Inayat Bunglawala opposes the deportation of Abu Qatada, the Islamist cleric who is to be sent to Jordan, where he will be tried for terrorist offences. This is his explanation for Abu Qatada’s treatment:
“Qatada is a Muslim and has a scary beard..silly me.”
And here is Victoria Brittan:
The British security services and the media have successfully demonised these men, and in particular mythologised Othman as posing a super-danger to our society. No proof of any of the damning things repeatedly said and written about him has ever been produced.
Here is Victoria Brittain on Abu Qatada’s return to prison:
[W]hen Mr Justice Mitting ruled today after almost three weeks of deliberation, to revoke the bail of Muhammad Othman, also known as Abu Qatada and return him to prison while the House of Lords considers his appeal against deportation to Jordan, this, too, was a travesty of justice
…
The use of the media to create a climate of fear around Muslims in Britain is nothing new. Remember the tabloid frenzy over “the Tipton Taliban”? These were three young men from Tipton who crossed from Pakistan to Afghanistan during the refugee crisis of late 2001, had nothing to do with the Taliban, but who suffered shocking torture during more than two years in Guantanamo. They were completely exonerated and released in 2004.
Othman and his family have suffered years of such crude demonisation in the media since his arrest under anti-terror legislation in 2002, and during the years since.
And here is news that Abu Qatada has been smuggling jihadist propaganda fromn Long Lartin prison, which has been circulating among jihadists:
“I congratulate the mujahideen and the people of Gaza, and may Allah have mercy on the martyrs and make us follow them, and may Allah curse the Jews and the rulers of apostasy and the crusaders- amen, amen.” (January 2009)
“May Allah give the Mujahidin and their leaders the best reward, and may Allâh give the callers to the truth the best reward, because had it not been for them, the disbelievers would have entered our women’s quarters and we would have become nothing but dogs that lick up their crumbs.” (March 2009)
“We have defeated the British government, by the virtue of Allah, the Most High, and in our imprisonment, there was an uncovering of their filthiness and their criminality and their false claims of humanism. And we were able to demonstrate to the Muslims in Britain specifically, that the British government is one which opposes Islam and the Muslims. And a fracture, which can never be set after that, took place by the virtue of Allah.” (March 2009)
“Whoever fights for taghoot [forces of disbelief] is kafir [a non-believer], and fighting and aiding with your hand and weapons is the highest form of allegiance, as Allah says ‘who gives allegiance to them, he is from them’ … What then would be the state of those who fights to aid and strengthen them? There is no doubt that he is a kafir and apostate, and his apostasy would be doubled if he fights under their banner against the people of Islam like those who fight the Muslims in Palestine or Iraq or Afghanistan or Chechnya or Somalia. This is a ruling that has the consensus of the scholars that no Muslim can disagree with once he knows the ruling.” (June 2008)
Quilliam also report that Abu Qatada:
- Justifies jihadist attacks on Muslims who join the army and police in non-Muslim countries and in Muslim countries that oppose al-Qaeda.
- Incites hatred against the UK government which he says “opposes Islam and the Muslims”
- Praises “the mujahideen” of al-Qaeda and the “martyrs of Hamas” while cursing “the Jews” and “the Crusaders”
- Denounces Iraq’s ‘Awakening Councils, the Sunni movements that have defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq.
- Attacks Dr Fadl, a former member of Zawahiri’s Islamic Jihad group who has issued important theological refutations of al-Qaeda’s ideology
The Times notes:
Court documents show that MI5 officials believe that he is likely to have been involved in the radicalisation of Binyam Mohamed, who recently returned to Britain after five years in Guantánamo Bay.
Do Bungle and Brittain have a problem with any of this?
What do you think the chances of hearing from either of these two, an admission that Abu Qatada is the most vicious of extremists, whose ideology must be fought, giving no quarter?
Who else has been defending Abu Qatada, while all this time, he has been inciting jihad against democratic and liberal countries?
