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'America had it coming'
RASHMEE Z
AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
LONDON: In London, a
disabled Muslim cleric with a passport revoked by the government, a following
across continents and ambitions to convert the West to Islam, pronounces on the
attacks in New York and Washington: "America had it coming".
Even as he
faces the predictable rush of Western hostility and suspicion against a section
of the Muslim community, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder and leader of the
radical Al Muhajiroun group, told The Times of India, "Yes, it is Muslims who
have done this. There is no one else who would feel that much anger against
America".
Al Muhajiroun, which has offices here, in Pakistan, Lebanon,
Saudi Arabia and Mauritius, is alleged to train "fighters" for Kashmir, the
Palestinian territories and Chechnya.
Sheikh Omar, who openly
acknowledges that he shares ideas and information and has friends and
acquaintances among some of the Muslim groups denounced as terrorist
organisations worldwide, said in an exclusive interview that he had spoken to 68
groups since the attacks happened on Tuesday.
"I have spoken to everyone, jehadi groups, radical groups, people
who offer support of all sorts. You name it: Algeria’s GIA, Hezbollah, Hamas,
Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish –e Mohammed, Tanzeem ul Jihad of Egypt… none of them know
who did it, none of them claim responsibility, but everyone is agreed that these
are the consequences of American atrocities".
The
Al-Muhajiroun leader, who is bitterly opposed to Britain’s new anti-terrorism
law, "which makes it an offence even to carry a pamphlet supporting
Lashkar-e-Taiba", added however, that he had not spoken to those close to Osama
bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile that America regards as its enemy number one.
"We don’t agree with bin Laden’s methodology," he said blandly.
In the
hours since the attacks on American soil, the world media has been increasingly
keen to hear the views of Sheikh Omar, a Syrian exile, who advocates pan-Islamic
militancy against the West.
Craftily denying that he had "arms training
camps," Sheikh Omar would only say that several young Muslim men in his group
"follow their religious obligation to keep fit and have physical
training".
Sheikh Omar, a spokesman for the International Islamic Front,
is seen to represent the growing radical Islamic threat across the Western
world, not least in Britain, France and Germany with their huge Muslim
populations running into several millions.
Even as the British prime
minister insisted on Wednesday that it was time for right-thinking Muslims to
make clear that "acts of terrorism and savagery were wholly contrary to the
Islamic faith", Sheikh Omar repeated that "Muslims believe that if they die for
a just cause they go to paradise".
Commentators warn of the inherent
potential for conflict, something West Asia expert Toby Dodge describes as "a
very worrying climate for Muslims in Europe, especially with talk of a
civilisational clash".
But Sheikh Omar, for one, remains unconcerned and
outspoken. "They rush to judge Muslim groups because they feel guilty that they
have done something to us. The question is not who did it, but why America
creates more enemies than friends".
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