108P9Z Print Request: Selected Document(s): 1 Time of Request: September 17, 2001 04:23 pm EST Number of Lines: 75 Job Number: 711:0:35048429 Client ID/Project Name: Research Information: Note: SEARCH: Osama & Quaker ....Rollo PAGE 1 1 of 2 DOCUMENTS Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse February 28, 1999 13:42 GMT SECTION: International news LENGTH: 734 words HEADLINE: By Henry Meyer DATELINE: LONDON, Feb 28 BODY: As London commuters hurried along the rain-sodden street to catch their trains at Euston, a thunderous chant rang out in Arabic inside the grand 1920s building nearby: "Allah Akhbar!" (God is Great). In a packed auditorium, more than 500 young British Moslems listened with rapt attention to Islamic firebrand Sheikh Omar Bakri as he called for Jihad (holy war) against the United States, Britain and "anti-Islamic" forces. "America declared war against Islam, and the West declared war against Islam, and we declare war against them," he shouted, raising his clenched fists. Bakri has previously acted as de-facto spokesman for Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born millionaire accused by Washington of masterminding last year's bloody bombings of two US embassies in East Africa. His appearance late Friday, alongside other British-based Islamic radical leaders, at the so-called "Second Conference of Islamic Revival" in central London, was a startling example of Britain's tolerance of extremist groups. The young British-born Moslems in the audience were shown a half-hour video of a military training camp in Afghanistan for the "Muslim Special Forces", featuring commando-style raids and armed combat. They were told they must become fighters in the war against un-Islamic regimes in Moslem countries, from Egypt to Algeria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and the "occupying forces" of America, Britain, Israel and other western powers. "There is training available. It is time that we prepare and retaliate against these people," Muhammed Jameel, coordinator of "Sakina Security Services", exhorted. The organizers, who held a similar conference last August to condemn US, British and Israeli "aggression", did not stop there. Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian-born cleric, unveiled a plan to blow up military and civilian aircraft, in a bid to challenge the Western "monopoly of the sky", amid almost daily US and British air strikes against Iraq. PAGE 2 Agence France Presse, February 28, 1999 He told the audience that flying mines carried in small balloons were being tested in Afghanistan: "When it will reach America and Britain, I don't know, but for the time being it is Islamically justified," he said. Hamza, whose group Supporters of Sharia (Islamic Law) organizes Islamist training from its headquarters at a north London mosque, admitted to AFP later: "Of course it is terrorism, it is terrorizing the terrorists." But Scotland Yard has signaled no intention to launch an investigation. Under British legislation passed last year, it is an offence to plot terrorist activity abroad or to collect money to support foreign terrorists. But the law does not prohibit the promotion of or incitement to terrorism. Yemen accuses Abu Hamza of ordering 10 Moslem militants, including eight Britons -- among them his son and step-son -- to bomb several British and US targets in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on New Year's Eve. All are now on trial on charges of terrorism. Sanaa has requested Abu Hamza's extradition from Britain. But legal sources here believe he has little to fear because Yemeni authorities would have to demonstrate "solid evidence". As they left at the end of the four-hour conference -- held, in supreme irony, at the London headquarters of the Quaker movement which espouses non-violence -- the participants were enthusiastic for the cause. British-born Shahid Longi, 20, from Slough, west of London, plans to go on an Islamic military training course and take up arms against the "infidel". "We have certain obligations to fight those forces occupying Moslem lands. Jihad is one of the obligations of Islam. We must fight Jihad," he told AFP. A view shared by his 17-year-old friend Osman Latiff, also a member of Abu Hamza's Supporters of Sharia, which offers Islamic training courses in Britain but sends recruits abroad for full-scale military instruction. "It could be Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Pakistan, there are many places which offer training for Moslems to liberate Moslem lands," he said. Bakri, who was briefly questioned by anti-terrorist police in early February, told AFP that the aim of his al-Muhajiroun movement was to create a "very powerful fifth column" from among the three and a half million Moslems in Britain. But he insisted there were no plans for armed action in Britain itself: "We don't prepare for armed struggle here." hm/km/jb LOAD-DATE: February 28, 1999
