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March 28, 2008
UK: Islamist Terrorists Freed Early
On Friday afternoon (March 28), it was revealed that two men convicted and jailed in Britain for terrorist offences have been freed early from jail. The news is carried by the Telegraph, Evening Standard, Bloomberg, UPI and the Daily Mail. As a result of public outrage, Jack Straw of the Ministry of Justice promptly issued an order, stating that no person convicted of terrorism would in future be released early. The "u-turn" is reported by the BBC, Reuters, International Herald Tribune and the Times.
The man who was initially named was Yassin Nassari, a drop out from Westminster University. He had been arrested at Luton airport in Bedfordshire when he arrived back in Britain on an Easyjet flight from Amsterdam on May 13, 2006. With him was his Dutch-born wife Bouchra El Hor. In Nassari's luggage was a laptop computer containing a blueprint for the manufacture of an Al Qassam 1.5 missile of the type used by Hamas terrorists against Israel.
At the Old Bailey on May 30, 2007 the jury was told that Nassari's wife had sent him a letter which was retrieved among his luggage at Luton airport. This included the words: "The moment has come where you and I have to separate for the cause of Allah. I am so proud, my husband, and I am happy for you that Allah had granted you this chance to be a Mujihad in the cause of God. I am writing to let you know that you have my support and to remind you to be strong and do not let Satan influence you... to remind you that jihad is now compulsory and we are now obligated to protect Islam, to help our brothers and sisters to fight the kuffar."
"I really wish I could go with you because I too feel obliged to do all this and look to participate in any way I can. God willing, I will do anything in my power to raise our son the best way I can so he can be a righteous Muslim. I will also tell him all about his father so he can be proud of him and follow in his footsteps."
Nassari was charged with "possessing an article for the purposes of terrorism and possession of a document of record likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism." His wife Bouchra el Hor was accused of "failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism." The wife was acquitted of terrorism charges, but Nassari was found guilty and sentenced to three and a half years' jail on July 18, 2007.
Nassari, who smiled when sentenced, was the son of a civl engineer from Belize. He had three siblings who were high achievers. Nassari was connected with the online terrorist network set up by Younes Tsouli. Nassari used the name "Mock Turtle" while accessing the At-Tibyan website.
Even considering that those who are convicted in Britain usually serve only half of their sentences if they display, Nassari should have been released until this month (taking into consideration the fact that he had served 13 months in jail prior to his conviction). He was released from Wakefield jail on February 11 this year, 17 days earlier than expected. He is to spend the remainder of his sentence (21 months) on probation.
What makes this more unusual, as stated by the Times and the Standard, is that according to unconfirmed reports, Nassari was moved from Belmarsh prison in southeast London in November last year. This happened after he was suspected of plotting to blow up the jail.
The Ministry of Justice knew about the early release of Nassari, but only publicly admitted that it was aware of this after being approached by a Sunday Times investigative journalist. The ministry said that Nassari had become eligible for early release under the terms of the End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme as his sentence was less than four years. The ECL terms allow a prisoner to be released 18 days earlier than expected. The ECL measures were introduced in 2007 as an emergency to reduce overcrowding, and were said to only be granted to "non-dangerous" prisoners.
According to a spokeswoman from the Ministry of Justice: "A category A prisoner was released from Wakefield prison on February 11. The prisoner met the criteria for early release under the ... scheme. Where a prisoner satisfies the criteria then release must follow. This individual is subject to licence conditions and multi-agency public protection arrangements. The National Offender Management Service has not been notified of any re-offending by this individual during his period of 17 days on ECL or during his continuing probation supervision since then."
On Friday evening Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, altered the policy of allowing convicted terrorists (even if non-violent) to be part of the ECL scheme. He said: "In the light of this case I have taken action to tackle this issue - no more prisoners convicted under terrorism legislation will be released through the ECL scheme."
On the same evening it was revealed that another convicted terrorist has been released early under the ECL scheme. The BBC named this individual as Abdul Muneem Patel. In August 2006 when he was aged only 17, Patel had been among 20 or so individuals who had been arrested as part of a police anti-terror operation. This measure, called "Operation Overt" had been mounted in conjunction with American and Pakistani authorities. It was believed that individuals had plotted to bring liquid explosives onto airplanes bound from Britain to the United States. This plot was a reworking of the "Operation Bojinka" plot, which had been developed by Ramzi Yousef in 1995 to be enacted on trans-Pacific flights to the US.
Abdul Muneem Patel from Clapton (London E5) was jailed in October last year at the Old Bailey for six months. He had been found guilty of possessing a terrorism-related explosives manual. Patel was released early from Glen Parva prison on January 7 this year.
Reactions to the ECL scheme being allowed for those convicted on terrorism charges - even though the scheme was designed to only include non-violent inmates - have been critical of the government. David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said that the releases "defied common sense". He noted that the revelations come only days before the government is due to try to increase the time that terrorism suspects can be detained without being charged. He said: "Jack Straw must now say when he knew about this, and why he has only just acted."
Harry Fletcher, Assistant General Secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers said: "Clearly, anyone convicted of terrorism should have been ruled out of the scheme."
Nick Herbert, Tory MP for Arundel and South Downs, said: "Releasing terrorists early, having served less than half of their sentence, because the government has failed to provide enough prison places isn't just incompetent - it's a disgrace."
On March 21 this year, it was revealed that two other convicted terrorists, Dhiren Barot and Omar Khyam, had been transferred from Frankland prison because the regime there was consideired to be "too white". Dhiren Barot, who had plotted attacks in the US and UK, including using a radioactive "dirty bomb" (RDD) had been attacked with boiling water in July 2007.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:44 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2008
Media: Geert Wilders' Movie On Islam
After a couple of months of warning, in which threats have been made by various Muslim countries and individuals, Geert Wilders has finally finished his movie, entitled Fitna or "Conflict".
Originally the movie was going to be hosted on a US website by Mr Wilders, a Dutch politician who has had to live in hiding since November 2, 2004, when a threat against his life was pinned with a knife blade to the chest of Theo van Gogh, the documentary maker who was killed by Mohammed Bouyeri.
However, the website was registered on hosting company Network Solutions, but on Saturday, this company suspended the website's account.
A Czech nationalist group offered to host the movie on its server, but Mr Wilders has posted the movie on LiveLeak. How long it will stay there is unknown. There is little in the movie that is "against" Islam in a dishonest fashion - it quotes valid scriptures and quotes Muslim scholars and imams who justify violence against infidels. To deny that these things happen is to deny that Islam is a religion of conquest, a religion that has used violence in the days of the founder and his companions, and a religion used by Islamists today to justify violence.
UPDATE: After less than two days of being on the LiveLeak website, the video has been pulled, as can be seen if you click the link. LiveLeak, based in London, said it had had to remove the movie "following threats to our staff of a very serious nature".
Surely - such threatening activities only serve to validate the claims made within the movie "Fitna"?
The full statement reads: "Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly affect the safety of some staff members, Liveleak has been left with no choice but to remove Fitna from our servers."
"This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and wel being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one."
"Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture."
"We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high. LiveLeak.com."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 3:40 PM | Comments (4)
March 25, 2008
Denmark: Three Muslims Charged With Terrorism
News from Associated Press, International Herald Tribune, Bloomberg, Reuters and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Today, two men aged 21 and 22 were officially charged by Danish prosecutors with plotting a bomb attack. The pair had already experimented with explosive substances, the prosecutors maintained, having made triaecetone triperoxidie (TATP) the chemical used in the London bombings of July 7, 2005.
On September 4 2007, eight people were arrested in the Greater Copenhagen area. The two men who were charged earlier today were among the individuals arrested. There were six with Danish citizenship and two foreign subjects with a Danish residence permit. They came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Turkey. The other men are not in custody, though they are "under investigation".
The charge sheet maintains that the two indicted men had manufactured TATP and had tested it, though the location of the test explosion has not been revealed in the court documents. State Prosecutor Joergen Steen Joergensen made a statement which claimed the pair had "prepared one or more bombs for a planned terror act at an unspecified location in Denmark or abroad." The men also possessed bomb- making manuals, stated the prosecutors.
When the September 4 arrests took place, there was talk of Al Qaeda involvement. Police Intelligence Service stated that the men arrested had been under surveillance for some time. Agents of the National Emergency Management Agency were at the raids, suggesting police assumed explosives to be present. Jakob Scharf, chief of police, had said: "We regard the main suspects as militant Islamists with international ties - this includes direct contacts with leading persons within the Al Qaeda network. There is a general threat of terrorism against the western countries and according to our assessment of the situation, Al Qaeda after having been forced in the defensive, is regaining strength and is again capable of organizing a terror attack against a wester country."
There was no mention in today's official reports of Al Qaeda.
A third man was also charged today. He was accused of urging Danes to be kidnapped when abroad as a means of releasing the two individuals who were charged today with explosives manufacture and bomb plotting. This third man had been arrested on November 11 2007. He is said to be a 23-year old Danish national of Turkish origin.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:06 PM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2008
UK: Muslim Marriage "By Phone"
On Wednesday March 19, the Court of Appeal ruled that a marriage which had been made over a telephone was invalid, even though it was "Islamically" valid. The news is carried by the Financial Times, Times, Metro, BBC and the Telegraph.
The ruling was made by three appeal judges, Mr Justice Wall, Mr Justice Thorpe and Lady Justice Hallett. What makes this case special is that the "groom" in this telephone marriage was mentally handicapped. He had never met his "bride", a woman known only as "NK" who lived, and still resides, in Bangladesh.
The case was brought to the Court of Appeal by Westminster Social and Community Services Dept, which has acted as the provider of care for the 26-year old man since he was aged only four years old. Known only as "IC", the "groom" is said to have mental faculties no higher than a three-year old. The "groom" has parents who came originally from Bangladesh, but they have lived for years in Britain.
Under Islamic law and also under Bangladeshi law, the marriage between IC and NK is valid, even though neither party has met the other.
IC has home help on five mornings a week, and five days a week he attends a day center, and also is given respite care (where Westminster Social and Community Services Dept takes him into care to allow his family some relief from the duties of caring).
The panel of three judges ruled that IC had no capacity to engage in marriage or to give his consent to marriage. He was said to be suggestible and vulnerable.
The marriage took place in September 2006, but Lord Justice Thorpe said that the union was "potentially highly injurious". He said: "The role of marriage in the life of one so handicapped is inconceivable in our society, and as a matter of law marriage is precluded."
He stated that "Were IC's parents to permit or encourage sexual intercourse between IC and NK, NK would be guilty of the crime of rape under the Sexual Offences Act. Their [his parents'] engineering of the telephonic marriage is potentially if not actually abusive of IC. It is the duty of the court to protect IC from that potential abuse."
In the parents' defense, Lord Justice Wall argued that in Bangladesh, such a union would have ensured some security for an individual like IC when his family was no longer able to provide care. The parents had argued that they wanted his "marriage" to be recognized under UK law, but this was not permitted, even though it had validity in Bangladesh and under Sharia.
In Bangladesh, the marriage was officially viewed to have taken place on Bangladeshi soil, but as the family had intended to bring the "bride" to Britain, British law had to take precedence.
The panel of judges did not allow the parents the right of appeal to the House of Lords, and a court order ensures that IC and NK will never be allowed to meet.
A full High Court hearing on IC's case will be held in August 2008.
In this case, it seems that though naive about British law, the parents meant well for their son. It has not been disclosed if NK was aware of the extent of the disabilities of her "husband". The parents of IC had arranged this union, and as such they should have made NK know of his situation.
Forced Marriages
At the start of February, the Centre for Social Cohesion produced a 169-page report on problems with marriages in Britain's cultural minorities. Muslim culture was examined, but it was not the only one where marriages existed which discriminated against women. The report was entitled "Crimes of the Community: Honour-based violence in the UK", and was written by James Brandon and Salam Hafez.
This report described how a 15-year old girl from Pakistan was urged to engage in a telephone marriage with a man living in Sheffield. She had been shown a photograph of a handsome young man. She arrived in the UK in April 2007 to meet her "husband". He was unemployed and aged about 40, far older than he had seemed in the photo she had been shown. Disturbingly, the girl found out that her "husband" had the mental age of a child of five. The man's family also tried to get the "bride" to engage in prostitution. Additionally they tried to get the girl raped. She is now in a refuge.
There is a real problem with "arranged marriages" within the Muslim community. There is no clear definition of where an "arranged marriage" becomes a "forced marriage". And forced marriages, when they are resisted, can lead to "honour violence" or to the situation of honor killing, as appears to have happened to Shafilea Ahmed in 2003. On January 12 this year, a coroner ruled that Shafilea, who was aged 17 when she died, was murdered. An estimated 109 honor killings are thought to have taken place in Britain over the past decade.
Forced marriage affects at least 200 young Muslim girls a year who are taken abroad - mainly to Pakistan - to be made to marry a boy against their will. These are the ones known to seek help from Britain's Foreign Office.
The UK government had planned to outlaw forced marriage since 2004, but the Muslim Council of Britain had been behind pressure on the government to drop these plans. On June 6, 2006, the Home Office announced that it had decided to abandon plans to introduce new legislation to outlaw such unions. It said that it would use existing laws to tackle the problem.
That decision has proved to be futile, and once again, it seems there are UK plans to outlaw forced marriage.
In Pakistan, where most forced marriages of British Muslim girls take place, there is ambiguity in the law. Many victims of forced marriage are aged under 16, which would make the marriage illegal under UK law. In Pakistan, the age of consent is 16 for a girl and 18 for a boy, but girls can still be married at age 14.
Many such marriages involve first cousins, a practice which has led to an increase of genetic illnesses caused by recessive genes in inbreeding. When this issue was raised by Phil Woolas in February this year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said: "This is a scientific debate. It is really for scientific experts to comment on."
There is scientific evidence. A 2007 article from Neurology Asia entitled "Arranged Marriage, Consanguinity and Epilepsy" by M. M. Mehndiratta, B. Paul and P. Mehndiratta discusses this issue in depth. In 2005 a report commissioned by Labour MP Ann Cryer found that couples of Pakistani origin accounted for 30% of all recessive gene- created birth disorders, even though births from Pakistani-origin couples were only 3.4% of the national total.
At the start of March, the British Children's Minister Kevin Brennan said that in Bradford in Yorkshire, 33 girls who should have been in school had "disappeared". He suggested that they had been sent off for forced marriages abroad. Keith Vaz, a former minister and a Muslim, added that there were missing girls in 14 other areas of Britain.
A report published on March 10 this year which highlighted similar cases in Luton, suggests that previous figures on forced marriages are gross underestimates. Margaret Moran said: "If you multiply the statistics up and down the country, we're talking about 3-4,000 cases per year rather than 300."
Arranged marriages are supported by Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari of the Muslim Council of Britain. Such marriages are not officially Islamic, and generally reflect customs of rural areas of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Such marriages used to be common in Britain, but they became obsolete because they were generally regarded as cruel and abuse of the rights of the young, particularly young women. This is what Robert Burns wrote on the subject:
How cruel are the parents
Who riches only prize,
And to the wealthy booby
Poor Woman sacrifice!
Meanwhile, the hapless Daughter
Has but a choice of strife;
To shun a tyrant Father's hate-
Become a wretched Wife.
The ravening hawk pursuing,
The trembling dove thus flies,
To shun impelling ruin,
Awhile her pinions tries;
Till, of escape despairing,
No shelter or retreat,
She trusts the ruthless Falconer,
And drops beneath his feet.
Robert Burns, 1795
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:31 PM | Comments (3)
March 18, 2008
UK: Rapist Protected By Mosque Members
The East London Mosque has been associated with extremism since it was built. It was partly funded by Wahhabists from Saudi Arabia. When a study centre was set up as an extension of the mosque in June 2004, the guest of honour who opened it was Sheikh Abdur-Rahman al-Sudais (Sudeis), senior imam at the Grand Mosque of the Ka'abah at Mecca.
The chairman of the East London Mosque, when questioned by John Ware, refused to acknowledge that Sudeis was a bigot. Sudeis is on record stating: "Read history and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring, infidels, distorters of words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race 'whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...' These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption." In another sermon, Sudais has called Jews "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs."
The chairman of the East London Mosque is Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari. In June 2006, he became the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, a group which has promoted itself as the leading voice of "moderate" Islam in Britain. Dr Bari invited the far-from-moderate Islamist Delear Hossain Sayeedi to the mosque in 2006, a man who has called Hindus excrement and supported the killing of US and British soldiers.
A case finished at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday this week which raises questions about whether the East London Mosque is an asset to the community or a threat.
The news is carried by the Sun, Reuters, BBC, View London and 4RFV.
Abdul Makim Khalisadar, aged 26, pleaded guilty to raping a woman at knifepoint and was jailed for 10 years.
Khalisadar, of Hampton Road, Forest Gate in east London, had forced his way into the 27-year-old woman's Whitechapel home in the early hours of October 16 2005. The woman was returning to her home around 3 am, when Khalisadar pushed past her. He said "I am going to rape you" two times.
Prosecutor Simon Carr told the court that the woman told him she was pregnant with twins to persuade him to desist, but he raped her anyway. He stole a mobile phone from her home.
Khalisadar punched the woman several times before threatening her with the knife and raping her. After the attack, she had bruises on her arms, leg and face. He had told his victim: "You love your Daddy." When the woman did not comply and call him "daddy", she was punched in the face.
A year after the rape incident he was arrested on another issue and a routine DNA sample was taken. This proved to be linked to samples taken after the woman's rape which were found on her body and clothes.
At first Khalisadar said to police that there had been no rape and that the woman had consented to sex. Then he changed his story and said that he had been at East London Mosque. He said that he had been preaching there during Ramadan, giving a talk on the subject of repentance.
He managed to get seven men from the mosque to give him a fake alibi, backing up his story that he had been at the mosque when he had been raping the woman.
Last month, Belal Ahmed, 24, Tanbir Ahmed, 24, Mohammed Tahar Hussain, 25, Iqbal Hussain-Ali, 25, Tony Autier, 30, Thouhid Ahmed, 24, and Shaherul Islam Khan, 24 admitted lying to the police in their statements. They were sentenced on Monday to 12 months' jail for perverting the course of justice.
It appears that the reason which had brought Khalisadar to the attention of the police was his apparent involvement with former Al Muhajiroun member Kazi Nurur Rahman. Rahman was linked to the terrorists of Operation Crevice, and had been studied by police since July 2005. Rahman was sent to trial on December 19, 2005. In May 2006, Rahman pleaded guilty to charges under section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000, of attempting to procure weaponry for a terrorist attack. He was jailed for nine years.
While Khalisadar was under police investigation, he was arrested for downloading images of child abuse from the internet. As a result of this arrest, he was given a DNA test, which matched the sample from the woman's rape.
According to DCI Stuart Wratten from Tower Hamlets: "Khalisadar attacked, raped and robbed a young woman to satisfy his desire and interest in sexual violence against women. At first he claimed the attack was consensual, then he denied being involved and hatched a plan to create a false alibi with the help of his co-conspirators. Once this plan was discovered by police and with the overwhelming evidence against him he only then decided to admit his guilt."
"His co-conspirators were content to go along with the plan, which if successful would have seen a violent rapist evade justice. Evidence discovered during the investigation revealed Khalisadar had an interest in sexual violence against women."
Khalisadar was unemployed, but had formerly been a teaching assistant in a primary school, helping children with Maths and English. He also worked with a project against drugs and violence in Brick Lane in Tower Hamlets.
He finally admitted his guilt during the trial, but said that a substance he had taken to help him fast during Ramadan had made him "hyper". This appears to have been a form of amphetamine (speed).
Khalisadar was given a ten year jail sentence by Judge Timothy King, who condemned Khalisadar's "hypocrisy". He was given a seven and a half year sentence for the rape, with an additional two and a half years for perverting the course of justice.
Somewhat surprisingly, in none of the news reports are there any comments from Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari condemning the activities of the seven males from the East London Mosque who plotted to support Khanisadar's lies.
Nor is there any comment from Bari explaining how young people are allowed to be in the mosque at 3.30 am, and whether or not he claims any responsibility for allowing a young thug like Khalisadar to preach on mosque premises.
The Sun states that on Monday, when the trial concluded, women wearing burkas in the courtroom's "public gallery yelled abuse at the judge - and one screamed that the victim was a prostitute."
Eleven charges which were formerly brought against Khalisadar for possessing pictures of child abuse are not being pursued at present.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2008
Did Islamist Serial Killer Avert British Terror Attack?
This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.
Did Islamist Serial Killer Avert British Terror Attack?
On Saturday, March 15, 2008, French news agency Agence France-Presse issued a strange report.
According to AFP, around the time that Britain suffered its first homegrown Muslim terror attack (July 7, 2005), another Islamist terror attack was being developed. This plot had no relation to the failed attacks of July 21, 2005 (7/21). The plot never came to fruition, AFP reports, because a Moroccan living in Belgium had informed the authorities. In Britain, arrests were made in the summer of 2005, and in Liverpool, material for use in a terror attack was seized.
What is truly bizarre is that the informant - who had apparently been paid by Belgian intelligence services for several years - is not only an Islamist leader with links to Al Qaeda and other groups, but by his own confession he is a serial killer. Six men have died at his hands, with some of these killings apparently happening while he was a paid informant.
The man is 51-year old Moroccan-born Abdelkader Belliraj, who has dual Belgian/Moroccan nationality. He was arrested in Morocco on February 18 with 22 other individuals. He had gone to Morocco in mid January, apparently to visit a relative.
Moroccan police announced that the 23 arrested individuals had belonged to an "Islamist network", described by police as "a major terrorist network with Jihadist (holy war) roots, which was preparing to carry out acts of violence on the national territory."
The next day, the number of people arrested had risen to 32, and eventually a total of 35 people would appear before the Appellate Court in Rabat, the capital of Morocco.
Weapons, Heists, Politicians And Plots
The arrested individuals included two politicians. One of these was Mustapha Moatassim (pictured) who was the secretary-general of the al-Badil al-Hadari (Civilizational Alternative) Party. This party had only been allowed to officially "exist" in 2005. It took part in elections in 2007, but failed to get any seats.
Moatassim said on the 2007 campaign trail that his party would "create a society that stands together, where social disparities would be reduced; a society that highlights the equality of chances in terms of investments and production, a society characterized by the culture of local consumption for the good of development process and open to the great mutations in the world."
On Wednesday, February 20, Morocco's prime minister Abbas El Fassi officially banned al-Badil al-Hadari.
The spokesperson for the al-Badil al-Hadari party said after the ban: "For us, it is astonishing news because since we founded our party we have made it clear that democracy is our goal and we've proved that when we were among the first parties to condemn al-Qaeda and the use of violence in politics."
Another politician who was arrested was Mohamed Merouani (Marwani). He is secretary general of the Al Oumma ("Ummah" or "The Islamic Nation") party. This small Islamist party also contested the 2007 elections but gained no seats. One mainstream politician was also said to be part of Abdelkader Belliraj's "Islamist network".
Mae El Ainain Abadila (aka Alaa Badella Ma-El Ainin) is a member of the Justice and Development Party (Parti de la Justice et du Développement or PJD). This opposition group has 46 of the 325 seats in the Moroccan parliament. Abadila, a pharmacist, was arrested with the others linked to Belliraj. He heads a commission on the Western Sahara, which has been trying to cede from Morocco.
A reporter, Abdelhafid Sriti, was arrested. He was employed by the Al Manar TV channel, a media outlet for terrorist group Hizbollah.
Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco's interior minister, gave a press conference on February 20. He said that in raids in Casablanca and Nador in the northeast of Morocco, weapons had been found (Belliraj had been born in Nador in 1957). The weapons included nine Kalashnikovs, two Uzi machine guns replete with six magazines and a silencer, seven Skorpio sub-machine pistols with ten chargers and 5 silencers, 16 automatic pistols and other munitions and detonators.
Benmoussa said that the "Belliraj" group had been in contact with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001. Between 2001 and 2004, the "Belliraj" network was connected with the Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain, or GICM. This group has active cells in Belgium and other European nations. It was responsible for the train bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004 (killing 191 people and injuring nearly 2,000). The group was also connected with the suicide bombings in Casablanca on May 16, 2003. The Casablanca attacks killed 45 (including a dozen bombers) and led to Morocco introducing a terrorism act.
The Moroccan interior minister also said that Belliraj's group had tried to develop links with the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) in 2001, 2003 and 2004 the group had links with the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) and took part in Algerian GSPC terror training camps in 2005.
The GSPC was formed in Algeria and has long been associated with al-Qaeda. It is led by Abou Mossab Abdelouadoud (Abu Mossaab Abdelwadud or Abu Mussab Abdel Wadoud). On September 14, 2006, Abdelouadoud announced that GSPC was officially a wing of Al Qaeda. He stated on the internet: "We pledge allegiance to Sheikh Osama Bin Laden... We will pursue our jihad in Algeria. Our soldiers are at his call so that he may strike who and where he likes."
Since that time, announcements made by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, have referred to GSPC as "Al Qaeda in the Maghreb". The Maghreb is North Africa.
Chakib Benmoussa additionally stated that in 2002, Belliraj's group tried to get terrorist training from the Hizbollah-run camps in Lebanon. He said the group planned to carry out bomb attacks, to assassinate Moroccan ministers, civil officials, and also military heads. In 1996 it tried to assassinate some Moroccan Jewish citizens.
He said that Abdelkader Belliraj, who also used the aliases "Ilyass" and "Abdelkrim" had conceived of his terrorist group since 1992. In that year he had plotted attacks upon Moroccan Jewish citizens, a notion he had returned to in 2005.
The interior minister said that jewelry stolen in Belgium was also smuggled into Morocco, and was melted down to produce gold ingots by one of the individuals who had been arrested. Abdellah Remache, who was on the list of arrested individuals, was a goldsmith from Casablanca.
Benmoussa said that a 2000 robbery on the Luxembourg headquarters of Brinks had seized assets worth nearly $4 million. The funds had been smuggled back into Morocco in 2001 by being laundered through businesses, tourism projects. This robbery was already tied to one of the arrested men - Abdellatif Bekhti, aka Abdellatif Saad.
Bekhti had been among six or seven armed men who carried out the robbery in Kehlen in Luxembourg on April 17, 2000. The group had intercepted a van carrying bullion, but Bekhti was the only individual to be connected to the robbery, through a fingerprint. On January 16, 2003, Bekhti was sentenced to prison for 20 years for carrying out the Brinks raid. Two months later, Bekhti managed to escape from Scharrig prison in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. From that time until his arrest on February 18 this year, no-one had heard from Bekhti, and even his family had thought he had died.
At the press conference given by Chakib Benmoussa, one surprising allegation, gleaned from the results of the police questioning, came to light. Belliraj had apparently confessed to six unsolved murders which had happened in Belgium.
The Belgian Serial Killer
The interior minister said that Abdelkader Belliraj had confessed to committing the murders between 1986 and 1989, but gave no details. Gradually, the details of these six murders began to appear in reports in the Belgian press as they became investigated by the authorities. It now seems clear that the earliest murder took place in July 1988 and the last killing took place in October 1989.
The first of Belliraj's victims was a greengrocer who had opened a store at Saint-Gilles near the Gare du Midi, a train station in Brussels South. This man, 65-year old Raoul Schouppe, was shot in the head with a single 7.65 mm bullet from a revolver. It is believed that Abdelkader Belliraj murdered Mr Schouppe in his greengrocer's store because he thought he was Jewish. This murder took place on July 28, 1988. Belliraj appears to be mistaken in his assumption that Mr Schouppe, a Flemish former soldier, was Jewish.
Mr Schouppe specialized in selling spices from North Africa. He spoke Arabic and was popular among the Moroccan population in the Midi district of Brussels.
A short time after the murder of the greengrocer, Belliraj is said to have carried out his second targeted killing. On August 16, 1988, 53-year old Marcel Bille was killed. Mr Bille was a native of Brussels, but his body was found some distance away. Marcel Bille had been clubbed around the head with a gun, and then a 7.65 mm bullet was discharged into his head. Apparently, Belliraj had gone with Mr Bille to Koekelberg and had then killed him in his sleep. Belliraj then transported the body to Braine-le-Chateau in Walloon Brabant.
Though this was chronologically the second murder, it was the last one to be linked to Belliraj. Marcel Bille's body had been taken to a location halfway between Brussells and Nivelles, and had consequently been investigated originally by Nivelles' police department. Belliraj had allegedly stated to his Moroccan interrogators that he had killed Marcel Bille because he was a homosexual, who had made a pass at him.
The third and fourth murders were the two which had first been mentioned in the Francophone Belgian press. The double killing had been internationally reported at the time. On February 14, 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued his death-fatwa against author Salman Rushdie for writing his "blasphemous" novel, The Satanic Verses.
One of the most influential clerics at that time in Belgium was Abdullah Ah-Adhal El Hasi. This Saudi-born imam was the rector of the Grand Mosque in Cinquantenaire Park in Brussels. This mosque had been opened by the Saudi king, Khaled Ibn Abdul Aziz al-Saud in 1978. When the fatwa was issued, Abdullah Al-Ahdal El Hasi publicly objected to its nature, claiming it was un-Islamic.
Ahdal appeared on French-language TV channel RTBF on February 20, 1988. Through a translator he condemned Rushdie's book as "gratuitously blasphemous of all religions including that of Abraham." Despite this, the 36-year old rector said of the Iranian fatwa: "You must make a distinction between Islamic society and this country. Khomeini is responsible for his own country, but we are in a democratic country where everybody has the right to express his own thoughts and express themselves as they want.... You can't condemn a man to death like that."
Ahdal had suggested that there should have been a trial at which Rushdie would have been given a chance to repent to conform to Islamic law, the rector had claimed.
On March 29 1988, Abdullah Al-Ahdal El Hasi and his assistant were shot in the head and neck in an office in the Grand Mosque. The assistant who died was 40-year old Tunisian Salim el-Beher, who worked in the mosque as an archivist/librarian. Beher had been in Belgium for 10 years.
Initially, it was suspected that a Lebanese group called "Soldiers for Truth" had carried out the double murder. Reuters reported that 24 hours after the event, this group had informed a Beirut news agency that it had carried out the killing.
The fifth murder victim was Egyptian-born Samir Gahez Rasoul, aged 24. Mr Rasoul worked at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Brussels, where he was the chauffeur for the ambassador. On June 20, 1989, he had been shot through the head with a single 7.65 mm bullet. The supposed reason for this killing was on account of the Saudis taking a lukewarm approach to the Iranian fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
The last of the six victims that have apparently been listed by Abdelkader Belliraj was murdered because he was a prominent Jewish figure. 48-year old Joseph Wibran (also spelled Wybran) was a renowned immunologist, who headed the immunology department at the Erasme Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels. Mr Wibran was also the president of the co-ordination committee of Jewish organisations in Belgium (CCOJB). On October 3, 1989, he was shot in the parking area outside the hospital where he worked.
At the time of Joseph Wibran's murder, terrorist group Abu Nidal was blamed. His widow Emmy claimed that she had thought that the murder of Joseph and the murder of Abdullah Al-Ahdal El Hasi were related. She said: "They both were man of peace and dialogue. Extremists don't like people of dialogue." She added: "I want to see the face of the people who masterminded and executed the assassination."
The Ministry of the Interior in Morocco is now apparently preparing to reopen investigations into the attempted murder of a Moroccan Jewish man. On November 23, 1996 in Casablanca, a motorcycle had approached Abraham Azenkot. Two men were on the vehicle, and these had opened fire, seriously wounding Mr Azenkot. Now aged 63 and a successful businessman still living in Casablanca, Mr Azenkot said that his injuries have healed and that he had now "turned the page" since the attack.
Informant Or Double Agent?
Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco's Interior Minister, later claimed that Belliraj's terror structure was "a dangerous terrorist network that has reached advanced stages in preparing and carrying out its operations, marked by the definition of specified targets and the setting up of a political and destructive organization, as evidenced by its plans to carry out assassinations in 1992, 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2005."
Members of the group had been charged in Morocco with "forming a criminal gang to prepare and carry out terrorist acts aiming to undermine the public order through terror and violence", "premeditated murder", "transporting and possessing illegal firearms and ammunitions to use them in terrorist projects", "forging official documents", "usurpation of function to carry out terrorist projects", "fund donation and raising to finance terrorist projects" and "money laundering". The suspects are all being held in the prison at Salé.
At the end of February this year, Belgian news agency Belga and certain Belgian newspapers announced that Abdelkader Belliraj had been an informant, in the paid employ of the Belgian State Security Services.
Following this announcement, the Moroccan interior minister claimed that it was "obvious" that the Belgian intelligence services had known about Abdelkader Belliraj. Chakib Benmoussa additionally confirmed that the weapon used to attack Abraham Azenkot in Casablanca in 1996 had been among the weapons retrieved in the February raids upon suspects' addresses in Casablanca and Nador.
The Belgian newspaper "The Final Hour" openly questioned how the Belgian security services had recruited an Al Qaeda killer to act as an informant. According to the French language TV channel RTBF, Belgian's justice minister Jo Vandeurzen was concerned about the behavior of the security services. He said that an investigation should be launched into the affair.
On Tuesday March 4, Belgian media carried more information on how Belliraj interacted with the State Security Services (Staatsveiligheid). The newspaper De Morgen reported that Belliraj was receiving a virtual monthly salary spying "for Belgium". He was also said to have been working for other intelligence agencies, including France's DGSE and the CIA. Additionally, the newspaper claimed that on a trip to Afghanistan in 2001, Belliraj had personally met Aman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda.
De Morgen claimed that since late February this year, a delegation of FBI and CIA members have traveled to Morocco to investigate the claims made by Moroccan investigators.
Jo Vandeurzen, Belgium's Minister of Justice, spoke on the same day to the Belgian House of Representatives. He said that he could neither confirm nor deny whether or not Abdelkader Belliraj was a police informant. He said that he had handed responsibility to the Permanent Intelligence Oversight Committee. This body had been charged to investigate the case and draw conclusions.
By March 7 it became clear from leaked documents submitted to the Permanent Intelligence Oversight Committee that the intelligence wing of the Belgian army had also been aware of Belliraj. The newspaper de Morgen reported that the committee had requested and received "hundreds" of documents from the State Security Services and also from the Algemene Dienst Inlichting en Veiligheid (General Information and Security or ADIV).
The manner in which such details were being openly discussed caused Alain Winants, the general administrator of the State Security Services to issue a complaint. He said he "deplored" the media comments on issues which dealt with "highly classified" information. He also said that ignorant reporting of the Belliraj case also led to a negative presentation of the State Security Services, with reports misrepresenting its tasks, missions and effectiveness.
Alain Winants has been head of the Security Services since October 2006. He said that the "total irresponsibility" of media reporting could compromise relationships with other agencies. He confirmed that this is the first time that the department has had to answer public questions on "operational data". He also said that he had gained approval from Belgian Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen, to take legal action against the person who had first leaked the news that Belliraj had been a long-term paid informant.
The Moroccan authorities have stressed on more than one occasion that their conducting of investigatory activities have been sound. A delegation of six police officers from Belgium had been sent to Morocco, and early in March returned with reports that they had been treated with helpful cooperation. This opened the way for a larger official inquiry team to be sent to Morocco.
According to Belgian newspaper De Tijd on March 7, not only did Abdelkader Belliraj act as an informant. He apparently helped to foil a terrorist attack in "another European country". This country was not specified. The sources for De Tijd's report were not named.
There were already many questions about the role of Abdelkader Belliraj in Morocco. He had been, according to most reports, a paid informant for eight years. He had also made 45 trips abroad. He lived in a rented property in Evergem in the Province of East Flanders. His landlord, one "Brahim L.," was also being accused of being an "informant" and his Ghent property was searched.
True Or False?
The sensational aspects of the mass arrests and the aspects of serial killing, organized crime and espionage have caused both shock and intense media interest in Morocco and Belgium. The angry reactions of Alain Winants of the Belgian State Security Services suggest that the media have burrowed too close to truths which may - in the interests of national/international security - be better remaining unexposed. However, there are questions of morality if the intelligence services employed someone in the knowledge that this person consorted with terrorist groups, committed crimes, plotted anti-Semitic and political murders, and had committed at least six murders.
The story - though fascinating - has not been covered by the British press in any depth. The revelation on Saturday March 15 by Agence France-Presse may inspire British journalists to examine their case files from 2005.
AFP drew its information from the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique. The country that was "saved" from a terrorist attack by intelligence given by Abdelkader Belliraj is now alleged to be - with no sources named - Britain.
I have tried to check reports of arrests of Islamist individuals in Liverpool in the summer of 2005 with no success. If these arrests happened, it is possible that judges ordered "media black-outs" on reporting. It is reported that materials that could have been used in a terrorist attack were retrieved. There is so far no evidence to confirm or deny this information.
In February 2006 the US Treasury listed several British companies, including three based in Liverpool, as being Specially Designated Terrorist Entities. Connected with these businesses, eight people were arrested in May 2006 in Manchester and Liverpool, but it is unlikely that this fundraising group was plotting a British attack.
It is also theoretically possible that the story of Belliraj actually being "useful" may itself be a deliberate "leak" made by Belgian security services to "save face". It is possible that there is no truth whatsoever in the story, but that is a cynical interpretation. The notion that a man who killed and plotted to kill people merely because he thought they were Jewish does not fit my notion of a "hero". Even if he did report on a terror plot in Britain, this does not absolve him of his murders or his confessed plans to commit terror attacks.
One thing is certain. This story is intriguing, and it will not immediately evaporate into the ether. The upcoming trials of Belliraj and his 34 associates in Morocco will almost certainly bring out into the open details which European governments appear to be trying to suppress.
Adrian Morgan
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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2008
UK: Muslim Youths Assault Priest
News from the BBC, Reuters, Daily Mail, Spectator, TImes, Sunday Times, Press Association, Hindu, East London Advertiser, Telegraph and In the News:
An Anglican priest, Canon Michael Ainsworth, was assaulted by two young Muslims in the grounds of his church. 57-year old Canon Ainsworth was approached by three "Asian" youths on Wednesday March 5. Two of these then physically attacked him in the churchyard at St George-in-the-East Church in Shadwell, Wapping, East London.
According to the Daily Mail, the incident happened after Canon Ainsworth asked the three youths to "quieten down". As he was attacked, one of the youths shouted out: "Fucking priest".
According to an Asian member of the church community, the church has been attacked before by Asian youths who hate Christians. He said: "I've been physically threatened and verbally abused on the steps of the church. On one occasion, youths shouted: 'This should not be a church, this should be a mosque, you should not be here'. just walked away from it - you are too frightened to challenge them. We have church windows smashed two to three times a month. The youths are anti-Christian. It's terrible what they have done to Canon Ainsworth. We've never had violence like that before. I know his face was very smashed up and bruised because I saw him just minutes after the attack when I called round to deliver some papers."
Canon Ainsworth's wife claimed her husband did not want publicity concerning the attack.
Alan Green, the Area Dean for Tower Hamlets, said: "It was a nasty cowardly attack. There were several groups in the churchyard and two from one group attacked him and the other group came and helped him back to the house. He was kicked and punched in the head as he lay on the ground, I believe that what was shouted was 'you f***ing priest before they attacked him. He's still in hospital because he lost a lot of blood following the attack."
"There are one or two incidents of faith hate every month across the borough and across all faiths. St George's had several problems a year ago, when the windows were regularly smashed by vandals. Michael is a modest, unassuming man who is quietly going about the job of building up relations between his church and the community. He's doing a very good job of it."
Melanie Phillips in the Spectator states that in March 2006, Michael Ainsworth had given evidence to the Commons Select Committee on Media, Culture and Sport. When asked if churches should be used by other faith members, he answered: "There are some issues about using Christian churches of all denominations for worship by other faiths but there is very extensive community use by other faith groups in many areas. That is something to be encouraged. If there is very clear evidence that other faith groups are actively looking to use church buildings for worship, and on the whole my experience is that they would prefer to have their own buildings, then that is something that will always be carefully and sympathetically considered but at the end of the day there must be an issue about other faith worship in a Christian church."
Ms Phillips asks "Was Canon AInsworth actually targeted for attack?"
Police are treating the attack as a faith-based crime.
According to one parishioner who was present on the evening of March 5: "There was blood everywhere. All the church members are in shock over what happened. Our canon is such a nice man who has done so much for the parish. It's been very upsetting."
Canon Ainsworth was taken into the nearby Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel after the attack, and was released later. However, he was readmitted to hospital a week later, and is under observation.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:29 PM | Comments (0)
UK: Moroccan Islamist "Foiled British Attack"
We mentioned here recently that Moroccan Islamist Abdelkader Belliraj who was arrested on February 18, was said to have been an informant with the Belgian State Security services (Belgische Staatsveiligheid), according to De Tijd newspaper.
Until mid-January 2008, Belliraj had been based in Belgium. It is thought he had gone to Morocco in January to visit a relative. Belliraj was arrested with 32 people suspected of involvement in an Islamist terror circle. Among the others arrested were two politicians. One - Mustapha Moatassim - was secretary general of the Al Badil Al Hadari (Civilizational Alternative) Party. This party, officially formed in 2005, took part in 2007 Moroccan elections, but won no seats.
Following the involvement of this party with an Islamist network, Moroccan prime minister Abbas El Fassi officially banned this party.
Eventually, the number of individuals arrested in Morocco reached 35 members. These appeared before the Appellate court of Rabat on Thursday, February 28. A large collection of weaponry (illustrated) was recovered during raids upon the homes of some of these individuals. The weapons were found in Casablanca and also Nador in the northeast of Morocco.
The group was accused of charges including: "setting up a criminal band to prepare for and carry out terrorist acts aiming to undermine the public order through fear and violence", "premeditated murder", "carrying and possessing illegal firearms and ammunitions to use them in terrorist projects", "forging official documents", "usurpation of function in order to carry out terrorist projects", "donation and fundraising to finance terrorist projects" and "money laundering".
The group had links to others, such as Moroccan Chabiba Islamiya (Islamic Youth), Moroccan Revolutionary Islamic Movement, the Mujahidine Movement in Morocco, Al Haraka Min Ajli Al Umma (Movement for the Ummah).
Mr. Chakib Benmoussa, Morocco's Interior Minister, has said that the group was "a dangerous terrorist network that has reached advanced stages in preparing and carrying out its operations, marked by the definition of specified targets and the setting up of a political and destructive organization, as evidenced by its plans to carry out assassinations in 1992, 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2005
The Belgian newspaper De Tijd had first broken the news that Belliraj had been an informant for the Belgian security and intelligence services. The Belgian newspaper De Morgen suggested that since the end of February, a delegation of CIA and FBI members had gone to Morocco to examine the information that Belliraj had given during his interrogation.
Other individuals, including Belliraj's landlord who rented him a comfortable house in Evergem, East Flanders province, were also named as informants. The property of "Brahim L" was searched in Ghent.
Chakib Benmoussa has said that it was obvious that Belgian authorities "knew about" Abdelkader Belliraj and his activities. He said that Belliraj had resided in Afghanistan in 2001. Belgian media maintains that it was here that Belliraj had met Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda.
Belgian justice minister, Jo Vandeurzen, has said that he can "neither confirm nor deny" whether Belliraj was employed by Belgian security services as a paid informant. The minister said the Permanent Intelligence Oversight Committee would be making inquiries and conclusions on this matter.
The Belgian minister for State Security, Alain Winaints, has announced that he would be filing a complaint against the unnamed individual who leaked the information that Belliraj had been an informer for Belgian intelligence. It appears that Belliraj had been an informant for 20 years.
Belliraj has confessed to six murders carried out in Belgium between 1986 and 1989. The identities of all these victims are now known and authorities are investigating. Apparently he had carried out some of these murders while an informant.
It was revealed earlier this month by Belgian newspaper De Tijd that information given by Belliraj to Belgian intelligence had allowed them to "foil an attack in another European country". The name of this other country has not been named.
Today, the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) states that the country that was due to have been subject to a terrorist attack was Britain.
The information was reported in a Belgian newspaper, La Libre Belgique.
The attack would have happened shortly after July 7, 2005 (7/7), when 52 people were killed by four Muslim suicide bombers on London Transport. Three weeks after 7/7, Belgian media reported that the Staatsveiligheid was claiming that "a tragedy had been averted".
According to new information now gained by La Libre Belgique, there had been arrests in summer of 2005 as a result of this information, and material which could have been used in a terror attack was recovered in Liverpool. Where the planned attack was to have happened inside Britain is still unknown. Britain later apparently thanked Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt for the assistance in tracking down details of the British "plot".
These are the victims who were murdered by Belliraj, according to his own confession:
Apparently, Belliraj has told his Moroccan interrogators that he had 20 accomplices in Belgium, individuals whom he has named. Three were full-time accomplices, and the rest were "casual" accomplices.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2008
Belgium: Victims Of Moroccan Islamist Identified
On February 18 this year, Moroccan authorities arrested several individuals, claiming that they belonged to an "Islamist network". Initially 23 persons were apprehended, with that number soon rising to 32. The leader of the group was identified as Abdelkader Belliraj, an individual who had spent some time in Belgium.
On February 20, Morocco's Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa gave a press conference. He claimed that during raids, weaponry had been recovered. This included nine Kalashnikovs, two Uzi machine guns replete with six magazines and a silencer, seven Skorpio sub-machine pistols with ten chargers and 5 silencers, 16 automatic pistols and other munitions and detonators.
Benmoussa said the Islamist network had financed itself through crime, with proceeds from a 2001 robbery at the HQ of Brinks, Luxembourg being smuggled into Morocco. The amount from this raid was nearly $4 million. The money was then laundered through businesses, tourism projects and real estate. Jewellery stolen in Belgium was also smuggled into Morocco where it was melted down into gold ingots.
Benmoussa said the group had been in contact with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001. From 2001 to 2004 it was linked to the Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain, or GICM. In 2001, 2003 and 2004 the group had links with the GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) in Algerian terror training camps in 2005.
Belliraj's group had tried to get terrorist training from the Hizbullah-run camps in Lebanon in 2002. The Interior Minister said that the "Belliraj" network was planning to use explosives in terror attacks, to assassinate Moroccan ministers, civil officials, military heads and some Moroccan Jewish citizens. Belliraj had set up the terror network in 1992, and in 1996 the group had also tried to assassinate Moroccan Jewish citizens, and had planned other attacks between 1992 and 2005.
Chakib Benmoussa also said that Belliraj, using aliases "Ilyass" and "Abdelkrim" carried out six murders in Belgium between 1986 and 1989.
By the end of the week, it was confirmed that investigators in Belgium were investigating the claims about the six killings. Now, according to FlandersNews via Expatica, the identities of the six victims have been clarified.
Belliraj usually acted on his own in his killings, preferably using a 7.65 mm revolver, but sometime he would be helped by an accomplice who was known as Bekti. This accomplice is one of the people who were arrested in Morocco on February 18 - 19.
Apparently Abdelkader Belliraj confessed to carrying out or ordering the six killings after he had been confronted with evidence gathered from other suspects by Moroccan investigators.
Already, the identities of three of the victims have been revealed. They include Saudi Arabian Abdullah al-Ahdal, the rector of the Grand Mosque in Cinquantenaire Park in Brussels, and his assistant, Tunisian-born Salim el-Beher.
Al-Ahdal and his assistant had criticized the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie. This had been issued on February 14, 1989. On March 30, 1989, al-Ahdal and el-Beher were shot dead at close range. They were both hit in the head and neck in the Grand Mosque's office.
Later in the same year, 48-year old Joseph Wibran, the president of the co-ordination committee of Jewish organisations in Belgium (CCOJB) became one of Belliraj's alleged victims. Mr Wibran worked as head of the immunology department at Erasme Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels. On October 3, 1989, he was killed in the parking area outside this hospital.
Around this time, Belliraj also murdered victim number 4, the odd-job man who worked at the Saudi Embassy in Brussels. This man is said to be the Egyptian chauffeur to the Saudi ambassador in Brussels.
Another named victim was a Jewish greengrocer called Raoul Schouppe, who worked in the vicinity of Brussels South station. Additionally he met his sixth victim in this region, at a restaurant. This victim, a 53-year old gay man, had apparently tried to proposition Belliraj. The victim's body was later dumped in Braine-le-Chateau in Walloon Brabant.
Strangely, despite attacking Jews and plotting terror attacks, Belliraj had also worked as an informant. De Tijd newspaper claimed on its website earlier this month that Belliraj's information had also provided "crucial information" to Belgium's intelligence services. Some of this information had allowed them to "foil an attack in another European country". The name of this other country has not been named.
It appears that Belliraj was paid for providing this information.
While in Belgium, Belliraj had lived in a comfortable house (pictured) in Evergem in the Province of East Flanders. His real name in Morocco was Abdelkader Bellarej.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:24 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2008
Malaysia's Elections - Political Tsunami Or New Wave?
This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.
Malaysia's Elections - Political Tsunami Or New Wave?
On Friday, January 25 this year, Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, suggested that he would bring forward the date for national elections. His coalition parliament was not officially obligated to hold general elections until the middle of next year.
He said: "We will call for the election when I think everything is all right and at the moment I think people are ready for the election." He soon set the date for elections for Saturday March 8, 2008.
The elections took place at the weekend, but though the coalition led by Badawi's UMNO party obtained a majority, the results have nonetheless been viewed as disastrous. This coalition, called the Barisan Nasional, comprises 14 parties. UMNO (United National Malays Organization) is the largest party. The coalition has ensured that UMNO has led the country since Malaysia's independence on August 31, 1957.
At the last elections on March 21, 2004, the Barisan Nasional won 196 of the 219 parliamentary seats. Badawi knew that the coalition would not be so successful this time. Two of the Barisan Nasional parties are ethnic - the MIC, or Malaysia Indian Congress and the MCA, or Malaysian Chinese Association. Since 1996, the MCA has been the second largest party in the coalition. Despite having these partners, UMNO has promoted policies which favor Malays over Indians and Chinese in housing, jobs, and government contracts. Recently Indians have felt particularly alienated by UMNO policies, and as Indians comprise only 8% of the electorate, it seems Badawi assumed he did not need Indian support.
The results from Saturday's elections - the 12th since independence - have caused shock within Malaysia. With 222 parliamentary seats being contested this year, the Barisan Nasional won only 140 seats (63 percent of the total). UMNO itself has only 78 seats in the parliament. This was the worst election for the coalition and for UMNO since independence.
1969 and Policies Of Discrimination
The only election which was close to this in its outcome was that of 1969. In that election, the Barisan Nasional won 66 percent of the seats in parliament. In the 1969 election, the Chinese parties of Gerakan and DAP (Democratic Action Party) won significant seats. These had campaigned on a platform opposing Article 153 of Malaysia's constitution.
This article, in place since the "merdeka" or independence" of Malaysia in 1957, gives the king privileges to "safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance with the provisions of this Article." This goes on to specify where Malays are to be guaranteed places in universities, positions in the public service, business contracts and similar.
On May 12, 1969, two days after the elections, the Chinese parties held victory rallies. The next day conflicts between Chinese and Malays began in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, at an UMNO rally. Soon rioting between Malays and Chinese spread to the surrounding state of Selangor. These only subsided in late July, after at least 196 people had been killed and many women had been raped. As a result of the riots, parliament was suspended until 1971.
The government then introduced the New Economic Policy, or NEP, as a response to the conflict. This policy of affirmative action to promote Malay Muslims into jobs, at the expense of the Chinese and Indians, was intended to last for only 20 years, but has been indefinitely prolonged since then.
When it became clear after the 2008 elections that the Barisan Nasional had fared worse than it had in 1969, and the opposition parties had dramatically raised their status, victory rallies were prohibited.
One UMNO member of parliament who lost his seat in the 1969 election was Mahathir Mohamad. He wrote an open letter criticizing the UMNO prime minister of the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman, for not properly supporting the Malay population. This led to his expulsion from the party. He then wrote a book called "The Malay Dilemma" which maintained that Malays (called Bumiputra, or "sons of the soil") were second class citizens. The book gained popularity, and in 1974 Mahathir Mohamad was invited back into the party. In 1981 he became prime minister and ruled for 22 years until his retirement in October 2003.
Under Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the policies of NEP became the cornerstone of the UMNO's ethos of "ketuanan melayu" - Malay hegemony - which claims special privileges to Malays as their birthright. This policy, along with the NEP, had been introduced by the party in 1971.
Mahathir Mohamad introduced massive building projects which transformed the skylines of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Mahathir was pro-American, and sent many young Malays for government-sponsored education abroad at American universities. He supported the US after 9/11, But he was also a bigot. He once said that "Anglo-Saxon Europeans" were the proponents of "war, sodomy and genocide."
He accused US financier George Soros of being behind a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Asian economy in the late 1990s. This personal animosity against Mr Soros was only buried at the end of 2006.
Shortly before he resigned in 2003, Mahathir addressed the Organization of Islamic Conference in Putrajaya. He said: "The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
Mahathir could at times be a ferocious tyrant, treating some of his deputy prime ministers with contempt. In 1998, he sacked Anwar Ibrahim, who was then falsely accused of sodomy. Ibrahim was jailed for this, as well as on a charge of corruption. After six years behind bars, he was released in 2004 after the original conviction for sodomy was overturned. Under Malaysian law anyone who has served a jail sentence is barred from political office for five years, so Anwar is still banned from taking any political position until April 14, 2009.
In the September 20, 2005 edition of the Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News it was reported that Anwar Ibrahim was threatening to sue Mahathir, after the former prime minister had once again made the claim that Ibrahim engaged in sodomy. Ibrahim said: "I will not allow this lie and slander to continue. Thus I have instructed my counsel to initiate legal action against Mahathir."
Mahathir's successor as the head of UMNO had been Abdullah Badawi. He initially had the full support of Mahathir. About two years ago, that support had started to disappear. After the recent election result, on Sunday Mahathir suggested Badawi should resign. He said: "I think he should accept responsibility for this, just as in 2004, the huge majority, the huge victory, was reportedly due to him 100 percent. Now also he should accept 100 percent responsibility."
Badawi has not resigned, despite calls from some within his party. He was sworn in as Prime Minister on Monday May 10. Even though his party has continued to promote divisive policies which discriminate against non-Muslims, he said of the Barisan Nasional: "It is not just exclusively for any particular community. We speak for the minorities, whose representatives are not in the government, in the cabinet. We speak for them, too."
The Indian population is among the most deprived financially and educationally in Malaysia. On November 25 last year, Indians staged protests eight miles north of the capital at at Batu Caves, a site of religious significance to Hindus. The protesters were complaining of state-sponsored racial discrimination. As well as enduring economic lack of opportunity, Hindus have over the past two years seen widespread destruction of their temples.
After the Batu Caves protest, numerous members of Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Force) were arrested. Five members of this group were jailed indefinitely without trial on Badawi's orders. From prison, one of these individuals, M. Manoharan, contended for a seat in parliament, standing for the opposition DAP party.
A 46-year old lawer, M. Manoharan stood for the state seat of Kota Alam Shan. His opponent was Ching Su Chen of the Barisan Nasional coalition. Though having to campaign from Kamunting detention camp, Monoharan beat his opponent and won the state assembly seat by a 7,184-vote majority.
Samy Vellu, the head of the Malaysia Indian Congress (MIC) the Indian party in the Barisan Nasional coalition, was not so lucky in Saturday's elections. Vellu had been widely criticized for ignoring the plight of Indians over recent months. His complacency cost him the seat he had held for more than thirty years.
Vellu had been the Works Minister in Badawi's last cabinet. His losing a parliamentary seat is hugely significant, where the party he leads has supported UMNO since independence. UMNO has made few concessions to Chinese and Indians, but Vellu as an individual has suffered from the same allegations of corruption that have dogged other Barisan Nasional cabinet members.
In July 2006, Samy Vellu was named as the politician who had run up the highest amount of unpaid traffic fines. He had gathered 143 fines, totaling $4,782, closely followed by the foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar of UMNO, who had 121 fines worth $4,163. In third place came MCA member Fong Chan Onn with 115 traffic fines worth $4,171.
A New Opposition?
In the last parliament, only 19 seats were held by members of opposition parties. In the current election, the number of opposition MPs has risen to 82.
Anwar Ibrahim is still unable to stand for parliament until next year. He founded a party called Parti Keadilan Rakyat or PKR. His wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, heads this party. In the 2004 election, she lost to Fu Ah Kiow of the Barisan Nasional's MCA party when contesting the Permatang Pauh seat. In the latest election Wan Azizah Wan Ismail won against Fu Ah Kiow, who had been the Deputy Internal Security Minister at the time of the election. She has said she will support all races.
In 2005, Anwar Ibrahim called for the discriminatory NEP policies to be abolished. Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has said that she will tater stand down to let her husband take her place. Anwar Ibrahim announced: "Tomorrow we will start building a brighter future. This is a new dawn for Malaysia."
In the 2004 elections, the Barisan Nasional coalition had control of all states in Malaysia except Kelantan, which adjoins the border with Thailand. Kelantan then (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia). This party is Islamist, and extreme. In the past, it has claimed that people who voted for it would go to Heaven. It traditionally believes in stonings and amputations as sharia punishments for Muslims, but in the run-up to this election, PAS did not campaign on its Islamist policies.
PAS leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat did at one early stage claim that Islamic law was better for Muslims. He said: "It is more important for the Chinese to accept hudud (Sharia) laws because those who steal do not steal from the poor... Thieves steal from the rich and the Chinese are more well-off than the Malays. If a thief's hand is amputated and he goes to the football field or he goes to the market, people can see that he is a thief. Everyone will be afraid and won't steal." On another occasion in Kedah state, Nik Mat claimed that UMNO members were like orangutans "who do not know religion or the law ... orangutans don't know anything but lust."
For the most part, PAS presented itself as a party committed to reducing the cost of living, and guaranteeing racial equality. Its election slogan was "a nation of care and opportunity".
PAS party president Abdul Hadi Awang pledged to bring "equal justice to all, justice in economy opportunities and freedom of religion. We promise a government that is trustworthy, just and clean which will be able to give the people a better life." He predicted that PAS would retain Kelantan in the 2008 elections, but also would win in the neighboring state of Terengganu and also northern Kedah.
In practice, it did not gain full control of Terengganu, but retained Kelantan and gained control of the seats in Kedah. Additionally, it was able to form coalitions with other parties in the states of Penang, Perak and Selangor.
The battle to declare which party was more Islamic was taken up by the Barisan Nasional coalition. A week before the election, deputy prime minister Najib Tun Razak said: "Islam carries a wide meaning. For instance, welfare work is one aspect that is enjoined by the religion, so is the provision of job opportunities." Prime minister Abdullah Badawi, campaigning in Terengganu, said: "Islam is a religion of development."
On the day of the election, police in Kuala Lumpur fired tear gas and water cannon upon a group of PAS members who were complaining about unregistered voters in the election. 22 PAS members were arrested. Police were accused of injuring the PAS party president's son in the confrontation.
On September 8 last year, seven PAS supporters were injured in Terengganu state when police attacked party members who rioted when they were prevented from holding a rally. Two of the injured were shot when a police officer fired live rounds at demonstrators. The prime minister claimed PAS had stage-managed the riot. Surprisingly, in the elections Barisan Nasional increased its representation in the Terengganu state assembly.
PAS made alliances with the PKR party, even fielding one non-Muslim candidate under the PKR banner.
Voters, including Malays, seemed generally unimpressed by the incumbent government's claims to be able to improve the situation in the country. The dramatic losses gained by UMNO and the Barisan Nasional were described by some commentators as a "political tsunami".
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) made gains in the election. This party is predominantly Chinese and leftist, but it has a good record of exposing abuses made against any non-Muslims, including Indians, under Malaysia's racist and Islamist laws. It has fielded Indian candidates in the election.
DAP won the majority of seats in Penang state, which is where Malaysia's lucrative electronics industry is based. DAP had 19 of the 40 available seats, but it had formed an electoral pact with PAS, who gained one seat, and the PKR which gained nine. The Barisan Nasional only secured 11 seats.
The willingness of PAS, a party regarded as traditionally hardline, to make electoral and post-election alliances with the DAP party and PKR have been heralded as the start of a credible opposition to the Barisan Nasional and its control of power since 1957.
PAS is still an Islamist party, and it is doubtful that most Muslims in Malaysia would want public stonings and amputations. The alliances made within the Barisan Nasional between UMNO and the Indian MIC party and the Chinese MCA failed to prevent discrimination against Chinese or Indian civilians. The current PAS/PKR/DAP alliances may signal that there is a desperation to break the Barisan Nasional's stranglehold on power. Yet in practice, such alliances would probably fail to address the discriminatory policies that currently prevail in Malaysia.
The general public, Malays included, seem less convinced that UMNO and the Barisan Nasional are good for the country. Alliances are merely political expedients, not strong political entities. The DAP has tried to appeal beyond its Chinese support base, and PAS has tried to appeal to non-Muslims. PKR is Islamic but similarly tries to appeal to all races. It has even been suggested that the elections were held early to prevent Anwar Ibrahim, the founder of PKR, from taking part.
In a nation that has spent its entire 51 year history governed by divisive policies that discriminate on the basis of race and religion, it will probably be a long time before any single political movement successfully captures the hearts and minds of the majority of Malaysia's 27 million citizens.
Policies For All?
In Malaysia, all Malays are regarded as Muslim under law. Muslims cannot change their religion unless they apply to the nation's Islamic (Syariah) courts. SInce UMNO introduced an amendment to the constitution in 1988 (Article 121 A), civil courts have no power to interfere in any area covered by the jurisdiction of the Syariah courts. Apostasy is covered by such courts, and no Islamic judge has ever allowed a living person to leave Islam. Indians and Chinese who have been declared Muslims have suffered problems both in life and in death, as I described last month.
With a strong position within the Organization of Islamic Conference, UMNO leaders have upheld the "Islamic" identity of the nation. But Muslims only comprise 60% of the electorate. They have been given financial, educational and social privileges under the ketuanan Melayu policies introduced by UMNO and the Barisan Nasional.
One of the basic aspects of a democracy is to uphold freedom of religion and that must include the freedom of leave a religion. I wrote last month on the case of Kamariah Ali, a mother of four. She is a Malay, and thus is classed officially as a Muslim. She joined the colorful Sky Kingdom Sect which opened its dorrs to Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. The sect was deemed heretical by the Syariah (Islamic) High Court in Terengganu state in 2005. She and 58 other members of the sect were brought before this court on July 21, 2005. She had been jailed in the same year in Terengganu for "insulting Islam". Her husband who had converted from Islam into the Sky Kingdom Sect was also jailed, dying soon after his release.
In 1992, Kamariah Ali was sentenced to spend time in jail for being an apostate. She spent less than 20 months in prison. In 1998, she had asked a civil court to recognize her conversion out of Islam. This was refused because of Article 121 A. In 1999, Kamariah Ali told an Islamic court in Kota Baru that she had renounced Islam.
She was placed on trial by Terengganu state Syariah High Court in June 2006. She was accused of only declaring her apostasy in 2005 to a lower Islamic Court to avoid punishment. The prosecutor maintained that: "The onus is on her to bear the burden of proof (of apostasy)". The case was not resolved until March 3 this year, five days before the elections.
Kamariah Ali was given a two-year jail sentence for apostasy. Her lawyer Sa'adiah Din, said: "She informed the court that she is not a Muslim... This has to stop. They can't be sending her again and again to prison for this."
Judge Mohamad Abdullah said: "What she did was not within the concept of freedom of religion." The Islamic court had ruled in February this year that she was still a Muslim, despite her protestations. The prosecutor had demanded the highest penalty, saying that "her case was of public interest and could affect the faith of other Muslims in Malaysia."
Kamariah Ali had not been immediately sentenced on February 17, as she had been given time to "repent" and convert back to Islam. On March 3, the judge said: "The accused also failed to respond when I greeted her by saying Assalamualaikum during the start of the court proceeding. This shows that Kamariah has not repented."
At present, Kamariah Ali is in jail for the ridiculous "crime" of leaving a religion she does not believe in. Under Malaysia's twisted political system, there is no court in the land that has the power to reverse the Islamic court's decision. Secular courts are powerless to address such issues.
Her problems are due to get worse. Her lawyer that she is also facing further charges. She is accused of joining a banned sect, contravening Section 10 of the Syariah Criminal Offense Enactment (Takzir) Terengganu 2001. If she is found guilty on this extra charge, she could spend an additional two years deprived of her freedom.
It is refreshing to see UMNO and the Barisan Nasional, which have promoted racism and discrimination, suffer in the polls. But for Malaysia to really function as one nation, it must have one law and equal rights for all its citizens. The freedom to change one's faith is a fundamental right, denied to all people who are classified by their race as Muslims, the Bumiputra or "sons of the soil".
Until there is one law in Malaysia, under which all citizens are equal, irrespective of race or religion, injustices and divisions will prevent it from growing. There were real fears that when the Barisan Nasional did not win a two-thirds majority in this election, there would be riots between Malays and non-Muslims.
If race riots are feared so much, there is a pressing need to remove discriminatory aspects of legislation, including Articles 121 A and Article 153 of the constitution. Abdullah Badawi and Dr Mahathir Mohamad share a responsibility for worsening the racial divisions of Malaysia.
Despite the electoral pacts of the "new opposition", there is little hope of these parties in the future repealing the discriminatory policies which have given extra privileges to the Malay majority.
Malaysia - by denying religious freedom, and enshrining racism in its constitution and legislation - is anti-democratic. The elections at the weekend may have shaken the status quo, but the whole country's institutions need to be shaken to their very foundations or shaken out of existence to build a true democracy, where all have equal rights.
Adrian Morgan
© 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:34 AM | Comments (2)
March 7, 2008
UK: Osama bin London And His Islamist Associate Jailed
On Tuesday February 26, former crack addict Mohammed Hamid, aged 50, who liked to call himself "Osama bin London" was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of three counts of "soliciting to murder" and three counts of providing terrorist training.
At the same time 45-year old former chauffeur and drug dealer Muhammad al-Figari was found guilty of two counts of partaking in terrorist training camps and two counts of possession of a record containing information likely to be useful to a terrorist.
Kader Ahmed of Plaistow, who had been 17 when arrested at the start of September 2006 had been found guilty on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 of two counts of attending terror training camps.
24-year old Kibley da Costa had been found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of providing terror training, guilty of two counts of attending terrorist training sessions and one count of having a document containing information useful to a terrorist. He was given a jail sentence of four years and eleven months.
Additionally, on Monday October 10, 2007 that Attila Ahmet, who took over the preaching at Finsbury Park Mosque after Abu Hamza was jailed, had pleaded guilty to three counts of soliciting to murder, but had not been sentenced.
This afternoon, Friday March 7, 2008, jail sentences were handed out to Mohammed Hamid and Attila Ahmet.
News is carried by AFP, Daily Mail, Reuters, Guardian, Monsters & Critics, Salisbury Journal, Associated Press, Press Association Telegraph and BBC.
Hamid was given an "indefinite" jail sentence with a minimum term of seven and a half years. Attila Ahmet was given a six year and eleven month jail term.
Judge Christopher Pitchers said that Hamid was a "recruiter, groomer and corrupter of young Muslims" and had used his "charm and knowledge of the Koran" to influence others into terrorism. Because of this, the judge considered Hamid to be a continuing danger to the public. He said: "You will continue to be a danger not simply by your own actions but by your ability to influence the actions of others."
The judge told Hamid: "You can be quite genuinely amusing and charming. We heard it on tapes and saw it to some extent in this court. You also have real knowledge of the Koran and Islamic teaching."
"However, that is only one side of you. The other side we heard on the recording that has become so well-known [is] when you spoke of the 52 dead on 7/7 being 'breakfast for you'."
Judge Pitchers said that the training in terrorism that Hamid had offered to others, including the men who tried to commit bomb attacks on London Transport on July 21, 2005, had been primarily aimed at committing terrorism overseas, especially Afghanistan. He said: "The purpose was to go abroad to commit offenses but was no less serious for that."
The judge said to Ahmet that in part he had acted because he liked "the limelight" at public meetings, adding: "I accept probably that you would yourself not engage in terrorist acts. You always found an excuse not to go on any training camp if it involved loss of comfort. However, young, unsophisticated Muslim men might easily be taken in by your forceful personality and the fact you were appointed Emir of the group demonstrates this to be so."
Henry Blaxland QC who had represented Ahmet said that his client had become a "changed man" while he had been waiting for sentencing. Blaxland said Ahmet had showed "genuine contrition" by writing a long letter to the judge. Ahmet had also shaved off his beard.
For details of the terrorist training camps of Mohammed Hamid and the preaching of Attila Ahmet, see here.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)
March 4, 2008
Malaysia: Apostate From Islam Jailed For Two Years
57-year old Kamariah Ali, a woman who renounced Islam, was sentenced to two year's jail by a Syariah (Islamic) High Court in Terengganu State, Malaysia for the "crime" of leaving Islam. On February 4, 2008 I wrote of her situation:
Last April I wrote of Kamariah Ali, a woman who abandoned Islam to join the colorful Sky Kingdom Sect, which was founded by Ayah Pin. This sect welcomed members of all faiths, and had erected in its compound fiberglass and concrete statues of a giant teapot and other items. The compound was raided on August 1, 2005, its statues demolished, and the sect's charismatic leader was forced to flee the country. Kamariah Ali maintained her faith in Ayah Pin's inclusive religion. in 1999, Kamariah Ali told an Islamic court in Kota Baru that she had renounced Islam. She was jailed in 2005 by a Syariah Court in Terengganu state for "insulting Islam".Shortly after that article was published, on February 16 the Terengganu State Syariah High Court announced that Ms Ali was still a Muslim but that it would be giving its decision on the sentencing in her case on March 3.Kamariah Ali's husband Mohammed Ya, also a member of the Sky Kingdom Sect, had been jailed at the same time. The strain was too much for him and he died shortly after being released. Though Islamic courts had refused to allow him the right to leave Islam, Mohammed Ya's body was forbidden from being buried in a Muslim graveyard. He was buried in the compound of the Sky Kingdom Sect in Terengganu state, shortly before the site was bulldozed.
In June 2006 Kamariah Ali was put on trial by the Terengganu state Syariah High Court, accused of only declaring her apostasy from Islam as a means to avoid punishment. On July 21, 2005, after being arrested with other members of the Sky Kingdom Sect, she was taken to Besut Lower Syariah Court, accused of non-compliance with a fatwa issued against the Sky Kingdom Sect by the Mufti of Terengganu. This fatwa declared that Ayah Pin was a deviant and any association with him or his sect was prohibited. Kamariah Ali had declared that she was no longer a Muslim, and thus beyond any Syariah court's jurisdiction. In 2006 at the Syariah High Court, prosecutor Mustafar Hamzah said: "The onus is on her to bear the burden of proof (of apostasy)".
Kamariah Ali's case has been prolonged and still has not reached any conclusion. The last time it featured in Malaysian news sources was in September, 2007. At that time, Islamic high court judge Muhammad Abdullah ruled that all parties should present their written submissions before October 21. As a result of her apostasy, Kamariah is shunned by others, and has found it impossible to gain employment. If convicted, she could receive either a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,545) or a three year jail sentence, or both.
With a general election happening on Saturday March 12, it is interesting to note the political implications behind the timing of this decision. Mustafar Hamzah, prosecuting officer asked for the the severest sentence possible as "her case was of public interest and could affect the faith of other Muslims in Malaysia."
On Monday March 3, as reported in the International Herald Tribune, Malaysia Star, New Straits Times, Associated Press and Asia News, Kamariah Ali was given a two-year jail sentence.
Judge Mohamad Abdullah said: "What she did was not within the concept of freedom of religion." Bizarrely, the judge said on Monday: "The accused also failed to respond when I greeted her by saying Assalamualaikum during the start of the court proceeding. This shows that Kamariah has not repented."
Sa'adiah Din, her lawyer, said: "She informed the court that she is not a Muslim... This has to stop. They can't be sending her again and again to prison for this."
Kamariah Ali had declared herself an apostate on July 21, 2005 when she had been arrested and hauled before an Islamic court, with 58 other members of the Sky Kingdom Sect. Kamariah Ali had first asked a civil court to recognize her conversion out of Islam in 1998. In 1992, the Terengganu Syariah High Court maintained, she had been given a jail term for apostasy in 1992, when she served less than 20 months behind bars.
She had been most recently charged under Section 7 of the Syariah Criminal Offence Enactment (Takzir) Terengganu 2001 for declaring apostasy. It was decided by the court that she had declared apostasy to avoid action being taken against her in a lower Syariah (Sharia) Court in Besut in 2005.
However, according to her lawyer, she is also facing a second charge of joining a banned sect [this is Section 10 of the Syariah Criminal Offence Enactment (Takzir) Terengganu 2001]. If found guilty of this "crime", she could spend an additional two years in prison.
On February 17, Judge Mohammed Abdullah said to Kamariah, a mother of four: "I want to give you a chance and hope you will have a change of heart and the sentence will then be based on the progress that you have made. I have seen some changes, but I still have some doubts."
It is interesting that the court took so long to reach its verdict. Its proximity to the general election where Terengganu is one of only two states (Kelantan is the other) that has a possible chance of electing a state government of the Islamist PAS party suggests a certain amount of "politicking".
The fact that anyone should be deprived of their liberty because they decide to leave a particular faith shows how Malaysia is a country with no comprehension of human rights.
Those who deprive others of their liberty, such as Judge Mohammed Abdullah, take pains to present themselves as "reasonable". But there is nothing fair in their actions or motives.
The following appeared on June 20, 2006 in the Malaysia Star newspaper, subsequently no longer available on its online site. It was written by Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad, Senior Fellow Centre for Syariah, Law and Political Science Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM). It describes how Malaysia's advisers on Syariah are implacably opposed to the standards of freedom of religion that were laid out in Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Islam on freedom of religion
Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad"APOSTASY, apparently a human rights related issue, is highly sensitive to the multi-racial and multi-religious character of Malaysia.
It tends to be problematic, untenable to some, especially when it deals with conversion into and out of Islam.
It is true, the whole question involves certain legal and social implications. At times, its repercussions appear to rattle the social solidarity and religious harmony of our peaceful nation.
All these threatening consequences are actually caused by ignorance. This writing is not to incite further dissension. Neither is it intended to sound apologetic.
On the contrary it calls for all parties directly or indirectly affected by the subject matter, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to view it with an open heart guided by wisdom.
Scholars have admitted that Islam is the most misunderstood religion of all world religions.
Misrepresentations and misperceptions about it are causing many to hurriedly develop an unjustified Islamophobia.
This syndrome is actually a "fear of the unknown" as these people do not really understand what Islam is all about.
Many simply accept the many global misrepresentations incessantly put to them via the media.
Seen through the lens of discourse on human rights, apostasy in Islam has been notoriously brought into conflict with the doctrine of human rights in general, and with the notion of freedom of religion in particular.
Among the questions raised is, if Islam can easily be embraced, by the same token, why does it not allow Muslims to leave Islam?
It is unquestionable that Islam indeed recognises human rights, in fact from its very inception, long before these ideas were developed and documented in its modern secular form by the West like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
Islam, as systematically reflected by the Cairo Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, 1981, advocates human rights via syariah.
These objectives include the establishment of justice, individual education and preservation of human welfare or interests by protecting and preserving the freedom of thought, worship, rights to property and preservation of the progeny.
These constitute the inviolable principles of "human rights."
What many fail to understand is that Islam is probably the only religion that honours its followers to the utmost.
Islam regards its adherents, both originally born Muslim as well as converts, as invaluable assets. Once they come to the fold of Islam, they stand equal.
Therefore, the responsibilities, duties and rights of all Muslims are basically the same. Individually, they are equally entitled to achieve success in this world as well as salvation in the hereafter, guided by and within the parameters set up by syariah.
Muslims firmly believe that they are in the territory of truth, the right path. They are bathed in the brightest light.
For Muslims, truth is light, falsehood is darkness. Therefore, it is a grave injustice to them if they were to deviate from that truth.
Furthermore, the fact that Islam prohibits apostasy reflects the integrity and credibility of the religion.
If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will, it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem. And people may then question its completeness, truthfulness and perfection.
Echoing the observations of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, "rights" or huquq in Islam refers to something that is right, true, correct and proper.
"Freedom" or ikhtiyar means a choice for the good or better. So it is neither one's right nor is it freedom to choose something evil, false, wrong, incorrect or imperfect.
Religiously, morally and legally, man has no right to do wrong.
Nevertheless, there are feeble, confused Muslims around. They may be the result of improper or inadequate education or the lack of exposure to the more comprehensive teachings of Islam.
And due to worldly temptations, this weakness causes their religious foundations to become shaky.
Apparently, their common feature is a lack of knowledge and understanding of Islam. So if one insists on adopting the aforementioned wrong conception of "rights" and "freedom", one is actually exposing one's shameful ignorance!
For converts, before they become Muslims, no matter for what reason, it is only reasonable that they must have a certain degree of basic knowledge about Islam.
They must take efforts t