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UK Ignored Bin Laden Warning - Extremist Says
Extremist: UK ignored bin Laden warning
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Posted: 1135 GMT (1935 HKT)
LONDON, England (AP) -- The leader of a defunct Islamic militant group has blamed Prime Minister Tony Blair's government and its "crusader views" of Muslims for the July 7 suicide bomb attacks.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Anjem Choudary, leader of the disbanded Muhajiroun extremist group, also said the British public shared the blame for ignoring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's warning last year that Britain would be attacked if it did not withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Omar Bakri, the Muhajiroun group's radical founder and spiritual leader who is apparently being closely watched by British security forces, had on many occasions glorified suicide bombings in Iraq and by Palestinian militants in Israel.
Choudary himself has been reported as saying that Islam regards as legitimate the kidnappings of Westerners in "occupied Muslim lands," such as Iraq.
Choudary criticized Blair's meeting Tuesday with two dozen members of the Muslim community to discuss anti-terror legislation the government plans to introduce by the end of the year.
"This is not the time for talking; it's time for action," he said. Blair, he added, has "got to do something (about the policies) which have caused 7-7."
The Muslim leaders who met Blair, said Choudary, did not represent the Muslim community in Britain. He said they were hand-picked by the government because they agreed with Blair's foreign and domestic policies -- which he claimed were the root causes of the London bombings on a bus and three Underground trains. At least 52 people were killed as well as the four suspected bombers and about 700 injured.
Had Blair tried to meet with Bakri or other extremists such as Palestinian cleric Abu Qatada, called bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe," it would have been "a very different picture."
But he said he believed Bakri would have refused to meet Blair had he been invited. The preacher, he said, "would see Tony Blair as someone with blood of Muslims on his hands, a murderer of Muslims, an occupier of Muslim lands. He's the last person Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed would want to speak to."
To avoid a repeat of the attacks, Choudary said, the government has to heed warnings.
"Those four individuals who carried out the operation cannot be blamed solely for 7-7," said Choudary, who is director of the Sharia Court of the United Kingdom and chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers. Sharia is Muslim law as derived from the Quran.
"I think ultimately, the British foreign policy -- the occupation of Iraq and the support of the state of Israel and the draconian laws which they have introduced over the years in this country -- have a lot to do with why 7-7 took place, and I think one has to wake up and look at the reality," Choudary said in the telephone interview.
He said the legislation was a reflection of the government's "crusader views, their anti-Islam and anti-Muslim views."
The British government is preparing to create a new offense of "glorifying or endorsing" terrorism, such as praising suicide bombers as martyrs, he said.
"I think also the British public need to take part of the blame because they completely ignored warnings which Sheik Osama bin Laden gave about a year ago, saying unless they did something about the British foreign policy and unless they did something about the brutal nature which Tony Blair operates internationally, then England was a potential target," Choudary said.
He said the secular as well as moderate British Muslims, including Iqbal Sacrani, head of the Muslim Council in Britain, deserved blame.
"They've been saying all along that al Qaeda doesn't really exist, there's no such thing as jihad (holy war), nobody's going to do it in Britain.
"Whereas people like us, we were giving the warning, were saying: 'Look, you've got to do something about your policies, you've got to do something about the colonial way in which Britain functions,"' Choudary said. "And unless and until Britain does something about that, then they only have themselves to blame if they suffer repercussions like 7-7."
When in operation, Muhajiroun -- the name is Arabic for "The Emigrants" -- promoted what it called an "Islamic renaissance" and advocated the creation of an Islamic state in several countries, including Britain.
The group angered mainstream Muslim organizations, which complained it recruited members on university campuses and encouraged supporters to join armed struggles abroad.
Choudary has in the past hailed the 9/11 hijackers on the United States as the "Magnificent 19."
He criticized new proposed legislation as hypocritical. "Why do you want to start introducing new laws to say Muslims can't talk about jihad when you know very well that it's a perfectly legitimate struggle in Palestine, in Kashmir, in Chechnya and even in Iraq," Choudary said.
"When Muslims talk about jihad, suddenly they're cast as terrorists and they're threatened with deportation. I think this is double standards, that's blatant racism, isn't it?"
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Posted: 1135 GMT (1935 HKT)
LONDON, England (AP) -- The leader of a defunct Islamic militant group has blamed Prime Minister Tony Blair's government and its "crusader views" of Muslims for the July 7 suicide bomb attacks.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Anjem Choudary, leader of the disbanded Muhajiroun extremist group, also said the British public shared the blame for ignoring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's warning last year that Britain would be attacked if it did not withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Omar Bakri, the Muhajiroun group's radical founder and spiritual leader who is apparently being closely watched by British security forces, had on many occasions glorified suicide bombings in Iraq and by Palestinian militants in Israel.
Choudary himself has been reported as saying that Islam regards as legitimate the kidnappings of Westerners in "occupied Muslim lands," such as Iraq.
Choudary criticized Blair's meeting Tuesday with two dozen members of the Muslim community to discuss anti-terror legislation the government plans to introduce by the end of the year.
"This is not the time for talking; it's time for action," he said. Blair, he added, has "got to do something (about the policies) which have caused 7-7."
The Muslim leaders who met Blair, said Choudary, did not represent the Muslim community in Britain. He said they were hand-picked by the government because they agreed with Blair's foreign and domestic policies -- which he claimed were the root causes of the London bombings on a bus and three Underground trains. At least 52 people were killed as well as the four suspected bombers and about 700 injured.
Had Blair tried to meet with Bakri or other extremists such as Palestinian cleric Abu Qatada, called bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe," it would have been "a very different picture."
But he said he believed Bakri would have refused to meet Blair had he been invited. The preacher, he said, "would see Tony Blair as someone with blood of Muslims on his hands, a murderer of Muslims, an occupier of Muslim lands. He's the last person Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed would want to speak to."
To avoid a repeat of the attacks, Choudary said, the government has to heed warnings.
"Those four individuals who carried out the operation cannot be blamed solely for 7-7," said Choudary, who is director of the Sharia Court of the United Kingdom and chairman of the Society of Muslim Lawyers. Sharia is Muslim law as derived from the Quran.
"I think ultimately, the British foreign policy -- the occupation of Iraq and the support of the state of Israel and the draconian laws which they have introduced over the years in this country -- have a lot to do with why 7-7 took place, and I think one has to wake up and look at the reality," Choudary said in the telephone interview.
He said the legislation was a reflection of the government's "crusader views, their anti-Islam and anti-Muslim views."
The British government is preparing to create a new offense of "glorifying or endorsing" terrorism, such as praising suicide bombers as martyrs, he said.
"I think also the British public need to take part of the blame because they completely ignored warnings which Sheik Osama bin Laden gave about a year ago, saying unless they did something about the British foreign policy and unless they did something about the brutal nature which Tony Blair operates internationally, then England was a potential target," Choudary said.
He said the secular as well as moderate British Muslims, including Iqbal Sacrani, head of the Muslim Council in Britain, deserved blame.
"They've been saying all along that al Qaeda doesn't really exist, there's no such thing as jihad (holy war), nobody's going to do it in Britain.
"Whereas people like us, we were giving the warning, were saying: 'Look, you've got to do something about your policies, you've got to do something about the colonial way in which Britain functions,"' Choudary said. "And unless and until Britain does something about that, then they only have themselves to blame if they suffer repercussions like 7-7."
When in operation, Muhajiroun -- the name is Arabic for "The Emigrants" -- promoted what it called an "Islamic renaissance" and advocated the creation of an Islamic state in several countries, including Britain.
The group angered mainstream Muslim organizations, which complained it recruited members on university campuses and encouraged supporters to join armed struggles abroad.
Choudary has in the past hailed the 9/11 hijackers on the United States as the "Magnificent 19."
He criticized new proposed legislation as hypocritical. "Why do you want to start introducing new laws to say Muslims can't talk about jihad when you know very well that it's a perfectly legitimate struggle in Palestine, in Kashmir, in Chechnya and even in Iraq," Choudary said.
"When Muslims talk about jihad, suddenly they're cast as terrorists and they're threatened with deportation. I think this is double standards, that's blatant racism, isn't it?"
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