This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3380
February 26, 2008
UK's Top Jihadist Convicted In London Trial
By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz
February 26, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Ending a four-year investigation, Mohammed Hamid, the UK's self styled "Osama bin-London," was convicted today on three counts of providing terror training and three counts of soliciting murder in Woolwich Crown Court.
Seven members of Hamid's cell have also been convicted in various proceedings over the last year.
Of the successful prosecution, Peter Clarke of the Metropolitan Police stated, "If you want to judge how serious Hamid, Ahmet and the others were, you just have to look at the group...The group included the people responsible for the attacks in London on 21 July 2005. You have to look at the fact that they celebrated the deaths that occurred on 7 July..in fact what they were doing accelerated and intensified to try to mount attacks both here and overseas...You can only possibly conclude that these were serious determined terrorists."
Researchers have identified Hamid as having been one of the most important terror recruiters operating in the UK, seeking out the disaffected and impressionable so they could be folded into the global jihad. Training sessions were held during camping trips organized around the English countryside by Hamid who also conducted what amounted to terror seminars held at his residence.
Hamid's terror associations were many and his network was extensive. For example, four of the men involved in the abortive July 21, 2005 attempted London bombing knew and were trained by him. The case is of additional importance because it demonstrated that there has been a substantial amount of radicalization among the UK's Muslim population and that the potential for home-grown terrorism is significant.
Evidence presented at the trial indicated that Hamid sent a text message on the evening after the 7/7 London bombing, to one of the defendants in the failed 7/25 bombing and that he had been preaching to young Muslim men in various places around London, including Hyde Park and his own Islamic bookstore for nearly 12 years, encouraging them to take up arms and participate in jihad. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hamid2.26.08%2Ehtm
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3380