Al-Muhajiroun - Misplaced Pages

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Al-Muhajiroun (Arabic: المهاجرون; The Emigrants) is an Islamic terrorist organization with an Islamist ideology that operated in the United Kingdom from 14 January 1986 until the Blair administration banned it. Omar Bakri Muhammad and Anjem Choudary led Al-Muhajiroun. Makbool Javaid was an early and prominent member. It became notorious for its conference "The Magnificent 19", praising the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. Home Secretary Charles Clarke banned Bakri from the United Kingdom on 12 August 2005 because the British government considered his presence in Britain "not conducive to the public good."

History

Bakri, along with 39 others, founded Al-Muhajiroun in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The founders announced the creation of the organization on 3 March 1983, "the 59th anniversary of the destruction of the Ottoman Caliphate," in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government banned Al-Muhajiroun in January 1986, prompting Bakri to flee Saudi Arabia. On 14 January 1986, he arrived in Britain, where he founded British branches of Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir, another Islamist terrorist organization. Bakri says he ended his involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir on 16 January 1996. In 1999 Bakri became the chief sponsor in Britain of the International Islamic Front, another terrorist organization that trains and sends British Muslims to fight in Chechnya and the Balkans. In October 2000 the Bakri and others issued a "Warning to All Jews... in the UK" that if they supported Israel "financially, verbally or physically" they would be killed.

Islamic Council of Britain

Convicted terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri created the Islamic Council of Britain to "implement sharia law in Britain," on 11 September 2002, the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, primarily through funding from Al-Muhajiroun. Masri celebrated the establishment of the ICB and the 9/11 attacks by holding a conference in Finsbury Park mosque in North London entitled "September the 11th 2001: A Towering Day in History." Bakri, who attended the conference, said, that attendees "look at September 11 like a battle, as a great achievement by the mujahideen against the evil superpower. I never praised September 11 after it happened but now I can see why they did it." Flyers distributed at the conference referred to the 9/11 hijackers as the "Magnificent 19." Bakri said he saw Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda terrorists as "sincere devoted people who stood firm against the invasion of a Muslim country." Anjem Choundary, British spokesman for Al Muhajiroun, and Imran Waheed, Hizb ut-Tahrir's British representative, also attended.

NUS ban

In March 2001 Britain's National Union of Students banned Al-Muhajiroun after they received complaints from Muslim and non-Muslim students about the group distributing hate literature and the organization training members in militant camps. Al-Muhajiroun members put up posters and handed out leaflets in Manchester University's campus in Birmingham, England that called on Muslims to kill all Jews. A spokesman for NUS said that if Al-Muhajiroun did not support violence against Jews then they should change their "highly militant and definitely not peaceful" literature. Earlier in 2006, Russian government officials asked the British government to ban Al-Muhajiroun because members who attended the London School of Economics were fighting against the Russian army in Chechnya.

Aims

Al-Muhajiroun's proclaimed aims were to establish public awareness about Islam, to institute Islamic law, influence public opinion in favor of Islam, increase membership in Al-Muhajiroun, convince non-Muslims to convert to Islam or accept it as the political norm, to unite Muslims in facing threats to the Ummah on a global scale, to increase al-Muhajiroun's influence in societies throughout the world, to create a "fifth column" community pressure group to push for Islamization of the non-Islamic world, and to recreate the Caliphate globally.

Disbandment

Al Muhajiroun disbanded on 13 October 2004. However, it is believed that The Saviour Sect is to all intents and purposes Al Muhajiroun operating under a new name.

Controversial statements

In a statement, al-Muhajiroun warned the British government that it was "sitting on a box of dynamite and have only themselves to blame if after attacking the Islamic movements and the Islamic scholars, it all blows up in their face".

Abu Ibrahim said, "When they speak about September 11th, when the two planes magnificently run through those buildings, OK and people turn around and say, 'hang on a second, that is barbaric. Why did you have to do that?' You know why? Because of ignorance... For us it's retaliation. Islam is not the starter of wars. If you start the war we won't turn the other cheek....According to you it can't be right. According to Islam it's right. When you talk about innocent civilians, do you not kill innocent civilians in Iraq?"

Terrorist attacks

In 2003 two al-Muhajiroun terrorists bombed a a café in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2006 an al-Muhajiroun terrorist committed a suicide bombing in India, destroying an army barracks.

External links

^ Islamists Down Under Assyrian International News Agency
^ Police raid Islamic group BBC News
'Preacher of hate' is banned from Britain Times Online
UK Islamic Group, Banned from Campus, Claims Misrepresentation CNS News
Al-Muhajiroun BBC News
The Landscape of Islamic Extremism in London: Possible Players in the Attacks of July 7, 2005

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