This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/838

Al Muhajiroun leader Anjem Choudary visited US at invitation of Strafor analyst/ /AM spokesman Kamran Bokhari in 2000

Anjem Choudary blamed UK for not heeding Bin Laden warnings
July 20, 2005

Extremist: UK ignored bin Laden warning

MIM: In 2000 Anjem Choudary was hosted by Stratfor analyst Kamran Bokhari, who was then a student at Southwest Missouri State University where he headed the Muslim Student Association and a founded the Islamic Center of Springfield which was closed because of funding received by Soliman Albuthe who had ties to Al Qaeda. Choudary was invited to speak in the guise of a forum about 'peace and civil rights and was presented as a lawyer. The event even received funding from the university. In a travesty of national security, Kamran Bokhari now works as a strategic analyst at Strategic Forecasting Inc.run by George Friedman. Kamran Bokhari is the North American spokesman of Al Muhajiroun and is affectionately referred to by his colleagues at Startfor Inc .as their 'in house Jihadi'. In 1996 Bokhari was one of the speakers at an Al Muhajirioun Rally for Revival which took place in London. Even more alarming is the fact that Bokhari's father was an employee of the Pakistani Permanent Mission to the UN. For more google Bokhari at MIM)

Al Muhajiroun has been linked to both the London bombings and the suicide bombing which took place in Tel Aviv that was carried out by two M;uslim British nationals.

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MIM: Kamran Bokhari at SMSU in 1999 -2000 as spokesman of Al Muhajiroun - Bokhari's hosting of Anjem Choudary and appearence at an AM London rally shows that he a pivotal figure in the group. His new 'gestalte' as strategic analyst at Stratfor doubtless provides him and his cronies at Al Muhajiroun with useful information courtesy of George Friedman -The Stratfor CEO who hired Bokhari for his 'hand on' experience with terrorism.

Excerpts from the article : "Kamran Bokhari Advocating Change in the Muslim World"

by Jennifer Kline

"Bokhari devotes his life to his Islamic faith and reuniting the Muslim world under one government, an Islamic government supported by its people. at the panel presentation "Iraq in Crisis" Feb. 2. His message was clear: the Muslim world must be reunited under one government. An Islamic government supported by its people. This ideology is Bokhari's life work.

Bokhari, a senior majoring in political science, is far from an ordinary undergraduate student at SMSU. At age 30, he is the official spokesperson for the Al-Muhajiroun in North America, which in Arabic means "The Immigrants." It is an organization that is active in many Muslim countries. Al-Muhajiroun actively advocates social, economic and political change within the Muslim world. Bokhari said the word Muhajiroun is used 76 times in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam."

"Bokhari was born in Islamabad, Pakistan, the country's capital city. He lived there until he was 3 years old and then his family moved to New York City. Since then he has fluidly shifted between Pakistan and New York, and for a few years lived in India. Bokhari's father works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan and throughout his career he has been posted in various countries and embassies. Bokhari said he was lucky to have a father who worked in that area of government. Because of it, he has been afforded the rare opportunity to see the world. Bokhari's father is now employed in the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York City. Bokhari's mother was a schoolteacher and he has two younger sisters."

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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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MIM: In 2003 Choudary was interviewed by the BBC after two men affiliated with the group went to Israel using their British passports and perpetrated a suicide bombing in which 3 people were killed and scores injured.The wife of one of the bombers was also tried after it was discovered that she was translating the lectures of AM leader Omar Bakri Mohammed glorifying suicide attacks. It was also disclosed that one of the London bombers had visited Israel and had contact with the two suicide bombers before they carried out their attacks.

MIM: Press release announcing Choudary interview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/05_may/08/hardtalk_anjem_choudary.shtml

Last week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv has focused attention on a British-based Muslim organisation that offered spiritual guidance to one of the bombers and has been accused of training them.


Anjem Choudary, the leader of Al Muhajiroun in the UK, denies the accusation but has refused to condemn the attack.


Tim Sebastian asks him what does he think attacks like this can achieve?

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/838