Why Does Britain Allow Islamic Extremism To Flourish?

Why Does Britain Allow Islamic Extremism To Flourish?

The incident on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009 exposed a catalog of failings regarding security. Twenty minutes before the plane was due to land at Detroit, a Nigerian passenger allegedly attempted to ignite PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) which was sewn into his underwear. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who boarded he plane at Schpol Airport in Amsterdam, was soon discovered to have been a student Engineering with Business Finance at University College London from September 2005 until his graduation in June 2008. Abdulmutallab was president of the University's Islamic Society between 2006 and 2007, and it is now known that during his time he was involved with radical Islamists.

This past weekend, an unnamed US official told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "The UK has the greatest concentration of active al-Qaeda supporters of any Western country. As a result, no Western country has been more threatened than the UK, but the UK-based al-Qaeda network poses not only a potent threat to Britain but to the rest of the world."

What is disturbing is that there is nothing new in this. Knowledge of Britain's Al Qaeda activity has been available for years, but politicians have sidestepped away from, or downplayed the seriousness of the issue. Even after the alarm created by the (alleged) underpants bomber, one branch of the British government is actively trying to remove British Islamists from a list of international terrorists.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the UK government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is currently supporting moves by seven British-based Islamists to have their names removed from a UN terror watchlist. None of the individuals are British, and their governments reported them for being linked to extremist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban. One of the men was placed on the UN terror list because he allegedly had involvement with the bombers who attacked the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August 7, 1998.

After the incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, both the UK and US authorities should be working together to avoid a potential repeat performance. Abdulmuttalab told investigators that there were "more like me".

It should be mentioned that one figure within the FCO is called Mockbul Ali. Exactly a week after the London bombings of July 7, 2005, in which 52 innocent people were killed, Mockbul Ali recommended that the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar-based Yusuf al-Qaradawi, should be given permission to visit London. A year later, his department of the FCO paid for Qaradawi and others $550,000 to attend an Islamic conference in Turkey. Qaradawi has given his approval to terrorist attacks upon Israeli civilians. As a student, Mockbul Ali had previously published an article praising a woman suicide bomber who attacked an Israeli store. Mockbul Ali remains in his job, and while he does so, any attempts by the FCO to argue in support of any Islamists should be opposed.

The affair of Abdulmutallab has exposed glaring weaknesses in the shield that should protect citizens of America and Britain from attack by terrorists. MI5 is the British branch of the security and intelligence services charged with dealing with homeland security. Despite overwhelming evidence that Abdulmutallab had contact with extremists in Britain, and that the London college he attended was known to have problems with extremists, British officials refused to acknowledge claims by the Yemeni government that Abdulmutallab had joined Al-Qaeda while he was in London.

MI5 has made some appalling errors in the past regarding British homeland security. On July 6, 2005, less than 24 hours before four British Al-Qaeda bombers blew up themselves and 52 civilians on London Transport, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, who was then the head of MI5, addressed senior Members of Parliament. She told them that there was "no imminent threat" of an attack upon London or the rest of Britain. Six weeks before the 7/7 attacks, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre had downgraded Britain's security threat from level 2 to level 3.

Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the 7/7 suicide bombers, had been noticed by MI5 surveillance in early 2004. Their presence had been recorded in relation to the tracking of a cell of British Islamists belonging to a group called Al-Muhajiroun who were later convicted for plotting bomb attacks using ammonium nitrate. Khan and Tanweer had been seen with Omar Khyam, head of the other cell, on Feb 2, Feb 21, Feb 28 and March 23, 2004. MI5 assumed Khan and Tanweer to be fraudsters. An MI5 official later said: "You made quick assessments of them to decide whether or not they were a threat. None of the other people were a threat, including Khan... MI5 is fair game at the moment. We’ve only got finite resources. You can only concentrate resources on those people who are a direct threat to national security."

Lack of funds was blamed for not following up on the associations of Khan and Tanweer. It has long been known that Britain houses individuals who support terror. Instead of directly clamping down on those who support terror, funds have recently been wasted by this Labour government in donations to Muslim organizations. In October 2007 the UK government announced that it was allocating £70 million ($114 million) to Muslim groups to counter extremism. This strategy, called the "Prevent Agenda" (pdf document here) has been met with criticism from politicians and Muslim groups.

In September 2009 it was revealed that £48,000 of "Prevent" money had gone to Muslim Welfare House, which is a member of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE). This group, founded in 1989 by members of the European Muslim Brotherhood, has lose ties to Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The president of FIOE is Ahmed al Rawi, who supports suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq.

According to Michael Whine of the British Board of Jewish Deputies: "FIOE is headquartered at Markfield, Leicestershire, which is also the UK center for the Pakistan Islamist movement, Jamaat-e-Islami." The Jamaat-e-Islami Party in Pakistan has called for the death penalty for those who leave Islam, and it has openly called for the death of people deemed to be enemies of Islam, such as former president Pervez Musharraf. It also supported the activities of the notorious Red Mosque in Islamabad.

In 2004 the Times newspaper reported that the Markfield Institute of Higher Educationhas as its rector Khurshid Ahmad, who is vice-president of the Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami party. That article, which demonstrated that Loughborough University ran courses in conjunction with that institute, is under legal dispute. However, the Pakistan government backs up claims that Khurshid Ahmad is rector of the Markfield Institute and also has represented the Jamaat-e-Islami party at talks in London in 2001. The Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami website confirms that Khurshid Ahmad (not to be confused with Khurshid Ahmed of the Commission for Racial Equality) is vice-president of the party.

A senior lecturer at this institute since 2000 is Azzam Tamimi who boasted in 2004 that he would willingly be a suicide bomber against Israel "if I had the opportunity".

Khurshid Ahmad (not to be confused with the British racial equality commissioner of the same name) is listed as a trustee and chairman of the "Islamic Foundation" at Markfield (Registered charity number 263371). In 2004 one of the trustees of this foundation was Dr Kamal Helbawi (Kemal Tawfik El-Helbawy) formerly the European leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who set up the Muslim Association of Britain and also the Muslim Council of Britain.

Helbawy has publicly told members of the Muslim Arab Youth Association: "Do not take Jews and Christians as allies, for they are allies to each other," and "O Brothers, the Palestinian cause is not a conflict of borders and land only. It is not even a conflict over human ideology and not over peace. Rather, it is an absolute clash of civilizations, between truth and falsehood. Between two conducts – one satanic, headed by Jews and their co-conspirators—and the other is religious, carried by Hamas, and the Islamic movement in particular and the Islamic people in general who are behind it."

Muslim Council of Britain

The Muslim Council of Britain currently claims to represent 500 different mosques and bodies in Britain. Some of these have extremist links. In 2002, Kurshid Ahmad was on the MCB's Board of Counsellors. Even though some of MCB's affiliated groups have supported segregation of Muslims and non-Muslims, the MCB has enjoyed the privileged position of being an adviser to the Labour government on Islamic issues. Far from promoting integration into British society, in one (pdf) report, the MCB has promoted segregation in school activities. Tahir Alam, the co-author of this report has previously stated: "We need a separate Muslim school system."

In February 2009 the deputy leader of the MCB, one Daud Abdullah, attended a conference in Istanbul. This conference, called "Global Anti-Aggression Campaign" was also attended by clerics from around the world, and senior representatives of the terrorist group Hamas. The conference condemned Israel and speakers argued for a jihad against Israel. Daud Abdullah then signed a declaration (pdf) that urged using violence against any navy (including the British Royal Navy) that attempted to prevent illegal shipments to Gaza.

A month after Daud Abdullah signed the declaration, the British government suspended all dealings with the Muslim Council of Britain. In April 2009, Daud Abdullah declared that he was going to sue Hazel Blears, the government minister who had initiated the suspension of relations with the MCB.

However, this past week it was revealed that the government has decided to renew its relations with the MCB. The only caveat is that the government will not deal with Daud Abdullah.

The Muslim Council of Britain has supported attempts to have Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni arrested upon her arrival in Britain in December last year. The legal actions led to Ms Livni refusing to visit Britain. The MCB has condemned the government for deciding to change the law which could have seen Ms Livni arrested.

The current secretary-general of the MCB is Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, who is also chairman of the East London Mosque. The Detroit underpants bomber, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, is now thought to have visited this mosque. Indeed, it is reported that he attended a pre-recorded lecture at the mosque which was delivered by the notorious hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki. Ayub Khan, secretary of the mosque, said he was "unaware" of Abdulmutallab attending this lecture.

The East London Mosque's opening ceremony had been attended by Abdurrahman Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque at Mecca. Sudais is notorious for his antisemitic statements in his sermons. In 2002, he declared "that yesterday’s Jews are evil predecessors and today’s Jews are worse successors. They an ingrate people, they altered God’s words, worshipped calf, killed Messengers and denied their Messages. They are exiled people and the worst of mankind. Allaah cursed them and cast His wrath upon them. He turned some of them to monkeys and pigs and worshippers of creatures. They are worst in position and are astray from the right path. History of Jews is full of deception, trickery, rebellion, oppression, evil and corruption. They always seek to cause mischief on the earth and Allaah loves not the mischief-makers."

Muhammad Abdul Bari was asked in 2005 if he agreed with Sudais' statements condemning Jews and also Hindus. Bari attempted to suggest that Sudais had not made such comments. Even though Muhammad Abdul Bari is fully aware of the antisemitism of Sudais, on August 3, 2009 Sudais once again was allowed to preach in the mosque of which Bari is a chairman. The imam of the mosque, Abdul Qayum, signed the notorious Istanbul Declaration. The East London Mosque, whose establishment was encouraged by Prince Charles, receives thousands of pounds of public money every year.

Al Muhajiroun

On January 14, 2009, the UK government finally banned an Islamist group called Islam4UK, led by notorious self-styled preacher Anjem Choudary. This group had intended to make a demonstration at Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire. This market town is situated near the air force base at RAF Lyneham. The coffins of soldiers who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are traditionally brought through the town, where the local civilians pay their respects.

Islam4UK had planned to stage their own protest, in which they were going to carry empty coffins. Anjem Choudary was responsible for the march which took place on February 3, 2006 in London. At this illegal demonstration, his supporters carried placards which had called for the beheading of people who insulted Islam. The group Islam4UK began life in February 1996 as an offshoot of the British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir. A year earlier, members of Hizb ut-Tahrir had murdered an African Christian student (Ayotunde Obanabi) on the steps of Newham College in East London. Hizb ut-Tahrir at that time had been led by Syrian-born preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed.