This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3950
May 7, 2009
The Centre for Social Cohesion has revealed through the Daily Mail that radical preacher Abu Izzadeen has been released from prison only one year after he was convicted of terrorism related offences.
Abu Izzadeen (aka Omar Brooks) and Sulayman Keeler (aka Simon Keeler) were among six men arrested in 2007 and convicted on 17th April 2008 for inciting terrorism overseas and terrorist fundraising. The jury found them guilty of inciting people to fight British and American forces in Iraq and encouraging donations to fund terrorism during speeches given at London's Regents Park Mosque in November 2004.
Izzadeen and Keeler – both leading members of the militant Islamist group that calls itself Ahl us-Sunnah wal Jamma'ah – were jailed for four and a half years and two and a half years to run concurrently. The remaining four men were given sentences ranging from 2 years to 3 years and 9 months for either incitement or fundraising.
Izzadeen and Keeler, as well as the three men still in custody, had their sentences reduced on Friday 1st May and four were subsequently released over the weekend due to time served on remand.
Ahl us-Sunnah Wal Jamma'ah, or literally 'Adherents to the Sunnah and the Community', was created in November 2005 by former leading members of al-Muhajiroun – including Izzadeen and Keeler – after the group disbanded in 2004 and its two successor groups, the Saved Sect and Al-Ghurabaa, were banned in July 2006 for glorifying terrorism. In an attempt to avoid further proscription, the group have renamed themselves after the largest denomination of Muslims, the Sunnis.
The group has close links to exiled radical preacher Omar Bakri, the founder and spiritual leader of al-Muhajiroun, and British-based Islamist Anjem Choudary. The early release of leading members will allow Ahl us-Sunnah Wal Jamma'ah – one of the most extreme Islamic organisations yet to be proscribed in the UK – to regroup.
Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, says:
"Abu Izzadeen and his organization, Ahl us-Sunnah Wal Jamma'ah, publicly call for attacks against those whom they see as enemies of Islam. Their ideology not only glorifies violent jihad but teaches their followers that taking part in suicide bombings is their duty as Muslims.
"The early release of a hate preacher like Abu Izzadeen demonstrates that the British courts are still far away from understanding the very clear and present danger that this country is facing from militant Islamists.
"This is further proof that the UK authorities are utterly failing in their battle against Islamic extremism. The court has sent out the message that you can incite violence against British and American forces in Iraq and raise funds to kill them, and that your punishment will be nothing more than the most risible sentence."
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Abu Izzadeen
Izzadeen, a Jamaican convert to Islam, has publically praised Jihadist attacks, called for the murder of British soldiers and supports the imposition of Islamic law in the UK:
• Izzadeen was filmed calling for the murder of British and American soldiers, whom he regards as apostates, at Regents Park Mosque in November 2004: "Whoever joins them - he who joins the British Army, he who joins the American army he is a mortal Kaffir. And his only hokum [ruling] is for his head to be removed. Indeed whoever changes his deen [religion], kill him."
• Speaking to students at Dublin University in October 2006 Izzadeen said: "We are the Muslims, we drink the blood of the enemy, and we can face them anywhere. That is Islam and that is jihad."
• In a BBC interview Izzadeen refused to denounce the7/7 terrorist attacks – "I would never denounce Muslims" – instead what he calls "mujahideen activity" and "martyrdom operations" are "completely praiseworthy".
• Izzadeen was recorded in 2005 calling for the complete domination of Islamic law in the UK, adding that: "All Jews and Christians are going to hell fire".
• Izzadeen famously heckled John Reid, the then home secretary, in 2006 and criticised the Muslim-majority audience for listening to an "enemy of Islam and Muslims".
Simon Keeler
The leader of Ahl us-Sunnah Wal Jamma'ah, Keeler has publicly supported terrorist attacks in the UK and abroad:
• Keeler glorified the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a 2004 BBC interview where he referred to the 3,000 who died in the attacks "so-called innocents".
• Keeler also said that al-Qaeda would be justified in mounting a terrorist attack in Britain as "retaliation".
• Keeler said of the group al-Muhajiroun: "We are a dangerous group. We pose a danger to this Government and the governments of the world. Not because we're big in build or anything like that, but because of what we carry."
The Centre for Social Cohesion is an independent think tank
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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3950