[iwar] [fc:British.Mullah.Has.Anti-U.S..Message]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-22 06:44:27
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 06:44:27 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:British.Mullah.Has.Anti-U.S..Message]
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                     Sunday October 21 1:01 PM ET
                British Mullah Has Anti-U.S. Message
              By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - Abu Hamza al-Masri fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia. His
missing hands and left eye are his war decorations. Now his weapons
are words and his battlefield is Britain, the country that gave him
asylum, and which he calls an enemy of Islam.
The U.S.-British bombing in Afghanistan has pushed the struggle into a
new phase, says the Egyptian-born cleric. ``It's now the time for
martyrdom - the end game for all those who bear animosity toward
Islam.''
It sounds similar to threats made by terrorist suspect Osama bin
Laden, except that it emanates from the north London suburb of
Finsbury Park, where 43-year-old al-Masri is the imam of the mosque.
He has had British citizenship since 1985, and is protected by British
law from extradition to Yemen, where he is wanted in connection with
several bombings, including one that killed three people, and a
kidnapping that ended in a rescue attempt that left four hostages
dead.
Al-Masri is among a few dozen militant Arab Muslims who have trickled
into Britain since the late 1980s to escape repressive regimes back
home. To a country with about 2.5 million Muslims, they bring the
extremist brand of Islam that fuels radical groups and suicide bombers
like those behind the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The message, delivered in mosques, university campuses and on the
Internet, appeals to young British Muslims struggling with identity
crises and racism. They may be a minority, but their radicalization
may pose a potential danger in Britain and elsewhere.
Al-Masri sees his movement as the matrix from which world Islam's
future will develop. ``We are only a few, but we are pioneers in the
service of God,'' said al-Masri.
He doesn't think bin Laden was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks
and said blaming Muslims for the attacks was a ``conspiracy.''
``I don't condemn that operation because it may be the work of a cell
of infidels,'' al-Masri said. ``But we ask God to destroy that nation
(the United States) which harms Muslims anyway. If He does, then it's
a blessing.''
The discovery that three of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived quietly in
Germany for years, and the arrest in London of an Algerian pilot
alleged to have instructed some of the hijackers, have drawn attention
to Arabs living in Europe with possible links to bin Laden.
Many are known as ``Afghan Arabs,'' men who in the 1980s rallied to
Afghanistan's defense against the invading Soviets, supported by the
United States and its Arab allies.
Thought to number about 5,000 and mostly from Egypt, Yemen and Gulf
states, many later moved on to fight for the Muslims in Bosnia and
Chechnya. With the United States now their enemy, and hunted by
pro-Western Arab regimes, hundreds have found refuge in Europe.
``There is no doubt that we Muslims are here in the land of the
enemies of Islam,'' said al-Masri, who leads Supporters of al-Sharia
(Islamic law), a London-based group.
Al-Masri, who says he has a British engineering degree, runs
``self-defense'' camps for young British Muslims, some of whom may
choose to join the fighting in Chechnya or Kashmir.
Getting to him at his office in the mosque isn't easy. He is
surrounded by a protective band of young British and Algerian Muslims.
A reporter trying to contact him was initially rebuffed as an ``enemy
of God'' for working for a Western news organization.
But once al-Masri sat down for an interview at his office in the
mosque, he made no attempt to hide his militancy.
``War must be waged against America,'' he said. ``Without it, America
will own the land and God will not like that.''
At the same time, he complained that increased police surveillance and
questioning of his supporters was keeping Muslims away from his
mosque, where a police patrol car is permanently stationed.
``They are fools,'' he said of the British security agencies. ``They
may be scaring people from responding to me, but they will never stop
them from responding to God Almighty.''
That there are Muslims who enjoy the safety, hospitality and
citizenship of Britain, yet portray it has an enemy, makes many
Britons angry.
Lawmaker Andrew Dismore of the ruling Labor Party said in Parliament
that the laws should be toughened to permit the expulsion of those
``who abuse our democratic system and actively seek to destroy the
society that protects them from the regimes that they would themselves
impose on others.''
He named al-Masri as one of ``bin Laden's fellow travelers,'' and said
his organization was among several that should be banned under
anti-terrorism legislation.
The government has already proposed strong measures, including
emergency powers to deport terrorism suspects and suspend some human
rights legislation.
That would be welcome news to France, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and
others that have long chided Britain for granting asylum to terrorism
suspects.
Most British Muslims are moderate, like Lord Ahmed, a Labor Party
lawmaker. But he worries that if the bombing continues and more
innocent Afghans die, ``there will be a reaction here in Britain and
young men will begin to leave for Afghanistan to join the fight.''
Ahmed advocates deporting terrorism suspects. The problem is, ``we are
a democracy. We cannot just lock people up as they do elsewhere.''
On Thursday police said they were investigating about two dozen
terrorist suspects in Britain at the FBI's request. It did not
identify them.
Yasser al-Sirri, another Egyptian, has lived in Britain since 1984,
and runs a Muslim human rights monitoring group in London.
He has been sentenced to death in Egypt, where security officials
contend that he at one time was high up in the military wing of
Islamic Jihad, the terrorist group blamed for the 1981 assassination
of President Anwar Sadat and a series of assassination attempts in the
1990s.
``It's an honor that I don't deserve,'' al-Sirri said in an interview.

Britain has in recent years also been the refuge of choice of members
of the Armed Islamic Group, an Algerian group blamed for a wave of
bombings in France in the 1990s. Muslim militants linked to armed
groups fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan province of Kashmir are
also known to operate in Britain.

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