Page 44 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Al Muhajiroun———17

waiting car and drove away. The truck bomb exploded to reestablish “true” Islam, often using harsh anti-
within minutes. The enormous blast, heard 20 miles Semitic language to call for the wiping out of other
away, destroyed the north side of the building. religions. Although Muhammad’s application for
Al-Mughassil was one of 14 charged on June 21, British citizenship has been rejected several times, he
2001, in the Khobar Towers case. Eleven of the men was granted “exceptional leave to remain” because the
charged are in Saudi custody, while three remain fugi- Syrian government rescinded his passport and is not
tives. Saudi Arabia has challenged U.S. jurisdiction in likely to issue him another one.
the Khobar case and has refused to extradite the men, Al-Muhajiroun is not outlawed in England, although
as the attack happened on Saudi soil and was commit- it has come under increased scrutiny by Scotland Yard
ted mostly by Saudi citizens. since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World
Three others indicted in the Khobar case, al-Nasser, Trade Center and the Pentagon. The chairman of the
Ibrahim Salih Mohammed al-Yacoub, and Ali Saed Muslim Parliament of Great Britain called the group
bin Ali el-Hoorie, are also on the FBI’s “most wanted” “nutters” in London’s Independent newspaper and
list. The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of advised that a crackdown on the group’s activities
up to $25 million for information leading directly to would exaggerate its importance.
the arrest or indictment of al-Mughassil. During the U.S.-led air raids on Afghanistan in
retaliation for the September 11 attacks, Al Muhajiroun
See also ABDELKARIM HUSSEIN MOHAMED AL-NASSER;
leaders gave public lectures telling young British
IBRAHIM SALIH MOHAMMED AL-YACOUB; ALI SAED BIN ALI
Muslims that their duty was to travel to Afghanistan and
EL-HOORIE; HEZBOLLAH; KHOBAR TOWERS BOMBING
fight on the side of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
Further Reading Members of the group later boasted that as many as 600
British Muslims had gone to Afghanistan to fight. They
Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Most Wanted Terrorists.” were unable to substantiate these claims, however.
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/fugitives.htm, When Britain joined the military strikes against
October 2001.
Melson, Kenneth E., United States Attorney. “Khobar Afghanistan in October 2001, an Al Muhajiroun
Indictment.” U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Vir- spokesperson in Pakistan told the London-based Arabic
ginia, Alexandria Division. http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/ newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Prime Minister Tony
pr/2001/June/khobarindictment.wpd, May 23, 2001. Blair was a “legitimate target” for assassination. Under
“A Nation Challenged: The Hunted; The 22 Most Wanted intense press scrutiny, Muhammad told British journal-
Suspects, in a Five-Act Drama of Global Terror.” ists that his group engaged in “political and intellectual
New York Times, October 14, 2001, 1B. attacks, not violent ones.” He also condemned the
Walsh, Elsa. “Louis Freeh’s Last Case.” The New Yorker, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
May 14, 2001. He said that the attacks were not the work of bin Laden
and Al Qaeda but instead carried out by a covert group
of “Anglo-Saxon Americans” who wanted to provoke
AL MUHAJIROUN war between the West and Islam.
In November 2001, Al Muhajiroun provoked
further outcry in Britain by claiming that at least three
The extremist Muslim group Al Muhajiroun was British Muslims fighting with the Taliban and Al
founded in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 1983 by the Qaeda in Afghanistan had died during the bombing.
radical cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad. The However, Al Muhajiroun was unable to provide solid
small group, now based at the Finsbury Park mosque facts to back its claim. Family members of one of the
in North London, has been largely dismissed by main-
men named by Al Muhajiroun said that he was in
stream Muslim religious leaders as a band of “propa-
Afghanistan as an aid worker.
ganda seeking extremists” and is often written off by
British commentators as a bothersome joke. See also OSAMA BIN LADEN; TALIBAN
Muhammad, a Syrian, was expelled from Saudi
Arabia and has lived legally in London since 1986. Further Reading
Known in British tabloid headlines as the “Tottenham Carrell, Severin, and Jakob Menge. “Attack on Afghanistan:
Ayatollah,” Muhammad urges his followers to fight Home-Grown Extremists; We Help Britons Join Taliban,