialist dogma. Brown spoke of "the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world", words lifted from a famous speech, the "Sinews of Peace" address, made by Winston Churchill at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946.

Brown's appropriation of Winston Churchill's words was a presumptive device to win over the president, who is an admirer of Britain's greatest modern leader. Churchill. unlike Gordon Brown, made sure his military forces were financially and morally supported in times of peace as in times of war. Brown, during a decade's tenure as Chancellor, has cut back defense spending to its lowest point since 1930, and has antagonized and frustrated the military to the point that most army officers have considered resigning from their posts.

In November last year, Brown proudly boasted that he had brought down the number of troops stationed in Iraq, and intended to decrease their numbers still further. While President Bush has increased troop capacity in Iraq, Brown has made no mention of following suit.

Questions have been circulating about Brown's real intentions towards America since July 14 this year. It was on this date in Washington that Brown's newly-appointed International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, hinted that George W. Bush's strategy against terrorism was not shared by the Brown government. Though he praised the UK/US special relationship, Alexander said to the Council on Foreign Relations: "We must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world but ones which reach out to the world. In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century, strength should be measured by what we can build together." Alexander suggested that diplomacy and development aid were important tools against terrorism, even though there is no evidence that Islamic terrorists have ever seriously wished for "diplomacy".

The next potential crack in the special relationship was made by another of Brown's new cabinet ministers, Lord Malloch Brown (pictured), the Foreign Office minister. This individual formerly served as deputy secretary general to the United Nations. Mark Malloch Brown now presides over the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), a body which has been making overtures to Islamists in the Muslim Brotherhood since 2003. The FCO works closely with MI6, Britain's offshore intelligence wing.

According to the autobiography of Pakistan's President Musharraf, British terrorist Omar Sheikh, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, was employed by MI6 as an agent, before turning "renegade". Similarly, in November last year, the South Asia Analysis Group echoed suggestions made by former US Justice Department prosecutor John Loftus that UK terror suspect Haroon Rashid Aswat was also a renegade MI6 agent. Intriguingly, Aswat was reported in some press accounts to have been arrested in Sargodha, Pakistan, while others maintained he was arrested in Zambia, suggesting some sort of official cover-up. Not surprisingly, it was recently revealed that in 1998 and 1999, MI6 refused to assist the CIA in its efforts to apprehend Osama bin Laden unless assurances were given that the terror leader would be treated humanely.

On July 14, Mark Malloch Brown's first press interview since being made Foreign Office minister was published. He said: "It is very unlikely that the Brown-Bush relationship is going to go through the baptism of fire and therefore be joined together at the hip like the Blair-Bush relationship was. That was a relationship born of being war leaders together. There was an emotional intensity of being war leaders with much of the world against them. That is enough to put you on your knees and get you praying together."

Malloch Brown added: "What I really hate is the effort to paint me as anti-American, but I am happy to be described as anti-neo-con. If they see me as a villain, I will wear that as a badge of honor." Like Douglas Alexander, Malloch Brown is not a supporter of the "war on terror" and objects to claims that Islamist terror is being made by Muslims, saying "Just labelling it in a way that bundles people together isn't always the best way." He claimed that in the UN "we used to meet Taliban leaders and all kinds of Palestinian factions. It is not because by doing so you are giving them political support but you have to find ways of dealing with issues. There has to be some flexibility against some very firm principles."

With Malloch Brown and Douglas Alexander setting off alarm bells in Washington, another of Gordon Brown's new political appointees joined the fray. Simon McDonald is Gordon Brown's chief foreign policy adviser, and the Sunday Times reports that before Brown's US visit, McDonald was having meetings with US policy-makers. One of those who met him said that it seemed McDonald was testing the potential US reactions should Britain unilaterally decide to pull out of Iraq. Henry Kissinger has warned that Britain should not distance itself from the US, saying: "Ostentatious dissociation from the US just sets up a quarrel."

In Washington last week Britain's ambassador to the US, Sir David Manning, was on the telephone to Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley to reassure them that Gordon Brown valued the "special relationship". Despite this, a former British diplomat was quoted as saying: "Under Brown, there won't be any of the instinctual, shoulder-to-shoulder stuff there was with Blair." Brown has said that the press have misinterpreted the speech of Douglas Alexander, and is reassuring his friends that political analysts have not read the situation properly.

Accompanying Gordon Brown on his brief trip to the US was his new Foreign Secretary, 42-year old David Miliband, who had earlier been forced to draw a line under Lord Malloch Brown's comments. Miliband had said that the Foreign Office minister had "a very specific job to do", dealing with the UN, Asia and Africa, rather than pontificating about Britain's relationship with George W. Bush. Miliband affirmed on July 15 that Britain's support for the US remains "resolute".

There remain many questions about Gordon Brown's future intentions. His choice of cabinet ministers is somewhat questionable. His new Security Minister, Admiral Sir Alan West, was recently the First Sea Lord. When Iran illegally kidnapped 15 British sailors in March this year, West commended the Defense Ministry's decision not to fire by saying "we don't want wars starting."

Brown's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, had only been in office for a matter of days when she announced that she had smoked cannabis while a student at Oxford. The announcement came a day after she revealed that she was discussing raising the penalties for marijuana possession. Brown's response was one of apparent indifference. His official spokesman said the issue was a "personal matter for ministers... there is no Number 10 edict on this one way or another." After Smith's confession, six more cabinet ministers came out of their closets to confirm that they too had smoked cannabis in their youth.

There may be former pot-headed pixies in the cabinet, but one should never forget that a large number of the rank and file MPs in Gordon Brown's Labour Party are barely reformed former Trotskyites. The most obvious of these is London's mayor, Ken Livingstone. The tofu-eating terror appeasers were riled when Gordon Brown announced that the US is leading the battle against terrorism, and that the world should be grateful to America for this. Brown said that "we cannot solve any of the world's major problems without the active engagement of the US." Leftists traditionally loathe the United States, and Brown's comments sent Labour party leftists into rabid mode.

Peter Kilfoyle, MP for Liverpool Walton, was a junior defense minister when Labour came to power in May 1997. He said: "Is it in Britain's national interest to be closely associated with what is possibly the most extreme administration the US has ever seen? No it is not. Mr Brown must not let himself be persuaded that is the case."

Even Ann Cryer, a moderate left-winger, was scathing. The Labour MP for Keighley said: "I get very impatient with George Bush and I don't believe he is very bright. We do have very strong cultural links with America and Gordon is right to emphasize those, but he should not suggest Bush is the man to solve the world's problems. He should realise that much of American public opinion is out of tune with what its President is doing, and concentrate on that."

Even the opposition party in Britain appears to be courting a potential Democrat victory in the next US elections. William Hague is the Tory party's shadow Foreign Secretary, and he has consistently denounced Guantanamo and US policies of "rendition". The leader of the Tory Party, David Cameron, made the tactless statement on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 that if he came to power, his party would not be "America's unconditional associate in every endeavor," claiming the Bush administration was employing "an unrealistic and simplistic" view of the world.

Currently, Cameron's popularity ratings have fallen to an all-time low against Labour. Brown was never expected to be popular, but in the wake of the recent car-bomb plots, his funereal presentation seemed more appropriate than Tony Blair's style of bleating like Bambi in front of cameras. Brown's unexpected popularity, which has seen his party rise to 40% approval in opinion polls, is called the "Brown bounce". Cameron made the mistake of flying off to Rwanda while his constituents in Witney, Oxfordshire, were dealing with flooded homes.

The "Brown bounce" may soon disappear, as the honeymoon period gives way to a realization that the unelected premier may not be as forthright as he would have people believe. The Labour party was elected on a manifesto promise that it would hold a referendum if any attempts were made by the European Union to bring in a "constitution". The EU is now trying to bring in a EU Treaty which in all but 10% of its clauses is the same European Constitution which was narrowly rejected in 2005. Despite this, Brown's ministers expect to sign this treaty when parliament returns from its summer recess. This will give only 10 days for parliament to discuss the 277-page document's contents. Brown will give the UK public no opportunity to review the treaty's contents.

This summer has been the wettest since British records began, with widespread flooding in various locations. In June, Hull city was afflicted by floods, causing 30,000 people to be made homeless. Emergency aid was promised. Five weeks later, and funds have not been given out, due to bureaucratic confusion.

The reactions to the floodings were initially stoical, and there was an echo of the "Blitz spirit", when communities helped each other. Brown's new housing minister Yvette Cooper, despite the widespread chaos, has insisted that the government's new home-building policy will involve houses being built upon existing flood plains. If the Labour party had not insisted upon allowing uncontrolled mass immigration over the past decade, there would be little need to build new homes.

As I write, I have had no running water in my home for more than a week. I live in a village just outside Gloucester, near the epicenter of the worst flood crisis to have happened recently. Currently there are 340,000 homes in the county of Gloucestershire which have no access to running water. There are plans to pump untreated water through the mains, but clean water, suitable for drinking, is not expected to flow from our faucets for another nine days. When the Mythe waterworks at Tewkesbury (pictured) became flooded with water from the Rivers Severn and Avon, pumping and filtration ceased. An electricity substation at Gloucester came within two inches of being flooded. We still live in fear of the next deluge.

The stoicism which caught the spirit of the moment is giving way to anger. 900 water "bowsers" were installed at locations affected by the shortage, but these are inadequate for the demand. In Cheltenham, one of the affected Gloucestershire towns, youths have added urine and bleach to some of these containers. Elderly and disabled people are expected to gather their own water from these bowsers, and only a select few are assisted by social workers. Two of my neighbors are elderly and disabled, and cannot carry water. One cannot even hold a two liter bottle of water without losing her balance. A total of 25,000 people over the age of 80 are currently without running water.

Gordon Brown may state that he supports America, and he would be a fool to suggest otherwise, but I suspect he would be happier breaking bread with Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton than with George W. Bush. At home his popularity may wane but so far the luminaries of the opposition Tory party, heirs to Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, are floundering in a confusion of policy and outlook. We who live in Britain may shrug with resignation at future "Acts of God", but will we be prepared for future Acts of Gordon Brown?

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:40 AM | Comments (1)

July 30, 2007

Islam: The First Godfather Of Fundamentalism

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Analysts and commentators on Islamism often point to two individuals as the "godfathers of Islamism" - Sayyid Qutb and Syed Abul Ala Maududi. It is true that the writings of these two men have been influential upon senior figures in the Islamist and Al Qaeda movements. Sayyid Qutb (1906 - 1966) was spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood from the early 1950s until he was executed by the government of Nasser in 1966. His book Milestones on the Road (Ma'alim fi'l-Tariq) was read by, and influenced, Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of Al Qaeda.

Syed Abul Ala Maududi was born in India in 1903, and was a scholar of Islam at a Deobandi seminary in Hyderabad. In 1941, he founded the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party in India (J-e-I). After the 1947 formation of Pakistan, Maududi moved to the new state. Under the first thirteen months of its existence, Pakistan was governed by Mohammed Jinnah, who oversaw a secular constitution. With pressure from J-e-I, secularism in Pakistan gave way to Islamism. Maududi despised the Ahmadiyyah sect of Islam. This group denounces violence, but holds its founder to be a "prophet", which Maudidi condemned as heretical in at least one book (The Qadiani Problem).

The offshoots of Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh have enacted severe persecutions of the Ahmadiyyah. As a result of pressure from J-e-I in Pakistan, any Ahmadiyyah member who preaches can be jailed for three years under the Islamist blasphemy laws. Maududi's writings were to influence Sayyid Qutb.

Maududi (pictured, right) and Qutb both supported the notion that it was every Muslim's duty to work towards the establishment of Islam on earth as a global political entity. The two groups which these ideologues had belonged to, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, maintained close links. Both groups have been involved in violence and sponsorship of terrorism. When East Pakistan seceded from West Pakistan, leading to the formation of Bangladesh, the local wing of the J-e-I, led by Motiur Rahman Nizami, supervised acts of genocide against Hindus and separatists. 3 million died in Bangladesh's war for independence. Senior figures of the Bangladesh terror group JMB (Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh), which committed suicide bombings in 2005, all had links with the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

The other global fundamentalist Islamic movement, spread from Saudi Arabia, is Wahabbism. This is named after its founder, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 - 1792), a scholar who preached an austere form of Islam. He regarded anything which deviated from ultra-orthodox interpretations of Islam, based upon the Koran and sunna (deeds) of Mohammed, as shirk or polytheism. Only one of his books, Kitab al-Tawhid (the Book of Monotheism) remains. It orders that no shrines or gravestones should be erected, lest these become places of worship. Such extreme dictates have led to destruction of Islamic historical sites. Recently a fatwa was issued by Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh. He has ordered that Shi'ite shrines in Iraq and Damascus, which are revered by Shia Muslims as places of pilgrimage, should be destroyed.

The ideologies of these three individuals - Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Sayyid Qutb and Syed Abul Ala Maududi - are central to the Islamist and terrorist movements which are now plaguing both the Muslim and non-Muslim world. Yet these individuals in turn have been influenced by one man who is virtually unknown to most Westerners. His name is Ibn Taymiyyah, or Taq ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, and he lived from 1263 to 1328. His name by birth was Ahmad ibn Abdul-Halim ibn Abdas-Salaam. This individual could be considered as the real godfather of fundamentalism. Maududi borrowed extensively from Taymiyyah's writings.

Ibn Taymiyyah lived in a time of great upheaval in the Muslim world. In the West, the Crusades were still being waged at the time of his birth, ending with the Ninth Crusade of 1271 to 1272. In the East, Mongols from the Steppes had flooded to conquer the towns and cities along the Silk Route and beyond, which had previously been conquered by Muslims. The Mongol Empire, founded by Genghis Khan in 1206, destroyed the Islamic Abbasid Empire in 1258, thus ending the semi-mythical "Golden Age" of Islam, when mathematics, the arts and sciences had been vigorously pursued. The Mongol Empire would continue for 40 years after Taymiyyah's death. In 1299 in western Anatolia, the Ottoman Empire was formed, which would last until March, 1924.

Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran, in what is now Sanliurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, close to the Syrian border. The privations caused by the Mongol incursions caused Ibn Taymiyyah and his family to flee to Damascus in Syria when he was seven years old. He came from a family where Sunni scholarship of the Hanbali school was a tradition. The founder of this school of thought, Ahmad bin Hanbal (780 - 855), had been against any "innovation" (bida) in Islam. Taymiyya became a professor of Islamic studies when he was 19.

Taymiyyah preached extensively, and made numerous fatwas. He broke with tradition by declaring the Mongols, who had converted to Islam, to be heretics because they followed man-made laws, rather than Sharia. To denounce any individual or group, particularly a ruler, as a heretic (takfir) was a role previously confined to a select few, such as the Assassins. Taymiyyah declared that the Islamized Mongols were living in "Jahiliyah", the state of ignorance that existed before Mohammed. He also argued that Muslims should not follow such rulers, and it was their duty to kill such people. Centuries later, Maududi would write of non-orthodox Muslims living in jahiliyah. Taymiyyah also denounced the worship at shrines, a concept echoed later by ibn Wahhab who also wrote in his book Kitab al-Tawhid (Chapter 36) that that no-one should obey a scholar or ruler if that person contradicts the Qur'an or the Sunnah (actions of the Prophet) in any way.

In 1300, while the Mongols (Tartars) were besieging Damascus, Taymiyyah was part of a delegation sent to the invading king, Ghazan. The other religious representatives were contrite in the king's presence, but Taymiyyah is claimed to have said: "You claim to be a Muslim. I have been told that you have with you a Qadi [Sharia judge] and an Imam, a Sheikh and a mu'adhdhin [muezzin, a caller to prayer]; yet you have deemed it proper to march upon Muslims. Your forefathers were heathens, but they always abstained from breaking the promise once made by them. They redeemed the pledges they made, but you violate the word of honor given by you. You trample underfoot your solemn declarations in order to lay a hand on the servants of Allah!" His forthright manner gained the respect of the Tartar king.

Taymiyyah's fatwa against the Mongols, declaring them to be infidels, also made mention of a perpetual jihad: "There will always remain a group of people from my nation who establish the truth. They will never be agonised by those who let them down nor by those who disagree with them till the day of judgment." The fatwa, issued in 1303, was followed by a battle which took place between Taymiyyah's "authentic" Muslims and Tartars from the Mongol Empire at Shaqhab, south of Damascus. This battle, in which Taymiyyah fought, took place during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. He encouraged the Muslims of the Damascus Sultan, al-Nasir Muhammad, to abandon their fasting following the example of Mohammed, in order to fight jihad more effectively.

The battle of Shaqhab was a victory, commemorated by Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2004: "Make of this month like the month of [the battle of] Badr and the conquest of Makka, [the battle of] Shaqhab and other victories of Islam. We ask of God that he make of this Ramadan a month of glory, victory and consolidation... to lay low polytheism and the polytheists... raise the ensign of monotheism and plant the banner of jihad."

Taymiyyah's denunciations of rulers would lead to him gaining enemies. He was imprisoned several times during his lifetime. Some of his most forceful writings were completed during periods of incarceration. In 1306, three years after the battle of Shaqhab, he was summonsed to Egypt and jailed in Cairo. He was accused of viewing Allah as a human-like entity, rather than one without bodily attributes.

This happened again in 1308, when he was deported from Cairo to Alexandria and jailed for 18 months on similar charges. He was jailed again in 1331 for five months, on account of verdicts he had made in divorce cases. At the end of his life, on account of his banning visits to grave sites, he was placed in a prison (pictured) in Damascus, where all writing materials were denied him. He succumbed to an illness and died. Though he had offended many with his rebukes, including Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, his funeral brought large crowds to pay their respects.

Though many of his writings have been lost, a large amount have survived. Unfortunately, only a few of these are available in English. Taymiyyah had an ambivalent relationship with Sufis. The Sufi movement had gained great prominence in the Muslim world at that time. The Sufis were regarded as mystics, who sought a literal connection with Allah. The origin of Sufism is vague, though it is thought that 150 years after Mohammed's death, Islamic mystics would wear robes of wool (Arabic: suf). Sufis hope to achieve a state of safa or "purity", which comes from the Arabic word "tasawwuf".

Ibn Taymiyyah was himself considered by some to have been a Sufi, but he also issued fatwas condemning certain classes of Sufis. One Sufi notion, popular among the masses, concerned the "oneness of existence" or wahdat al-wujud. The belief in oneness is demonstrated physically by the whirling dervishes - when they raise one hand while spinning, they metaphorically draw down the essence of God into themselves. For Taymiyyah, there could be no "oneness" or union of God and the self where there was no difference between God and self. He cited the Koran, 42:11. which states: "There is nothing whatsoever like unto him."

Taymiyyah's belief in Allah as having bodily attributes such as "hand", "face", "foot" can be found in his writings, such as Al-Aqidah Al-Wasitiyah where he quotes from the Koran and Hadiths. He had been instructed in Hadiths during his youth by a woman scholar, Zaynab bint Makki. Yet in this work he writes: "Do not change words from their context; Do not disbelieve the names of Allah and His Signs; Do not exemplify His Attributes with the attributes of His creatures because Allah, The Exalted, has no likeness: There is none comparable to Him; There is none equal to Him; The Exalted, the Supreme, is not measured by His creatures."

Taymiyyah is currently popular in the Arab world and India. In the late 19th century in Egypt, the emergent Salafists, noted for their literalist interpretations of Islam, took inspiration from Taymiyyah. Despite his sometimes ferocious doctrines, which have come to influence Islamists, Salafists and even Al Qaeda, Many people slandered him during his lifetime. Ibn Batuta, the famous traveller, falsely claimed to have seen Taymiyyah preaching from a pulpit, saying that Allah would move his foot in a particular manner and moving his own foot. The visit took place while Taymiyyah was in prison, and could never have been seen by Batuta.

Taymiyyah was capable of generosity and forgiveness. At one point, the Sultan of Damascus offered Taymiyyah a chance to take his vengeance on the religious leaders who had denounced him. Taymiyyah refused, saying: "Whoever harmed me is absolved, and who harmed the cause of Allah and His Messenger, Allah will punish him."

His relations with Christians were ambivalent. He believed in jihad to remove remnants of crusading venturers from Muslim lands, yet he spoke up in defense of a Christian who had been accused of blasphemy.

Muslim criticism of Taymiyyah gerally centers around issues such as his "anthropomorphism" of Allah, rather than his prohibitions against "innovation" or his absolutism. Taymiyyah has been criticized by imams from the Shafi'i school of thought, and by Hanafi jurist Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari who lived at the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Taymiyyah was undoubtedly a complex character, but his injunctions against Muslim figures who are condemned as not being "true" Muslims and his call for a perpetual jihad against unbelievers are aspects of his teachings which have become influential to fundamentalists and terrorists alike. Taymiyyah lived at a time when the Muslim world was in a crisis, and feeling attacked. In that context, the Islamists who were inspired by him, such as Maududi, Qutb, Al Qaeda, Salafists, Wahhabists, also feel that the Muslim world is in a similar situation of crisis.

The world of Ibn Taymiyyah had lost its Caliphate when the Abbasid Empire was destroyed. The Caliphate from the time of Mohammed's death had provided a system of spiritual rulership, a central authority for all Muslims. The last Caliphate, that of the Ottomans, was officially disbanded by the secularist Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924. Most Muslim nations are fearful of those who would re-establish a Caliphate, as their local authority would be lost, but for Islamists and terrorists alike, a new Caliphate is sought as the first step towards global control.

Many who now read Taymiyyah's writings are themselves interpreting his words in ways he probably never intended. But to understand the essence of Islamism, the "revolutionary" words of 20th century radicals such as Maududi and Qutb are only reworkings of ideas already formulated by Ibn Taymiyyah in the early 14th century. To understand the ideology behind the methodology of modern Islamism, the writings of Ibn Taymiyyah should be compulsory reading.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:15 AM | Comments (1)

July 27, 2007

UK: Muslim Students And Schoolboy - Terrorist Wannabes - Are Jailed

News from the Washington Post, Telegraph, BBC, ICWales, Independent, ITV News, International Herald Tribune, Guardian and Times.

Four students and one schoolboy have been jailed at the Old Bailey, London, for possessing extremist Islamist material on the hard drives of their computers, in contravention of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000.

The youngest of the five had been eighteen and a schoolboy at the time of his arrest. Now aged 19, Mohammed Irfan Raja (left) lived in London. Aged 17, he had run away from his parents to join four students from Bradford University in Yorkshire, leaving his family a farewell message. The message reads as follows:

"If not in this dunyad [world] - we will meet in Jannat al Firdaws [Garden of Paradise], inshallah [God willing]. The situation is such that you will live another 30 years, maybe 40. When death will befall you, maybe then you will appreciate why I have gone now. At such news, there are parents in the world that would phone their families and friends and rejoice at the decision of their son.

Some ayaat of the Qur'an come to mind:
- Surah Al-Baqarah: 216
- Sura At-Tawbah: 24
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I think all of you will be upset, especially *****. Please do not blame each other for why you couldn't stop me. It is better to spend time in praying to Allaah.

May Allaah (Swt) accept all your good deeds and let you not die, except in a state of Emaan [firmness of faith].

Irfan Raja
26th Mohammar 1427 H/24th February 2006
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
PS. Just in case you think I am going to do something in this country, you can rest easy that I am not. The conventional method (of warfare) is safer.

PPS. If you want to keep my letter then cut from the dotted lines, as these people (of UK) use everything against you.

Now smile!

The Ayaat of the Koran that he quotes are the following: Al-Bakarah (The Cow): Sura 2:216: "Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that ye love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, you do not."

At-Tawbah (Repentance): Sura 9:24: "Say: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your tribe, and the wealth which ye have acquired, and merchandise for which ye fear that there will be no sale, and dwellings ye desire are dearer to you than Allah and his messenger and striving in His way, then wait till Allah bringeth His command to pass. Allah guideth not wrong-doing folk."

While he had been based at a sixth form college in Ilford, Essex, east of London, Mohammed Irfan Raja had encountered the four Bradford University students on an internet chatroom. The students were (left to right) Akbar Butt, aged 20 from Southall in London, Awaab Iqbal, aged 20 from Rochdale, Usman Malik, aged 21 from Wolverhampton, and Altzaz Zafar, aged 20 from Rochdale, Lancashire.

The court was told that none of the individuals had planned to be bombers in Britain, but the four students had plans to go on to Pakistan to be fighters. They had a British contact in Pakistan who was called Imran. In one chat on the forum, Imran said that they could come to his home in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. He told them: "Have a cover story. Get a wedding card made up, and photos of your cousins."

The students modeled their trajectory to jihad on Abdullah Azzam, who founded the Afghan jihad and who was killed in 1989. Raja, who had arrived at Bradford bearing three CDs titled "Philosophy" (which contained extremist material) soon became disillusioned. He returned home. Police were called when Mohammed Irfan Raja's parents told the police of their fears for the intentions of their son's associates. Raja's grandfather had served in the British India Police Force, and in 1944 had been awarded a medal given to him personally by Lord Mountbatten.

The students' computers were examined and on MSN chatroom conversations they had justified suicide bombings and spoke of terror training requirements and the stories needed to conceal their intentions when traveling overseas. Computer examinations also showed part of an Al Qaeda training manual had been downloaded, including details of explosives and diagrams of detonation devices.

At the Bradford University Islamic Society, the four students had tried to take over one meeting, and had written the word "jihad" in chalk on the wall of their student house.

Yesterday, Judge Beaumont sentenced the individuals to jail terms ranging from two to three years. Mohammed Irfan Raja was sentenced to two years' youth detention. Akbar Butt was sentenced to 27 months' detention, while Awaab Iqbal and Altzaz Zafar received three years' detention. Usman Malik was given a three year jail term.

Judge Beaumont told the five: "Each of you is British. You were born here, your families lived here, you went to school and university here, you hold British passports. You live under the protection of its laws, which give you freedom of speech and religious observance, yet each of you were prepared to break its laws. Why?"

"Because in my judgment you were intoxicated by the extremist nature of the material each one of you collected - the songs, images and the language of violent jihad - and so carried away by that material were you that each of you crossed the line. That is exactly what the people that peddle this material want to achieve and exactly what you did."

Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism was pleased that the five individuals had received jail terms. He said: "This was not an adolescent fantasy. These five young men had decided to become active jihadists and to seek training at camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It is clear these men were intent on committing terrorism overseas."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:30 PM | Comments (2)

Vatican: Pope's Secretary Warns Against Islam

On September 12 last year, Pope Benedict XVI addressed students at his former university at Regensburg. Here he quoted the words of Manuel Paleologos, a Byzantine emperor. Around the end of the 14th century, the emperor had written: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached"

"God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably ... is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death..."

Benedict's speech around this statement was to state that violence was incompatible with Godliness - and even though Islam exhorts its followers to violence, both in the Koran and in the Hadiths, Benedict was suggesting (erroneously) that Muslims who follow jihadist violence are acting contrarily to the will of God. Perhaps the will of God is against violence, but Allah certainly was not averse to telling Mohammed to wage war on "unbelievers" and apostates.

The theological argument was treated in some depth, and was not an overt attack upon Islamic scriptures, but it led to recriminations from the Muslim world, and threats of violence.

In Pakistan, the US-designated terror organization Jamat ud-Dawa (not outlawed by Pakistan) issued a fatwa, urging the Muslim community to kill the Pope. In Britain Anjem Choudary, a former leader of Al-Muhajiroun claimed outside the Catholic Westminster Cathedral that the Pope should be executed. Choudary was not charged for this.

Killings of Christians ensued. In Iraq, an Assyrian priest, Father Paulos Iskander, was beheaded, and a 14-year old Christian boy was crucified in Albasra. A group calling itself "Kataab Ashbal Al Islam Al Salafi" threatened to kill all Christians in Iraq if the pontiff did not apologize to Mohammed, the founder of Islam.

In Israel, churches were attacked. In Somalia on September 17 an Italian nun, Sister Leonella, was shot three times in the back while she worked in the SOS Hospital in the Huriwa district of Mogadishu. Three other nuns were subsequently evacuated for their safety. A Somali imam, Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin, urged Muslims to "punish" the Pope. He said: "Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim."

News from the Jerusalem Post, Telegraph, the Scotsman, the Express, DPA via Expatica reports that the pontiff's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, has made a forthright statement condemning the "Islamization" of Europe. The statement was contained in the German magazine Süeddeutsche Magazin, published today.

He said: "Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied. The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness."

"The Catholic side is clearly aware of this and also says so. Particularly the speech from Regensburg should work against this wrongly understood respectfulness. It has to be said that there is no such thing as Islam and it does not have a voice that is obligatory and binding to all Muslims. Under this term (ie Islam) many different groups are put together, that are partially hostile to each other, some even extremist, who refer their doings to the Koran and who use rifles for their goals."

"On the institutional level the Holy See tries to make contacts and conduct talks in conjunction with Papal advice to create inter-religious dialogue and ties."

Monsignor Georg Gaenswein also defended the statements of Pope Benedict from Regensberg, claiming the speech had been made to counter "a certain naivety". He said: "I believe that the speech from Regensburg, as it was held, is prophetic."

The archbishop of Cologne, Joachim Meisner, recently claimed in a radio talk that "immigration of Muslims has created a breach in our German, European culture."

Apparently Monsignor Georg Gaenswein's comments have been interpreted by "Vatican watchers" as a criticism of the governments of Western Europe who do all in their power to accommodate Muslims and their "sensibilities", at the expense of their native Christian traditions.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:37 PM | Comments (2)

Germany: Islamist Al Qaeda Suspect On Trial

On July 8, 2006, a man with German and Moroccan citizenship identified only as "Redouane E. H." was arrested in Hamburg, Germany. This man had been living in Kiel, and was said to have had links with Said Bahaji, an associate of the "Hamburg Cell" Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, who were involved in the 9/11 terror attacks.

News from Evening Echo, , Bloomberg, International Herald Tribune and Expatica News reports that on Wednesday, 37-year old Redouane E. H. appeared in Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court in Schleswig, accused of raising funds for Al Qaeda in Iraq, and gathering recruits to send as jihad fighters to Iraq. Case number of the trial is: 1 OJs 1/07. Additionally, Redouane E. H. was co-accused with four other men of co-founding a terrorist group.

Redouane E H had allegedly transferred 5,000 Euros ($6,800) of money to Egypt and Syria, and had violated German export laws, between August 2005 and July 2006. The funds were said to have been used to supply equipment for Islamists who had been recruited from Morocco and Egypt, to pay for explosives and to pay a people smuggler.

The prosecution maintains that in August 2005, Redouane E H swore an oath of allegiance to Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban. This oath, and a pledge to provide fighters and funds, was delivered via the internet and to another man, a "go-between" who has not been named. The prosecution also maintained that Redouane E H had used an internet shop in Kiel which he had founded to communicate with terror groups in various global locations. From the server there, at least 513,000 internet conversations had been gathered, and a third of these have been processed by analysts.

Redouane E. H had been a student at Marburg university and Kiel University, and he had also married a German woman, whom he divorced in 2001. In 2003, his brother had died, and this had allegedly been the trigger to turn him towards radicalism.

In May of this year, an alleged accomplice of Redouane E H, a 24-year old Moroccan called Abdelali M, was handed over to Germany. This man had been arrested on March 27 on a German arrest warrant in Sweden. On Wednesday, first day of the trial, prosecutor Matthias Krauss claimed that two accomplices of Redouane E H would have charges filed against them.

_____________

Apologies to readers for delays in writing over the past few days. I live in Gloucester and have been indirectly affected by flooding, with no water supply. The water supply still has not returned and I am only writing sporadically until things return to normal.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 3:34 PM | Comments (1)

July 22, 2007

Italy: Mosque Terror School Uncovered

Perugia is the capital city of Umbria in northern Italy. Yesterday, a mosque was raided in the outskirts of the city, and three Moroccans, including the mosque's imam were arrested.

The news appears in Reuters, MWC News, Associated Press via CNN, Fox News and the Herald Sun, from the Evening Echo and the BBC.

The grubby exterior of the Ponte Felcino mosque makes it appear unimposing, but inside it housed a terrorist training school, claimed Italian anti-terrorism chief Carlo De Stefano. Twenty foreign students were also arrested yesterday in a related series of raids. Those without residence permits will be deported, state police. 23 raids took place.

In the cellar of the mosque (Reuters states inside the imam's home) were found barrels of chemicals including acids, nitrates and ferrocyanide. Reuters states that inside three barrels were found "dozens of bottles" which contained chemicals "with which, when combined and mixed with other easily available products, it would be possible to make improvised explosives." De Stefano said: "The investigation has shown that... there was a continued training for terrorist activity. We have discovered and neutralised a real 'terror school,' which was part of a widespread terrorism system made up of small cells that act on their own."

The group in Perugia had links with members of the GICM (Groupe Combattant Islamique Marocain or Moroccan Islamic Combat Group). This group was behind the suicide attacks at Casablanca on May 16, 2003, which killed 45 people, including the dozen suicide bombers. On February 19 last year, six members of GICM in Belgium received jail sentences for sending jihadists abroad to fight. The GICM was also involved with the Madrid train bombings of March 11, 2004, which killed 195 people.

The imam of the central mosque in Perugia, where about 10,000 Muslims live, claimed the Ponte Felcino mosque members did not seem dangerous. Abdel Qader said: "Generally it's a quiet community. A few made some noise over the international situation, but those were just words. We trust justice. Everything will be verified, and if any (of the suspects) has made a mistake he will have to pay." Qader said of the Ponte Felcino imam: "Perhaps sometimes he polemicised about international affairs, but you know how words can fly."

The three men who were arrested were the imam, 41-year old Korchi El Mostapha, along with his two assistants, 47-year old Mohamed El Jari and 46-year old Driss Safika. A fourth suspect was wanted, but he is believed to be out of the country. The arrests followed a two-year investigation.

Italian counter-terrorism police claim that at the mosque, videos downloaded from the internet were shown, and weapons training, poisons and explosives manufacture classes and ambush and combat training took place. Additionally a download from the internet was seized, detailing how to fly a Boeing 747.

Italy's Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said the case "confirms the need to always maintain high surveillance in locations where only religious activities should take place."

In May this year, Abdelmajid Zergout (Majid Zergout), a former imam from Varese near Milan, along with two other Moroccan individuals, was cleared of raising funds and recruits for GICM.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)

July 20, 2007

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism (4 of 4)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Britain's New Leadership Fails To Prevent Terrorism, Threatens America: (Part Four of Four)

In Part One I mentioned that Dr Bilal Abdulla, who was in the car bomb attack upon Glasgow airport on June 30, was alleged to be connected to the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. This group, founded in Jerusalem in 1953, aims to establish a Caliphate or Islamic super-state. Expressly anti-Semitic, Hizb aims to destroy democracy. Tony Blair said in August 2005 that he wished to ban the group, but never followed through on his pledge.

The other man who was in the Jeep which crashed into Glasgow Airport's entrance, loaded with gasoline and gas canisters, was 27-year old Kafeel Ahmed (pictured). He poured gasoline upon himself and received 90% burns. Kafeel Ahmed's brother Sabeel Ahmed was charged on July 14 with possessing information that could prevent an act of terrorism. The two brothers had been brought up in Bangalore, India. Soon after the attacks, it was revealed that the pair were members of the extremist group Tablighi Jamaat.

This group, founded in Mewat, India in 1927 by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi, aims to do Muslim missionary work (da'wah). It has been involved in moves to force women to wear the veil coup attempts and terrorism. Last year on August 10, airports in Britain were subjected to security checks after 21 people were arrested, suspected of plotting to bring liquid explosives onto US-bound planes. At least two of the suspects, 26-year old Assad Sarwar of High Wycombe and Waheed Zaman, were followers of Tablighi Jamaat. As a Deobandi institution, Tablighi believes women to be intellectually inferior to men, and is supported by the Taliban in Pakistan's border provinces adjoining Afghanistan. In France, Tablighi has been converting prisoners to extremism since the 1970s.

Tablighi Jamaat's UK headquarters is the Markazi Mosque in Savile Town, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Two regular visitors to this mosque were Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan, the two principle members of the four-man suicide squad that killed 52 Londoners on 7/7, 2005. Despite Tablighi's links with suspected and known terrorists, such as Jose Padilla, Lyman Harris, (who wanted to bomb the Brooklyn Bridge), the "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, shoe-bomber Richard Reid and individuals who carried out deadly suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, on May 16, 2003, this group is planning to build a super-mosque in London.

The intention to construct the "mega-mosque", capable of housing from 12,000 to 40,000 people, was first revealed in November, 2005. It was to be situated in the London Borough of Newham, adjoining the site of the 2012 London Olympics, and is intended to be ready by the time of the games. Tablighi Jamaat, which receives substantial funding from Saudi Arabia, bought the Abbey Mill site a decade ago, and are still trying to gain planning permission. Opposition to the mega-mosque began in September last year, much of it coming from local Muslims who worried about plans to establish an "Islamic village" run by extremists, within their community.

Currently, there is a petition against the mega-mosque on the UK government's website, which has been signed by 255,000 individuals. The main supporter of the mosque, who has called the petition "vicious" is London's leftist mayor, Ken Livingstone. The mayor said: "The particularly vicious nature of the campaign against a possible Muslim place of worship in East London should be condemned by all of those who support the long established right of freedom of religion in this country. And all the more so as it is based on information which has long been established to be factually untrue."

Livingstone is ignoring the petition which was formed by local Newham Muslims, Sunni Friends of Newham which by November last year had gained 2,500 names. Asif Shakor, chairman of this group, said of Tablighi Jamaat: "It is radicalizing the younger generation. We have to make a stand."

Ken Livingstone has openly supported Islamists, such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who has approved the slaughter of Israeli civilians. In July 2004, Livingstone welcomed Qaradawi to London. In September 2005, Livingstone compared Qaradawi to Pope John XXIII (d. 1963) who convened the reforming second Vatican Council. He said: "Sheik Qaradawi is I think very similar to the position of Pope John XXIII. An absolutely sane Islamist," and "Of all the Muslim leaders in the world today, Sheikh Qaradawi is the most powerfully progressive force for change and for engaging Islam with western values." In 2005, Livingstone notoriously vilified a Jewish reporter, Oliver Finegold, as being "just like a concentration camp guard".

Livingstone was expelled from the Labour party in April 2000, when he stood against the party's candidate for London Mayor. Livingstone won the election, becoming mayor on May 4, 2000. As a political measure, he was readmitted to the Labour party in 2004, and stood as their official nominee for mayor. He was reelected on June 10, 2004.

The Labour Party, now headed by Gordon Brown, originated in a brand of extreme socialism which Livingstone still exemplifies. When Tony Blair won the 1997 general election, he attempted to re-brand the party, abandoning its socialist roots. As a sop to the leftists within his party, Blair promoted policies which endorsed multi-culturalism and an idealized notion of "rights". This led to the passing of Britain's Human Rights Act of 1998. This made the unprecedented step of making the terms of the European Convention of Human Rights (1950) prevail over existing laws. In the battle against terrorism, this law (which was supported by Gordon Brown) has proved disastrous.

In September 2005, the then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke found that this law was preventing him from deporting terrorist suspects, as when returned to their Muslim countries of origin, they may have been subjected to torture. Under Article 3 of the ECHR, "inhuman or degrading treatment" is outlawed. As a result, he was unable to deport at least 10 individuals, including Jordanian-born Abu Qatada, who has been described as Al Qaeda's European ambassador.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2006, which finally became law in April 2006, introduced a form of partial house arrest called "Control Orders". A court ruling was not required to subject a suspect individual to restrictions. From March 11, 2004 such orders had been in effect. In June 2006, these control orders were attacked by a High Court judge, Mr Justice Sullivan, as these were seen to contravene Article 5 of the ECHR which prohibits detention without trial.

In May 2006, Sullivan had used Blair's Human Rights Act 1998 to allow nine Muslim terrorists to remain indefinitely in Britain. These had hijacked a plane from Afghanistan to Britain in February 2000, carrying grenades and weapons. During a standoff on the runway of Stansted airport, they had beaten passengers. The dependents of the hijackers, who had been on the plane and therefore were co-conspirators were also given leave to remain. The cost to UK taxpayers of the terrorists' numerous court appearances was well over $8 million.

Control orders allow individuals some time to leave their homes, but the system has proved unreliable. Some 17 people have been subjected to control orders, but of these, seven have absconded, and their current whereabouts is unknown. In May it was revealed that two individuals who had "disappeared" after breaching control orders were the brothers of Adam Garcia (aka Rahman Adam) a terrorist jailed for life on April 30.

Rahman Adam/Adam Garcia had been one of five individuals who had plotted to blow up nightclubs, planes, and trains. The five had all been members of the extremist group Al Muhajiroun, founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed. The five terrorists been convicted after police surveillance known as Operation Crevice. At the end of this trial, it was revealed that MI5 surveillance had shown that members of the Crevice group were in frequent communication with Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the 7/7 suicide bombers. They were also in contact with Al Qaeda operatives Abu Munthir and Abu Hadi (Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi). The two brothers of Adam Garcia, Lamine and Ibrahim Adam, broke control orders which had been issued in February this year. They and an associate, Cerie Bullivant, have not been traced. According to Mohammed Junaid Babar, witness at the Crevice trial, Lamine Garcia was singled out by the plotters to plant a bomb at a nightclub.

Another Al Muhajiroun member, who had been to Pakistan with the convicted Crevice plotters, was former London Underground employee Zeeshan Siddique (Siddiqui). He had been placed under a control order in April 2006, three months after he was returned to Britain following his release from a jail in Pakistan. At the Crevice trial, Junaid Babar had claimed that Zeeshan Siddique, who was called "Imran" by the Crevice plotters, had been asked to be a suicide bomber on the London Underground. Last month a judge lifted reporting restrictions on Zeeshan Siddique. He had vanished in September, 2006. He had been sectioned under the Mental Health act to stay in a psychiatric institution, but had escaped through a window. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Al Muhajiroun lasted from February 16, 1996, to October 2004, when its "emir" Omar Bakri Mohammed disbanded it. One of its prominent members was a trained lawyer called Anjem Choudary. By the time of the 7/7 attacks in 2005, Choudary and Abu Izzadeen had founded two successor groups, the Saviour/Saved Sect and Al Ghurabaa, comprised of former Al Muhajiroun members. At no stage was Al Muhajiroun banned. Omar Bakri Mohammed, who had called for the assassination of former prime minister John Major, was never prosecuted under UK law. Abu Hamza, who was involved in a kidnapping in Yemen, was a friend of Bakri. He had openly preached for jihad and the killing of Jews for years before the authorities intervened.

This policy of non-intervention assisted terrorists to flourish in Britain and for this the police, MI5 and the Labour government must all be blamed. Al Ghurabaa and the Saviour Sect were only banned in July 2006. By this time, their leaders had formed a new group called Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah. On February 3, 2006, Anjem Choudary organized a notorious protest outside the Danish Embassy in London, where calls were made for beheadings of anyone who "insulted" Islam.

What made this display so shocking was the manner in which, at the time, no action was taken against this illegal demonstration, where Islamists openly called for murder. There were protests in parliament, and police received 500 official complaints for not stopping the protest. A poll found that 86% of respondents thought such demonstrations were a "gross overreaction" (to the Danish cartoons), 80% thought the authorities displayed "too much tolerance" of Muslims who call for extremism, and 67% believed senior policemen were too "politically correct". Video taken at the time shows how one Londoner who complained to police about the demonstration was even threatened with arrest.

The responsibility of managing London's policing since February 2005 has been in the hands of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. As a student friend of Tony Blair, this man is as politically correct and as duplicitous as his namesake. On Friday July 22, a day after four individuals failed in their attempts to repeat the suicide bombings of 7/7, a Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezez, was shot dead, mistakenly identified as a terrorist. In a climate of apprehension, tragic mistakes happen, but lies are not acceptable.

On the day of the killing, Ian Blair had supported statements that Menezez wore a large bulky jacket (he did not), and that he had jumped over a ticket barrier at Stockwell tube station (he did not) before being shot seven times in the head and once in the neck. Menezez was held down as he was shot. When the truth was leaked, Ian Blair demanded an inquiry to find the mole who had contradicted the fabricated version his police force had fed to the public, leading in September 2005 to the arrest of a 43-year old woman.

On September 17, 2006, five days after the Pope's Regensburg Address "offended" Muslims, Anjem Choudary held another illegal demonstration outside Westminster Cathedral, where worshippers were harassed by Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah members. Choudary said: "Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment... I am here to have a peaceful demonstration. But there may be people in Italy or other parts of the world who would carry that out. I think that warning needs to be understood by all people who want to insult Islam and want to insult the prophet of Islam."

No arrests were made, even though legal injunctions against obstruction, breach of the peace or incitement could have been brought. On September 28, Ian Blair declared that "no substantive offences" had been committed. A few days before this, Ian Blair had announced that before any anti-terror raids were to be mounted against Islamist suspects, a panel of Muslims would have to be consulted first. This ludicrous policy was finally scrapped on July 5 this month.

Anjem Choudary was given a trivial fine for mounting the February 3, 2006 demonstration. With no sanctions against him, he is still making inflammatory speeches. Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah, which influences the American group the Islamic Thinkers' Society is not banned, despite glorifying terrorism. Only four people were convicted for their part in the Danish Embassy demonstration, despite police having 60 hours of video footage at their disposal. On July 18, 2007, four men from Ahlus Sunnah wal Jammah were jailed for six years for incitement to murder.

One of these individuals, Abdul Muhid, had previously been freed after calling for British soldiers and homosexuals to be killed. He was charged with assaulting a police officer in Chingford, but these charges were dropped, and after berating Sikh passersby with a megaphone, he became engaged in violent disorder. Again charges had been dropped. Other individuals wanted by police for their involvement in the Feb 03 demonstration have never been found. Since the Blair-Brown government came to power in 1997, an average of seven new laws have been passed each day. This despite having existing laws that are not properly used, particularly against those who try to incite and radicalize others.

Islamists have been allowed to incite for more than a decade, with little sanctions taken against them. But when the leader of Britain's ultra-right BNP party, Nick Griffin, was filmed undercover mocking Islam amongst his friends, he was taken to court. Twice. When the second jury trial acquitted him of "inciting racial hatred", Gordon Brown and Lord Falconer (the Lord Chancellor) said they were intending to alter the existing race hate laws to prohibit criticism of Islam. (nb - Islam is not a race).

Britain's list of proscribed terrorist groups is minute compared to that of the US Treasury. Hamas' armed wing, Izza Deen al-Qassam, is listed, but not Hamas itself, despite its policies of murdering Israeli civilians in suicide attacks. Maybe Gordon Brown should consider why his government has failed to outlaw anti-Jewish groups (Hizb ut-Tahrir is another), when he wants anti-Islamic speech banned.

In Pakistan, madrassas have been used to incite hatred for the West. Two of the 7/7 suicide bombers attended Pakistani madrassas as part of their radicalization. The recent crisis at Islamabad's Red Mosque, which was registered and received funding from the Musharraf government, highlights how dangerous such institutions can become. In November last year, Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, approved a massive spending plan on Pakistan. Over a four year period, $960 million will be spent. Some of the money will be used for sanitation and health care, but the bulk of the package will be used to subsidize madrassas.

While Chancellor in Tony Blair's government, Gordon Brown has approved of having the Islamist group the Muslim Council of Britain (which was co-founded by Kemal Helbawy of the Muslim Brotherhood) acting as government advisers. He has approved funding to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Engaging with the Islamic World Group. This group is led by a young former student radical called Mockbul Ali, and has paid money to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's "spiritual leader" who issued a fatwa approving the murder of Israeli civilians.

I have written extensively on FSM about how Britain's failure to combat its Islamist radicalism poses a very real threat to the US. New prime minister Gordon Brown has been forced by recent circumstances to sound "tough" on terrorism. He has been a leading figure in Blair's government for 10 years. The Labour party used to have a slogan - "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" - which it abandoned when crime figures rocketed. Brown may talk tough on terrorism, but unless he tackles the root causes of terrorism - the extremists who have preached unhindered for a decade on Britain's soil - Britain will remain a haven for terrorists.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:18 AM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2007

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism (3 of 4)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism

Part Three (of Four)

In Part Two, the situation of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers was discussed in relation to terror. A quarter of all terror arrests between September 2001 and September 2005 involved asylum seekers. Illegal immigrants are an unknown factor in Britain's demography, who number from 570,000 to 870,000. The Institute for Public Policy Research has recently argued that Britain should offer an amnesty to illegal immigrants. Since September 2006, fingerprinting of visa and asylum applicants has taken place. Of 150 countries intended to be involved in supporting this "biometric" validation scheme, only 80 are currently taking part.

This system is called by the Home Office "Project Semaphore, which was initiated in 2004, with its information technology contract awarded to IBM. When first announced, Semaphore was part of an "e-borders" scheme, monitoring travel into and out of the UK, referring to law enforcement databases of potential criminal or terrorist suspects, and compiling its own data resource. On September 28, 2004 when the scheme was announced, it was not expected to be fully operational until 2008, and will involve iris recognition as a means of identification. It was intended to work alongside the government's "identification card" system, which has floundered due to political objections and may never be introduced.

Recently, the head of Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, was reported to criticize Britain's checks of travelers to the UK against its global database. Noble was reported to say: "We have the passport numbers, fingerprints and photos of more than 11,000 suspected terrorists on our database. But the UK does not check it against immigrants coming into the country or foreign nationals it has arrested. The guys detained last week [car bomb suspects] could be wanted, arrested or convicted anywhere in the world and the UK would not know."

Noble asserted that the interview had given the wrong emphasis, by suggesting all immigrants should be under surveillance. He said that in 2006, the UK had 30 million visitors, rather than immigrants. Noble maintained that only 17 nations out of Interpol's 186 member countries regularly check against Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database. This contains 15 million entries, including at least 7 million passports. He maintained that failure to check against this database "poses the single greatest terrorist threat to the entire world."

Gordon Brown, who became the unelected UK prime minister on June 27, had intimated on July 8 that he supported a decision by EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini, to create a European database. This would log all passengers flying in and out of the EU, similar to the US database which retains details for 15 years. On July 4 in Parliament, Brown had promised to expand the UK's international "watchlist" of potential terrorists.

Ronald Noble, who has headed Interpol for 7 years, told USA Today that a truly effective international terrorist database does not exist because countries only share information with their close allies. He said: "You can't fight terrorism from the (European Union) only, or the United States, or with your allies. Al-Qaeda operates internationally. You have to fight it worldwide."

A former head of Scotland Yard's "Flying Squad", John O'Connor, claims that Britain has been slower than the US to respond to the threats of terrorism. He said: "We have unrestricted immigration to this country. It's very easy for people to come here under the guise of being somebody else. As an example, one of the stories that got lost through 9/11 was the closing of a refugee camp in Calais [Sangatte] and the French authorities at that stage released the information that 30,000 refugees had passed through that camp and they could account for 300 of them. That means there's 29,700 that came to the UK. Well, who are they, and where are they and what are they doing? It's estimated that we have something like between 500,000 and 750,000 people that nobody knows who they are and what they're doing here. They're here illegally and not on the radar for anybody. So it's very easy for people to get into this country under the guise of being an economic refugee, very easy to get them here and not know where they go and who's looking after them. And if they're being funded by outside sources, then they could stay here indefinitely."

Once inside Britain, it is easy for individuals to assume others' identities. Identity theft is becoming increasingly common. This has gone on for decades in different forms. In 1982, several people I knew were asked to engage in "marriages of convenience". Each man was offered $600 to marry a West African woman. The "fixer" was a Ghanaian woman named "Amelia" who arranged the marriages. She took prospective grooms' birth certificates to submit to registry offices. The Nigerian lawyer who ran the scam was jailed, but Amelia was never arrested, and the birth certificates were never returned. They were almost certainly sold on to male illegal migrants. Nowadays credit card details and bank accounts are used to steal identities, and to gain UK passports.

The UK Home Office is responsible for issuing passports through its Identity and Passport Service (IPS), but as I wrote earlier passport fraud has been used by terrorists in Britain. Dhiren Barot, who planned attacks in Britain and the US, was issued with nine passports, with two of these issued under fraudulent identities. Despite the recent introduction of "biometric" e-passports, between September 2005 and September 2006 10,000 individuals were issued with British passports under bogus identities. In March this year, several illegal passport factories were raided across London.

Many foreign students arrive in Britain, but visas issued to some of these students are being abused. In April this year, visa arrangements for students were altered so that more stringent checks were applied, a "sponsor" was required and a student was obliged to prove that he or she has the ability to be self-funding. Before this, merely presenting an acceptance letter from a university or college was enough to receive a three-year visa. Despite recent visa amendments, once a person has gained entry to the country there is nothing to stop that individual "disappearing".

At Portsmouth University in southern Britain, hundreds of foreign students were offered places but did not turn up. These included 379 applicants from Pakistan, 16 from Saudi Arabia and 2 from Iraq.

The problem of illegal entry is important, but equally worrisome are the extremists born and raised in Britain. On August 10 last year, 24 individuals were arrested, all holders of British passports, for their suspected involvement to blow up several US-bound planes using liquid explosives. Most were the offspring of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, but one, Oliver Savant (aka Ibrahim Savant) appears to have been a white convert.

There have been complaints for some time about mosque leaders who do not preach in English, adding to the feelings of "separateness" perceived by many young Muslims in Britain. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham became the first Muslim member of the House of Lords in 1998. He recently claimed that imams who do not speak English should not be allowed to preach. He had made similar claims in May 2006, arguing that young people would be drawn to extremist preachers. Abu Hamza's English-language sermons at Finsbury Park mosque were attended by three of the 7/7 bombers, and all four of the convicted 21/7 bombers.

In February 2006, Labour MP Ann Cryer had said that many foreign imams in her Keighley constituency had little understanding of British culture and language. She said: "They should have a knowledge of child protection, of how we regard the rights of women. Imams and others should encourage integration as opposed to segregation. Over many many years, I have not been given any help at all by many of the imams who have been brought in, many of whom don't speak a word of English, have little knowledge of what life in Britain is all about, particularly for their young members."

Research by Chester University, conducted at 300 mosques and published this month, found that 66% of imams have Urdu as a first language, with 52% giving sermons in this Pakistani language. Of the 300 imams questioned, the majority (146) came from Pakistan, followed by 57 from Bangladesh and 44 from India. Only 24 came from Britain.

The three most controversial imams in Britain, whose sermons were listened to by extremists and known terrorists were hook-handed Abu Hamza, Omar Bakri Mohammed and Abdullah el-Faisal. All distributed cassettes and videos of their sermons, and traveled across Britain to indoctrinate alienated Muslim youth. For the most part, their sermons were conducted in English.

Omar Bakri Mohammed fled Britain in August 2005, but still preaches via the internet from his base in Lebanon. Abdullah el-Faisal was jailed for incitement to murder on February 24, 2003. He had been trained in Saudi Arabia's Imam Ibn Saud University in Riyadh and urged the killing of Jews and Hindus. His sermons were attended by three of the 7/7 bombers, and he was an associate of American Islamist James Ujaama. El-Faisel was deported to his native Jamaica on May 25 this year. Abu Hamza was jailed for seven years for "soliciting murder" on February 7, 2006.

The problems of radicalized British Muslims, most of whom are of Pakistani origin, have been highlighted by numerous surveys. A poll from February 2006 found 40% of Muslims wanted Sharia law in Britain, and 20% sympathized with the motives of the 7/7 suicide bombers, who killed 52 people. In June 2006, Pew Global Attitudes found that British Muslims were the most hostile towards Western values than Muslims from any other European country. In July 2006 a poll by Populus found that 13% of respondents believed the 7/7 suicide bombers should be regarded as "martyrs". 16% claimed that if a family member joined Al Qaeda, they would feel "indifferent".

On Monday January 28, a poll was taken by Populus for the Policy Exchange. This attempted to find out how opinions of Muslims differed within age groups. 37% of young Muslims (aged 16 to 24) wanted to live under Sharia law, compared to only 17% of Muslims aged over 55. One in eight young Muslims supported groups such as Al Qaeda which were "prepared to fight the West", and 36% of young Muslims thought that those who left Islam should be killed. Three out of four young Muslims wanted women to wear the hijab or Islamic headscarf, compared to one in four of the over-55s.

The situation in Britain now is such that a small minority of Muslims are dedicated to jihad and terrorism, with 100 individuals awaiting trial on terror charges. Even though Britain participates in the Visa Waiver Program, the Secretary for Homeland Security in the US, Michael Chertoff, has declared that the system needs to be made more secure. In May 2007, it was reported that Secretary Chertoff had suggested to the UK Government that Britons of Pakistani origin may be required to apply for visas before traveling to the United States.

The problem of terror cells and terror sympathizers has been growing over the last year. In April 2006, the then head of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, claimed that there were at least 400 Al Qaeda suspects in Britain. If that figure also included those who had undergone terror training camps in Pakistan, the total would amount to 600. In July 2006, MI5 claimed that there were 1,200 Islamist terror suspects operating in Britain, drawn from 400,000 "sympathizers". Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit, stated that there were about 70 terrorist plots at that time. In August 2006 Home Secretary John Reid claimed that of these 70 plots, 24 were of a serious nature.

The most recent figures for the scale of terror operations now being monitored by MI5 are higher than they have ever been. An MI5 map, issued to the police, was leaked to the press. In total, 219 terror cells are being monitored at locations across Britain. In the central Midlands region, there are 80 groups, with 35 in London, 60 in the northwest of England, 20 around Liverpool, 12 in Scotland, 10 in Wales and 2 in Northern Ireland. At least 1,600 people are involved in these cells, perhaps 3,000.

Brown's new government has an admiral, Sir Alan West, as its new security minister. He urged that Britons should inform on each other if terrorism was suspected. He echoed sentiments made earlier by retired MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller, who claimed that the battle against terrorism would take a "generation". 59-year old Admiral West, carefully avoiding the term "war on terror", said that it would take at least 15 years to remove the scoure of radicalism from Britain's Muslim youth. He said that Britain was fighting "a disparate core of people - based abroad primarily - whom I'm afraid are racist, they're bigoted, they seek power, they're avaricious in money terms and they talk of the caliphate."

Last year, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller claimed that 200 people had gone from Britain to training camps in Pakistan. On Sunday, July 15 security chiefs revealed that up to 4,000 Islamists have gone from Britain to Afghanistan to be trained at terror camps. A source told the Sunday Telegraph: "There are 3,000 to 4,000 people who went from the UK to Afghanistan and came back. The important question is, where are they now?"

The scale of extremism within a section of Britain's homegrown Muslim community is now emerging as something far bigger than formerly acknowledged. Gordon Brown, after the car bomb plots in London and Glasgow, has tried to appear "tough" on terrorism, but as I will show in the final part of this article, he himself has connived with some of the shoddy policies which have allowed British terrorism to reach its current position.

Concluded in Part Four.

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 2:07 PM | Comments (2)

July 17, 2007

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism (2 of 4)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism

Part Two (of Four)

As an island, Britain's lack of shared borders has meant that for 1,000 years, it has avoided invasion. Those borders are now seen to be porous, and people can enter Britain with ease. Amongst those are people who wish to destroy the nation. The case of the three car bombs from June 29-30, apparently plotted by doctors who had arrived to work in the health service, once again brought up questions of border security. Several of the car bomb suspects were said to have been identified by MI5 as potential terrorists, but no action had been taken to remove them from Britain's shores.

The two car bombs in central London, and the subsequent attack upon Glasgow airport, have led to a former MI5 chief questioning the effectiveness of Britain's border controls. From 1993 to 1996, Dame Stella Rimington headed MI5, the first woman to be appointed to the role, and the first to be publicly named.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Stella Rimington stated that "if you have people who would kill you there have got to be a lot more checks." On being asked how long such checks need to be maintained, she replied: "I would say that it is a generation. I don't think we should take a great deal of comfort from the fact that these latest bombs were botched. Creating home-made explosives is difficult and they will get it wrong but they will get it right as well."

Rimington continued: "We have realised that the free movement of people is a great concept but if you have people who would kill you there have got to be a lot more checks. It is sad that the ideals at the end of the Cold War turned out not to be possible. We are historically a very international community. London was regarded as a place people could come to. We believed in freedom of speech, freedom of movement but all those wonderful things also made it a place where people could come to plot, a place for terrorists."

From 2002 until April this year, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller was MI5's Director General. She had warned in November 2006 that Britain faced a "generation" of Islamist terrorism. In a report published this month, Manningham-Buller claimed that there are now more than 100 terrorist suspects awaiting trial in Britain, an unprecedented figure. She wrote that additionally there are 1,700 terrorists, in 200 networks around the country. These are thought to be plotting 30 attacks at any one time.

The Sunday Times revealed that of all those arrested between 2001 and 2005 under antiterrorism measures - one quarter were asylum seekers. The figures came from analysis by the Home Office. Out of 963 cases, 232 had previously applied for asylum. Currently there are 400,000 known asylum-seekers in Britain who have had their applications rejected, but have not been deported. Of failed asylum seekers who were deported, there have been 4,000 who tried to re-enter the country since September 2006. In addition, the government acknowledges that there are 570,000 illegal immigrants in Britain. The true figure may be as high as 870,000.

In Part One I mentioned that Omar Altimimi had been jailed for nine years on July 5. He had arrived in Britain in 2002, claiming to be an asylum seeker from Iraq. He used the name "Abou Hawas" in his asylum application, which was turned down. He had, in fact, arrived from the Netherlands, where he had connections with terrorists. Instead of being barred entry to Britain, he had settled in Bolton, Manchester, and had even applied for a cleaning job with the police. Under the name "Abou Hawas" he received $200,000 from the National Asylum Support Services, funds which he placed in one of his eight bank accounts.

Four years aqo, the opposition Tory party urged that all asylum seekers be held in secure accommodation until their cases are approved or rejected. This recommendation was never taken up, and asylum seekers are still allowed to "disappear" into communities while their cases are processed.

Exactly two weeks after the attacks of 7/7, 2005 upon London Transport, four individuals attempted to repeat the attacks. These individuals, using a hydrogen peroxide recipe similar to that used in 7/7, failed in their plot. They were given life sentences on July 10 last week. All four had arrived in Britain as asylum seekers. The leader or "emir" of the group was Muktar Said Ibrahim, who had come with his family from Eritrea.

Muktar Ibrahim had tried to detonate a rucksack on a Number 26 bus on Hackney Road, east London, on July 21, 2005. He came to Britain in 1990, when he was 12. Yasin Omar tried to explode his rucksack at about the same time on a train at Warren Street, central London. He had arrived in the early 1990s from Somalia. Ramzi Mohammed had tried to blow up a tube train in Oval, south London. Born in Somalia in 1981, he came to Britain in 1998. Hussain Osman (Handi Isaac) tried to blow up a Hammersmith and City tube train at Shepherd's Bush, west London. He was born in Ethiopia, went to Italy in the early 1990s, and settled in Britain in 1996.

The explosives had been badly made by the 21/7 bombers, but they had been intended to be triacetone triperoxide or TATP, the same substance used by the 7/7 bombers. The four 7/7 bombers had intended to bomb four trains, but Hasib Hossain had boarded a Number 30 bus, which he blew up at Tavistock Square. The 21/7 attackers had tried to copy the modus operandi of the 7/7 bombers, even down to the "mistake". Hasib Hossain's bomb had caused most loss of life, and Muktar Ibrahim had tried to emulate his actions on the Number 26 bus.

Ibrahim was a known criminal, but a year before he tried to blow up the bus, he had been granted a British passport in September 2004. A condition of naturalization is that applicants must be "of good character" and pledge to uphold Britain's democratic values and to observe its laws. In 1995, he had been arrested with four other youths for being involved in at least five street robberies. Muktar Ibrahim was given a five year jail sentence as he had carried a knife. How this criminal was granted citizenship is a cause for concern.

At the close of his trial, more details emerged of how Ibrahim had evaded both Mi5 and the police. 11 months before the 21/7 attacks, he had been under surveillance by MI5. In August 2004, he had been engaged in "training" while at a recreation camp in Scotland. In December 2004, he had been under surveillance as he had left Britain to travel to Pakistan. Like Mohammed Siddique Khan, leader of the 7/7 cell, Ibrahim was believed to have met senior Al Qaeda figures in Pakistan. While remanded in custody in Belmarsh prison awaiting trial, Ibrahim boasted to inmates that he had met Siddique Khan in Pakistan. Records of his cellular phone conversations have also linked Ibrahim to another terror plot, whose suspects are still awaiting trial.

Muktar Ibrahim had been placed on an MI5 "watch list", but had still been allowed to leave the country in December 2004. He had been questioned at Heathrow Airport for four hours by police Special Branch officers. He claimed to be going to a wedding, but could not recall the bride's name. At the time, he was already awaiting trial for assaulting a police officer. This information was not disclosed to the authorities when he later gained citizenship.

The lax approach towards law-breakers has also been reflected in the Home Office's policy on foreign criminals. In April last year, it was revealed that 1,023 foreign criminals were at large. These had been imprisoned but when released they had not been considered for deportation, even though judges had recommended that 160 should be removed from Britain. The individuals had included murderers, rapists, pedophiles, 27 convicted for indecent assault, 20 drug importers and 57 who had been convicted of violent offenses. Such Home Office incompetence has meant that in March this year, the department was split in two to create a "Ministry for Justice" which deals with sentencing. The Home Office still deals with immigration, terrorism, and policing.

After the convictions of Muktar Ibrahim and his associates, the opposition's shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, said: "This trial has revealed that the ringleader in the 21/7 plot was allowed to leave the country to train at a camp in Pakistan and return to plan and attempt the attack. This was despite the fact that he was facing criminal charges for extremism. When will the Government answer our call to establish a dedicated UK border police force to secure our porous borders?"

Stella Rimington is concerned that there is little control over who comes into or goes out of Britain, yet there seems little political will to take action. In November 2006, it was revealed that one member of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir works in the Home Office's. This individual, who belongs to a group that wishes to see democracy destroyed to create an Islamist superstate and vilifies Jews, is called Abid Javaid. He works in the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate. He has even been given a grant of tax-payer's money to organize an event for Hizb ut-Tahrir.

A week after the failed car bomb attacks, the Daily Mail revealed that up to eight police officers are employed in Britain, who are suspected by MI5 of links to Islamic extremism. Some are thought to have undergone terrorist training in Afghanistan. One officer, employed in the south east of England, had been using the internet to distribute videos of captives being beheaded, and of roadside bombings in Iraq. He has not been dismissed from his post.

Continued in Part Three...

Adrian Morgan

© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism (1 of 4)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared earlier in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Britain: New Leadership Fails To Prevent Islamic Terrorism (1 of 4)

Part One (of Four)

"Those who cure you are going to kill you."

On 27 June 2007, Britain gained a new Prime Minister. Gordon Brown had been the Chancellor since May 1997, while Tony Blair led the nation. After a six week transition period Brown became the premier, with no election mandate from the British public. Two days after Brown took the reins of power, a terror crisis involving car bombs erupted. The premier and his newly-appointed home secretary Jacqui Smith initially dealt with the situation calmly, appearing to be in control of the situation. Now, after a fortnight of the new regime, massive flaws in Britain's security and ability to tackle terrorism have been revealed. As Brown was an integral part of Blair's government, he cannot escape blame for these security lapses and policy failures.

The car bomb plots could have caused massive loss of life. At 1.30 am local time on the morning of Friday June 29 a green Mercedes was found outside a nightclub in Haymarket, central London, with smoke filling its interior. Containing propane gas cylinders, nails and 60 liters of gasoline, the vehicle was parked outside a busy nightclub on its "ladies' night". Another vehicle which had been illegally parked not far from the Tiger Tiger nightclub had been towed to Park Lane to be impounded. Staff at the car pound noticed a strong smell of gasoline, and later this vehicle was found to be a car bomb. Both vehicles were designed to be triggered by cellular phone. The Haymarket vehicle had received two calls during the time it was left outside the nightclub, but the detonation devices failed to ignite.

At 3.30 pm on Saturday June 30, a blazing Cherokee Jeep careered into the front entrance of Glasgow Airport in Scotland. Children had just ended their school terms, and there were several families at the airport. Two men were in the vehicle. They jumped out of the Jeep, and one poured gasoline over himself. The other, shouting "Allahu Ackbar" and trying to throw punches, was wrestled to the ground by police and passers by. The burning man was hosed down by police, but received 90% burns. He was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital at Paisley, near Glasgow.

It was soon revealed that this individual, 27-year old Kafeel Ahmed, had ironically worked at the same hospital as a locum doctor, before the attack which left him in a critical condition. He is not expected to survive. Ahmed has not been officially arrested. The cellular phones in the two London car bombs had led to arrests. What shocked the public was that seven of the eight suspects arrested in Britain were all doctors who had been employed in the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS). A doctor questioned in Brisbane, Australia, in connection with the failed attacks, was named as Mohammed Haneef. This man, born in Bangalore, India, had trained and worked at a British hospital. He was a cousin of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, two of the suspects in the UK.

It emerged that the passenger of the Glasgow Airport Cherokee Jeep who had not been burned, 27-year old Dr Bilal Abdulla, had already been identified as a radical in his native Iraq. He had qualified as a doctor in 2004, but Professor Ahmed Ali of the University of Baghdad's College of Medicine claimed that Abdulla had been one of the most extremist students he had taught. Abdulla would tell colleagues: "We should not learn medicine. We should learn how to fight the occupation." When US Army representatives entered the college, Abdulla had said to them: "You are a kafir and all of you should die." Professor Ali said: "Many times in the class he interrupted to talk about the mujaheddin. I thought he was crazy."

Bilal Abdulla had apparently been a member of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir while based in Cambridge, eastern England. Abdulla had, according to former Hizb member Shiraz Maher: "talked about the validity of jihad, about expelling American and British troops. He described jihad as the highest pinnacle of Islam. He worked to the same endgame that we were all working to. He would laugh when we talked about a particular bomb attack in Iraq. We all rejoiced then. And yet even I didn't think that he would take action himself."

On Wednesday, July 4, Gordon Brown had his first Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQ) in Parliament. He was grilled by the opposition leader, David Cameron, about why the government had failed to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. The full exchange can be found on a video here. In August, 2005, Tony Blair had said he would be banning the international Islamist group, which calls for an abolition of democracy, and is banned in the Netherlands and Germany, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, and most Middle Eastern nations. No action was taken to ban the group.

Gordon Brown responded: "Of course in all these details - and I have had to deal with this in the Treasury, when we're dealing with terrorist finance - you have to have evidence to do so." David Cameron stated: "The prime minister said we need evidence to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. This organization said, and I quote, 'Jews should be killed wherever they are found.' What more evidence do we need before we ban this organization? It is poisoning the minds of young people. Two years ago the government said it should be banned. I ask again - when will this be done?"

Brown's response was surprising. "We can ban it under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and, of course, of course - I think the leader of the opposition forgets I've been at this job for five days." Brown had been in his post for a full week, not five days. Under the terms of Schedule 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006, any group that "glorifies terrorism", as Hizb does with attacks upon Israeli civilians, can be banned. Former Home Secretary John Reid explained that two reviews had taken place on the subject, and both times the decision had been taken to allow the group to continue operating in the UK. In late 2005, the Association of Chief Police Officers had advised against banning Hizb, for fear of sending it underground.

As pointed out by WorldNetDaily, BBC Newsnight's reporter Richard Watson, who has made frequent exposures of Hizb and other extremist groups, presented another video presentation. Watson stated: "Today's would-be suicide bombers are almost invariably yesterday's campaigners for political Islam. This is the start of the radicalization process..." Former Hizb member Shiraz Maher claimed on Newsnight that publicly Hizb no longer makes extremist comments, effectively making them now "underground".

None of the car bomb suspects, apart from Bilal Abdulla, was born in Britain. One of the first to be arrested was Saudi-born Dr Mohammed Asha, a neurosurgeon from Jordan, who was regarded as a "clean skin". He had no criminal record in Jordan. Whether or not these doctors arrived in Britain already intending to be terrorists, or had become radicalized within the country is still not clear. However, several of these suspects were found to be on the files of MI5. At least one individual had been placed on a Home Office "watch list", which meant that any travel outside or into Britain would have been monitored. It seems that the mobile phone numbers had enabled arrests to be made so swiftly in the aftermath of the failed car bomb attacks.

Doctors from abroad are subjected to routine criminal and security checks, but even though some of the suspects were known to MI5, none were regarded as imminent threats. Bilal Adbullah had been born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, to Iraqi parents, so he was entitled to own a British passport.

The fact that Britain even needs to import its doctors highlights some of the fiscal wastage carried out by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The problem of junior doctors becoming unemployed after massive amounts of taxpayers' funds had been used to train them has long been an issue in Britain. When the British Medical Association reported in 2006 that 11,500 junior doctors would fail to find a job in 2007, NHS decision-makers dismissed the claim. Yet in February it was again claimed that 6,000 junior doctors could fail to find work in the NHS this year.

On July 4, the day that Gordon Brown stammered and blustered in the House of Commons, an Anglican priest made an extraordinary claim. Canon Andrew White usually works in Baghdad, but on April 18 this year he was in Amman, Jordan, where "clean skin" suspect Dr Mohammed Asha had hailed from. White had said he had met a man who had traveled from Syria, who was reputed to be with Al Qaeda. "It was like meeting the devil. He talked of destroying Britain and the United States," the priest said. The man had then told him: "Those who cure you are going to kill you."