Category Archives: Terrorism

Who let the dogs out?

By Shikwa | Published: May 31, 2009

Everyone’s favourite Sheikh, Omar “won’t the Royal Navy please save me?” Bakri has announced that al-Muhajiroun is being ‘re-launched’. In truth, the group has continued to act as a unit ever since Bakri theoretically disbanded them in 2004, so it will be interesting to see what the practical affect of this announcement turns out to be.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Everyone says that al-Muhajiroun is banned, but the press release announcing the re-launch of the group says:

We would also like to stress particularly to the British public that Al-Muhajiroun is a completely legal organisation and hence the recommencement of its structure, activities and projects should be seen in this light.

I started investigating this and it turns out that the Statutory Instrument (pdf) which announced the ban in 2006 only officially proscribes two of al-Muhajiroun’s successor groups – al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect. Therefore, as it stands, al-Muhajiroun is technically legal.

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Also posted in Islamism, UK Politics | 7 Comments

The subtext to the Pakistan bombing

By Shikwa | Published: May 27, 2009

Terrible news from Pakistan this morning where another terrorist attack has caused carnage and loss of life. It’s an obvious act of retaliation from the Taliban who are currently being hammered in Swat.

Beyond the tragedy of this bombing there is an important subtext to all this.

Events like this bombing should remind ordinary Muslims – that’s you and me – who believe in the faith of Islam that we’re the primary target of these terrorists who believe in implementing their ideological and politicised version of Islam. They persecute and kill far more Muslims than anyone else.

Just look at what those animals from Taliban did to this 17 year old girl once they had control of Swat (I should warn you that the video is very, very distressing):

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Also posted in Feature, Islamism | 19 Comments

Jihadi Recruitment for Dummies

By Faisal | Published: May 27, 2009
The Art of Recruitment

The Art of Recruitment

Since its ‘publication’ last year, users have been able to download a PDF called A Course in the Art of Recruitment, by the suitably named Abu-Amr al-Qaidi (al-Qaidi means ‘of al-Qaeda’), after it was made available on various jihadi websites.

The 51-page Arabic manual has been described by Brian Fishman and Abdullah Warius in the CTC Sentinel as a guide “designed to provide less-skilled jihadist recruiters operating independently of any cohesive terrorist organization the tools to effectively recruit secular and moderate Muslims into the global jihadist movement.”

Although we do not know for sure whether the techniques explained in the book are being actively applied by al-Qaeda franchises to harvest fresh recruits, it does however provide an insiders look into the, thankfully, difficult practices used to turn individuals into violent jihadis.

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Also posted in Islamism | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Why we must ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir now

By Shikwa | Published: May 26, 2009

Last week I blogged about the alleged attack on Maajid Nawaz by a British member of Hizb ut Tahrir. It happened while he was touring Pakistan, warning students about the dangers of Islamism. The Guardian covered his trip at the weekend and also revealed that:

[Maajid] used the lecture tour to make an allegation against HT. He said the organisation had launched a covert mission to recruit serving Pakistani officers to help foment a military coup. Its focus was officers visiting Britain for military training at Sandhurst. Nawaz said the group managed to recruit several officers. “We sent them to Pakistan to infiltrate the army. They were recruiting for three years and tried to mount a coup,” he said.

It confirms what we had all feared: that Islamist groups are exporting terror and subversion from this country. What is most worrying about this is that HuT remains legal in Britain and is actively plotting to undermine our allies abroad. Worse still, that ally is highly unstable, a failing state (if not failed already) and, lethally, a nuclear power.

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Also posted in Islamism, UK Politics | 15 Comments

The Arab Spinoza

By Faisal | Published: May 26, 2009

Al-Afif al-Akhdar is a 74 year old Tunisian writer who lives in an apartment in a poor part of Paris. His right arm is paralysed and he can no longer use it to write. Three years ago, a fatwa was issued against him via the Al-Nahdha website which is under the control of Rashid al-Ghannoushi, the London-based demagogue of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Nahdha accused him of authoring the book The Unknown in The Prophet’s Life although it was written by an Egyptian Christian. In 2006 Akhdar’s name appeared on a hitlist because of his association with anti-Jihadism and secularism.

Akhdar lives alone, “but with my 4,000 books I don’t feel alone”, he says. Until 2002 he wrote a weekly article for the London-based Arabic paper Al-Hayat, but was fired after he gave an interview to Al Jazeera in which he condemned the barbarism of the corporal punishments that are meted out in Saudi Arabia, such as amputation of limbs.

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Also posted in Islamism, Secularism | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

This sounds about right

By Retired | Published: May 21, 2009

Hamin Rashada, senior life coach at the Orange County Transition Center, has been speaking about one of his charges, Laguerre Payen, who was one of four men arrested for plotting to bomb two synagogues and shoot down an American military aircraft.

“He’s a strange kid,” Rashada said. “He had a lot of psychological problems.”

Rashada is a senior life coach with the program and was working with Payen. He also encouraged him to attend Friday prayers at Masjid al-Ikhlas in Newburgh where Rashada is an assistan imam. Payen had told him he was Muslim, and Rashada figured he must have been introduced to Islam in prison. Misunderstandings of the teachings can occur in places such as prison, Rashada said, because educated teachers may be rarer. Rashada said at the Newburgh mosque, they worked to put teachings in their proper context. Payen attended only occasionally, however, he said.

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Posted in Terrorism | Tagged | 2 Comments

So, was 7/7 a ‘revenge’ attack for Iraq?

By Shikwa | Published: May 20, 2009

Conventional wisdom says it was – if only we hadn’t invaded, everything would be ok.

Yet, the Intelligence and Security Committee published their review into the intelligence about 7/7 yesterday which revealed a startling picture on p. 87:

Mohammed Siddique Khan, ringleader of 7/7 attacks

Mohammed Siddique Khan, ringleader of 7/7 attacks

Why is that significant? The Spectator reports:

Shiraz Maher, a senior research fellow at Policy Exchange, points out, the date [of the picture] is hugely significant. Mohammed Siddique Khan was under surveillance in January 2001, nine months before 9/11 and several years before the Iraq war. So, the idea that he was radicalised by Afghanistan or Iraq just doesn’t fit with the facts. We should face up to the reality that what motivated Mohammed Sidddique Khan to below himself up in an effort to kill as many civilians as possible was far more fundamental than the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Quite.

Also posted in Politics | 7 Comments

Prabhakaran is dead

By Houriya | Published: May 19, 2009

Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed, according to the Sri Lankan government. The government is claiming victory after 26 years of war with the Tigers.

I wonder if the Tamils will still protest in front of Parliament…

Also posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The price of engagement

By Faisal | Published: May 16, 2009

What is the direction of the currency of ideas between peaceable (non-violent) and militant (violent) Islamism? Do the two groups influence each other? Can individuals shift effortlessly from one form of Islamism to another or are we talking about discrete self-contained mindsets which, once allegiances are struck, excommunicate one another as a matter of principle?

There are those who will agree with the last assertion; that violent and non-violent Islamist groups are congealed entities, ideologically opposed to each other. In the context of the UK, this is often cited by those who would like to see more engagement of non-violent Islamists on the grounds that failure to do so is a failure of our pluralist, social democratic principles.

Andy Hull of the IPPR, for instance:

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Also posted in Islamism | 4 Comments

Al-Qa’ida Cool

By Retired | Published: May 14, 2009

Jamie Bartlett, leader of Demos’s violent radicalism project “From Threat To Opportunity”, has a piece in Prospect Magazine this month. In it he makes some interesting observations:

[M]embers of terrorist cells tend to be young men with little religious knowledge other than a few cut-and-paste lines from the rockstars of jihadi literature, like radical Egyptian cleric Sayed Qutb. In comparison to such founding fathers of modern Islamic terrorism, this generation has suffered no serious repression.

He also argues, on the back of research from McGill University, that:

Ultimately it is not the ideas of al Qaeda that need dismantling; it is the idea of al Qaeda. This is tough. As has been proved by counterproductive anti-drug warnings, anything government proscribes can become more exciting for young people. The key is to strip al Qaeda of its mystique, and show that the average day of an Islamic extremist is more like that of a petty criminal than a secret agent. (This happens to be true: seven out of ten European militants in al Qaeda training camps return home because of tough training and being treated like skivvies.)

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