Promoting Extremists

Here is some more news about al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki’s role in terrorism, this time in the UK:

One source involved with de-radicalising young Muslims told the Daily Telegraph that Awlaki’s followers included the terrorist groomer Mohammed Hamid, who held study circles at his home in East London attended by the July 21 bombers.

“Awlaki was very influential,” the source said. “He spoke a language that appealed to recruiters. A lot of them went back to him as a source of theological guidance and they still do. He still has a huge following.” The source said Awlaki has become a “focal point” from his base in Yemen.

Awlaki, a US citizen, preached at mosques in San Diego and Virginia attended by three of the September 11 hijackers.

He started visiting Britain to give lectures soon afterwards and CDs of his sermons were found in the Iqra bookshop in Leeds, where the July 7 bombers held meetings when it was raided in 2005.

His lectures were also found among the material seized from international terrorist recruiter Aabid Hussain Khan from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who was arrested returning from Pakistan in June 2006.

Awlaki was banned from Britain around the same time, but continued to deliver sermons by video from his new base in Yemen.

Rizwan Ditta, who ran a bookstall of terrorist material from his home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, had a computer hard-drive containing material from Awlaki hidden under clothes in a locked wardrobe at his home when he was arrested six months later.

Earlier this week we covered the diehard Awlaki fans of Cage Prisoners and their ridiculous obfuscations about the al Qaeda preacher. Further background is available here. As a reminder, here’s Asim Qureshi of Cage Prisoners.

So when we see the examples of our brothers and sisters, fighting in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan, then we know where the example lies. When we see Hezbollah defeating the armies of Israel, we know what the solution is, and where the victory lies. We know that it is incumbent upon all of us to support the jihad of our brothers and sisters in these countries when they are facing the oppression of the West. Allahu Akbar!

Cage Prisoners are standing by their foul man. On their website, they offer Awlaki’s video message to their fundraiser in Kensington last August. It is marked “Banned in Britain: ‘From the Prisoners to the Prisoners’ by Imam Anwar al Awlaki”, as if promoting a man who preaches mass murder is something just oh-so-edgy that should make one proud.

Cage Prisoners are also keen on a Saudi-trained American hate preacher named Ali al Timimi. When Asim Qureshi was briefly detained in Israel, his thoughts turned to “beloved” Timimi:

Then I thought of the words of our beloved Shaykh Ali Timmimi whose understanding of the tests from Allah gave me nothing but further strength to remain happy with my situation.
…
While in the jail I thought of Shaykh Ali Timmimi, in a famous sermon quoting the words of one of the greatest scholars of Islam, Shaykh-ul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah,

“What can my enemies do to me? My Paradise is in my heart, it goes with me wherever I go. To put me in prison, is to let me have a private devotion with Allah, to execute me is martyrdom, and to kick me out of my land is a journey in the path of Allah.”

To think of these words, it can only give you the encouragement that one needs at such times.

Here’s Begg on Timimi (at 9 minutes in on the first tape here):

He cannot be regarded as an extremist, fundamentalist, lunatic type terrorist scholar that they claim abound. He is one of the most reasonable and middle of the path scholars that I have come across, who not only make sense in everything that they say, but they back it up with evidence from the Qur’an.

Actually, in 2005 Timimi was sentenced to life in prison in the US for these offences (pdf):

Al-Timimi was convicted of soliciting others to wage war against the United States; counseling others to engage in a conspiracy to levy war against the United States; attempting to aid the Taliban, counseling others to attempt to aid the Taliban; counseling others to violate the Neutrality Act, and counseling others to use firearms and explosives in furtherance of crimes of violence.
…
Al-Timimi counseled and induced Masoud Khan, Randall Royer, Yong Kwon, Muhammad Aatique, and Khwaja Hasan and others to conspire to levy war against the United States; to supply services to the Taliban; to take part in military expeditions and enterprises to be carried on from the United States against foreign states with whom the United States was at peace; and to use, carry, possess, and discharge firearms and explosives in furtherance of crimes of violence.

Within five days of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Al-Timimi believed that an American invasion of Afghanistan was imminent because the Taliban refused the demands of the United States to turn over Usama Bin Laden. The indictment alleged that, under that belief, Al-Timimi told Kwon, Royer, Khan, Aatique, and Hasan, at a meeting at Kwon’s house in Fairfax, Virginia, that the time had come for them to go abroad to join the mujahideen engaged in violent jihad in Afghanistan, and that American troops likely to arrive in Afghanistan would be legitimate targets of the violent jihad in which his listeners had a duty to engage.

What about this for “reasonable and middle of the path”:

For example, when asked, by an audience member during a lecture he gave whether it is permissible for a Sunni to pray with a Shiite, Al-Timimi responded: “Ok, you cannot pray behind any of these people. In fact if we were in an Islamic state these people their, their heads should be, you know, lopped off, that’s what, you know, should be done to these people. They deserve nothing better than to just cut their necks, if we were in an Islamic country. To be [UI word] to make the chance to make repentance and if they do not repent to cut their necks, that’s what these people deserve.

Or this tirade against the 1990s Israeli-Arab peace process, which was unbearable cosmic anathema for the righteously Jew hating Timimi:

They seek to morally corrupt the region, as is the way with the Jews whenever they enter into a land.
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We must understand this animosity that the Jews harbour and hold towards this ummah. It began from the time of the prophet and will continue until the appearance of their king and false god, the dajjal (devil), the Antichrist.
…
They were behind the assassination of Umar and they were behind then, after their expelling from the Arabian peninsula, they took on the role in Islam to try to cause a lot of fitna (discord). And so many of the stray sects, like the Shia and others, were a direct cause of Jewish, like Abdullah ibn Sabah. Likewise they were behind the killing, the murder, of the prophet’s caliph Uthman. And much of the fitna in Islamic history, they were behind it in one degree or another. Not every fitna, but much of it, and finally until the most recent thing of course, was when they brought about the end of the final caliphate that the Muslims had, even though it was a weak caliphate, the caliphate of the Ottomans, at the beginning of this century.

This type of animosity and hatred will continue towards this ummah since it has been since the time of the prophet until finally they come, being led by their king, who they expect, their awaited one, their false Messiah, who they will worship as God, the dajjal. This is the history of these people towards this ummah, their hatred and their animosity towards us.
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So we need to keep this in mind, who are we dealing with when we talk about peace with these people.
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As far as the idea of entering into a peace treaty, outside of these two reasons, namely, that the unbeliever has become submissive or to push back the greater evil, this becomes impermissible. Like in order to enter into a peace treaty because the Muslims feel themselves to be small in number. Or because the Muslims do not want to fight jihad, they don’t want to engage in war anymore, they, you know, just want to sort of enjoy the world, this becomes something forbidden by the sharia and Allah has commanded that we fight as Allah says: “fighting has been prescribed upon you but it is something disliked to you”. So therefore this is a ruling. As the prophet said in a hadith, that jihad will remain until the day of resurrection.

Or how about Timimi’s reaction (pdf) to the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003:

This morning, the world heard news about the crash of the space shuttle. There is no doubt that Muslims were overjoyed because of the adversity that befell their greatest enemy. Upon hearing the news, my heart felt certain good omens that I liked to spread to my brothers.
…
And so, there are other signs that would take a long time to recount. For example, every time the Americans believe that they control the whole earth and the skies, and act as they wish, there comes a sign that reminds us that God, Almighty, is greater than his creatures, sitting on His Chair, handling everything, and that His angels act according to His commands. And so, he whoever will try to raise the Jews, who are a nation that God covered with humiliation and deserved God’s wrath, will be afflicted with divine humiliation and wrath as much as he supports them.

What fine taste in preachers Cage Prisoners have.

Note that Begg and Qureshi offered the words of praise for Timimi cited above after Timimi’s conviction.

So, who might still be duped by the extremists of Cage Prisoners? Or depraved enough to know just who they are yet continue to work with a bunch of Awlaki and Timimi fans in the name of “human rights”? Here you go:

EVENT: UK – Monday 11 January, Bring Home Shaker Aamer, the last British Resident in Guantanamo.

Parliamentary meeting calling for the release of Shaker Aamer
…
2. Letter delivered to Downing Street

Time: 2pm
Venue: Downing Street

Those delivering the letter will be:

Johina Aamer (Shaker’s daughter)
Victoria Brittain (Author and Journalist)
Kate Allen (Amnesty)
Kate Hudson (CND)
Baroness Helena Kennedy
Vanessa Redgrave (Actress and Activist)
Gareth Peirce (Shaker Aamer’s British Lawyer)
Caroline Lucas (Head of the Green Party)

3. Parliamentary Meeting
Time: 4pm-6pm
Venue: Jubilee Room, House of Commons

Speakers:

Vanessa Redgrave
Kate Allen (Amnesty International),
Brent Mickum (Shaker Aamer’s American Lawyer)
Gareth Peirce (Shaker Aamer’s British Lawyer)
Martin Linton (Shaker Aamer’s local MP)
Saeed Siddiqe (Shaker Aamer’s father in law)
Moazzam Begg (Director of Cageprisoners)
Binyam Mohammed (Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee)

4. Demonstration
London Guantanamo Campaign will be holding a lunchtime demonstration:

Time: 12.30-2pm
Venue: Outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1A 1AE (nearest tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch)

Speakers include Ed Davey MP, Jean Lambert MEP and others.

Takbir!

Amnesty UK has confirmed it will campaign with Moazzam Begg on Monday.

Amnesty and the other groups and individuals listed above could easily campaign against human rights abuses in Guantanamo without Begg. That they do draw him and Cage Prisoners into their activism, repeatedly in some cases, is an indictment of their judgment.

Rather than campaign effectively for human rights, when it comes to Guantanamo they are in the business of promoting extremists.