Al Muhajiroun – Vigilantes of Islam

Adrian Morgan

In March 2009, I wrote on FamilySecurityMatters.org about the activities of the British Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun (here and here). On March 10, 2009, former members of the disbanded group had been demonstrating in Luton, Bedfordshire. The objects of their rage were British troops from the Anglian Regiment who were staging a homecoming parade through the town center. There were not more than 15 Islamists carrying placards with provocative statements such as "Anglian Soldiers go to Hell" and accusing the soldiers who had served in Iraq of being "Butchers of Basra" and "Cowards Killers Extremists."

The small but vocal band of protesters attracted a deluge of media criticism, which of itself gave the group publicity. Though Al-Muhajiroun had been disbanded in 2004, it had persisted under the guise of other groups, all holding exactly the same membership. The group officially responsible for the Luton protest was called Islam 4 UK. This has a shared membership with Ahlus Sunna Wal Jammah (ASWJ) which had been formed by Sulayman Keeler and Anjem Choudary – formerly the acting head of Al-Muhajiroun – on November 18, 2005. On the morning after the protest, Choudary appeared on UK television to promote his extreme Salafist views.

An editorial in the Times newspaper condemned the Luton protest, but reiterated a commonly held, yet erroneous, assumption - that Al-Muhajiroun had been officially banned: "Al-Muhajiroun was banned because it glorified terrorism. While that legislation may appear expansive, it expresses a liberal impulse."

Al-Muhajiroun had not been banned, though two of its successor groups had been officially outlawed in Britain in July 2006. A simple check would have shown that Al-Muhajiroun had never been placed on the British government's list of 45 proscribed terrorist organizations.



The spiritual leader, or "emir" of Al-Muhajiroun, was the Syrian-born Islamist Omar Bakri Mohammed (aka Omar Bakri Fostok, born in 1958). He formed the group on February 16, 1996 with extreme members of the British branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Bakri had fled to Britain after he was deported from Saudi Arabia.

While in Saudi Arabia, Bakri formed an unofficial wing of the internatonal Hizb ut-Tahrir party, which is banned in that country. In 1983, after the official party suspended him, Bakri took his core group of 38 unofficial Hizb members and formed a group in Jeddah. He called this "Al-Muhajiroun" (The Emigrants). He was arrested twice in Saudi Arabia, in 1984 and in December 1985, for his links to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir party. Bakri arrived in Britain on January 14, 1986. He claimed political asylum and set up the British wing of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the same year, assisted by Farid Kassim, who had also come from Syria. Bakri left, or was expelled, at the start of 1996, and with his more radical followers formed his own group, "Al-Muhajiroun."

Bakri officially disbanded the group, on a voluntary basis, in October 2004. By the time that four Muslim terrorists' explosions ripped apart the bodies of 52 innocent people in London on 7/7/2005, two successor groups to Al-Muhajiroun had been formed with the approval of Omar Bakri Mohammed. These were called the Saviour Sect and Al Ghurabaa (the strangers). Both groups had Bakri as their spiritual leader, and their membership was the same as Al-Muhajiroun. Bakri left Britain in August 2005, but more spin-off groups followed, all having the same core membership.

One of these groups has an Internet presence. It is called "Islam 4 UK." At the end of May this year, this group made an announcement on its website: "...For almost a decade it struggled in its quest to re-establish the mighty Islamic State and moreover see the black flag of Islam fly high over 10 Downing Street; it also strived to confront the ills of society and invite the masses to the Deen of al-Islam as a complete way of life, and was extremely successful in doing so..... However, we would like to declare that after almost 15 years since the establishment of Al-Muhajiroun, and 5 years since its disbandment, Al-Muhajiroun is to be re-launched in the United Kingdom and to resume its activities as normal..."

Revival

The suggestion to relaunch Al-Muhajiroun is believed to have been made by Omar Bakri Mohammed from his base in Lebanon. Several leading figures within the spin-off groups had been placed in jail. The most notorious of these was Abu Izzadeen, who was sentenced to four and a half years on April 21, 2008 for fundraising for terrorism and inciting terrorism overseas.



At the time of Islam 4 UK's announcement that Al-Muhajiroun was to be revived, Abu Izzadeen was already out of jail. He and five other members of Al-Muhajiroun spin-off groups who were jailed at the same time appealed the length of their sentences. According to the Sun newspaper, all had had their sentences reduced. Izzadeen's sentence was reduced to three and a half years and on May 5th, Izzadeen (real name Trevor Brooks) was free.



Islam 4 UK/Ahlus Sunna Wal Jamaah wanted to have a big celebration of their relaunch of Al Muhajiroun. A meeting entitled "Sharia Law Versus British Law" was scheduled at Conway Hall in Holborn, Central London, on the evening of June 18th. The meeting was hosted by South Place Ethical Society, which owns the hall. A debate was planned to be held between Anjem Choudary, former acting head of Al-Muhajiroun and Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion. Choudary had been the group's deputy leader before it was officially dissolved in 2004. He was described on publicity material (pictured) as the "Principle (sic) of the London School of Shariah." Murray has been a vocal critic of the group and its descendants.

The meeting was doomed before it began, as males from Al-Muhajiroun demanded that men and women should be segregated. Some of the Islamists who had posted themselves outside the hall tried to prevent women from entering the building. Women who did manage to enter were forced to sit in an upstairs gallery. Giles Enders, the chairman of South Place Ethical Society, mounted the stage and declared: "A group of thugs at the door have refused to let women in. I'm cancelling this meeting."

There were jeers and cat-calls from the Islamists. Choudary accused Murray of cowardice for not mounting the stage, and as a large and angry group of individuals had formed outside Conway Hall, the police were called. No arrests were made.

One woman journalist, who had been forcibly separated from her male companion at the event, wrote: "To listen to their protestations to the press and police, one would think that they were innocent victims of an assault orchestrated by extremist non-Muslim elements who had hijacked the event and free speech but the members of the group proved themselves to be intransigent, obstreperous, aggressive and childish."

Baroness Pauline-Neville Jones, who is the opposition Tory Party's shadow security minister, said after the event: "This is going to be a test of whether the Government is serious about proscribing organisations which espouse extremism or incite violence or hatred against people, be they British or from overseas."

One Member of Parliament, Andrew Dismore, has repeatedly called for Al-Muhajiroun to be banned. He first urged the government to ban the group in 1998, and after the events of 9/11, which were widely celebrated by Al-Muhajiroun, he again called for the group to be banned. The Labour Party has been in power since 1997, and it has had numerous individuals holding the post of Home Secretary.

Only a Home Secretary could ban the group, but none has so far done so. The latest Home Secretary is Alan Johnson, who took his role last month after the incumbent, Jacqui Smith, resigned in June 2009. Smith had admitted claiming "expenses" from the taxpayer for the cost of pornographic movies that her husband had watched.

Abu Izzadeen had previously heckled politicians such as George Galloway and a British Home Secretary (John Reid on September 20, 2006). He had called for the decapitation of Muslims who join Britain's army, and it was unsurprising that he did not remain out of jail for long.

Izzadeen had been placed in temporary accommodation in West London, away from his usual home in Stoke Newington, East London. Part of the terms for his early release included being checked on at this temporary address, to confirm his residency. Police called to carry out these checks. On June 25th, Izzadeen lost his temper with his monitors and went into one of his famous tantrums, this time interspersed with four-letter insults. Having broken the terms of his bond, Izzadeen was returned to jail.

Negative Causes, Negative Effects

Though Al-Muhajiroun has never had more than a thousand members in Britain, it has been disproportionately influential, punching far above its weight. Between 2001 and 2002, it formed a "Jihadi pipeline" to assist young British Muslims to travel into Afghanistan to fight against coalition troops. It has inspired individuals to plot acts of terrorism, and some of its active members have gone on to take part in deadly terrorist attacks.



In very recent history, two British terrorist cases have invoked the name of Al-Muhajiroun. On July 17th this year, a young man from Bristol was jailed for at least ten years for making an explosive with intent to endanger life and property, between April 8 and April 17, 2008. 20-year old Andrew (Isa) Ibrahim (pictured) was convicted of came from a wealthy background. His father, a Coptic Christian, came from Egypt and works as a pathologist, while his English mother works as a university administrator.

Ibrahim had started taking drugs aged 12, and had become a heroin addict, He converted to Islam aged 16 and continued to take drugs. He had been urged to leave home and his parents had provided him with an apartment. Eventually, after a period of homelessness, he became a student. In January 2008 he had been re-housed in a quiet neighborhood of Bristol. Here, Ibrahim developed explosives from materials he had purchased in the city. He made his own HMTD, a high explosive (hexamethylene triperoxide diamine) and had even made a suicide vest. His lawyer offered the unusual defense that Ibrahim was a "prat" and a "nobody," a "weak, lonely figure" who did not intend to actually detonate a bomb.

Ibrahim admitted creating explosive materials, but had denied intending to cause carnage. On his path from loner to potential suicide bomber, Ibrahim had searched on the internet for the sermons of Abu Hamza, as well as those of Omar Bakri Mohammed and Al-Muhajiroun.



In September 2008, an American journalist, Sherry Jones, was attempting to have her novel published. This book, called The Jewel of Medina, had as its subject Aisha, the child-bride of Islam's prophet. Though the book was cavalier with its facts, raising the age of Aisha's consummation from nine to eleven years, publisher Random House dropped the book in May of that year, citing issues of safety for its staff as the reason.

In Britain, Dutch-born publisher Martin Rynja owns Gibson Square Books. He had announced in September 2008 that he would publish the book, although its publication had already caused controversy.

On Saturday September 28 2008, Martin Rynja's home in Lonsdale Square, Islington, where he had his main office, was firebombed. Diesel fuel had been poured over the door and set alight. Three Muslim individuals were arrested. Two were arrested at the scene and the third, their driver, was arrested at Angel tube station nearby. Martin Rynja had been warned on the night before the attack to vacate the premises as the police, alerted by a tip-off, had been keeping the attackers under surveillance, even capturing the men on video on the night of the attack.



The three individuals were convicted in mid-May. On Tuesday, July 8, 2009, the three attackers were each jailed for four and a half years at Croydon Crown Court. 41-year-old Ali Beheshti (pictured, posing with gun) came from Ilford, 23-year-old Abrar Mirza came from Walthamstow. 31-year-old Abbas Taj – the getaway driver – originally came from Somalia, and was a trustee of the Muslim Prisoner Support Group.

British-born Ali Beheshti led the group. He had been a member of Al-Muhajiroun until it was disbanded in October 2004. Since then, he had been involved in the activities of the groups that succeeded Al-Muhajiroun, yet contained the same members. Beheshti had taken part in a London demonstration on February 3, 2006 that was organized by Anjem Choudary, the former deputy leader of Al-Muhajiroun.




At this infamous demonstration, which protested the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, Beheshti had called himself "Abu Jihad." Controversially, Beheshti had also brought his daughter Farishta, then aged only 20 months. The little girl was made to wear a hat that bore the words "I love Al Qaeda" (pictured), where the word “love” had been represented by a red heart. She was photographed next to a placard that read: "Whoever insults a prophet kill him."

According to the Metropolitan Police, the fire-bombers had used Google Earth to work out the location of Martin Rynja's home, and evidence retrieved on mobile phones showed that Beheshti had made a reconnaissance video at the location, on September 9, 2008. Images were also found on Beheshti's computer, depicting his behavior at a demonstration in 2005.

On May 20, 2005, in the presence of Anjem Choudary and Omar Bakri Mohammed, Ali Beheshti had been involved in an anti-war demonstration outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London. Here, according to police, Beheshti was burning a cross and burned his hands while putting on this show. The "cross" was not a cross but two pieces of wood that supported an image that was set alight, either a picture of a U.S. flag or (as claimed by the Telegraph) a picture of George W. Bush.

Deliberate Provocations

The incident in Luton involved only a few people on the street, yet it was widely reported in the media inside Britain and beyond. The day after the first protest, the Islamists vowed to continue protests at the homecoming parades of British soldiers. The Al-Muhajiroun group had maintained an active presence in Luton since 2001. The provocative stance of the group had hardly changed throughout the years that the group had been active, but on June 1st this year, an ugly backlash took place in the town.



About 500 white men, many wearing balaclavas to disguise their faces, held a march in the town. They claimed to belong to two groups – "March for England" and "United People of Luton." Soon the protest turned into a riot, with police attacked. There were nine arrests, and a man who was assumed to be a Muslim was attacked with a banner and was left with a bleeding nose. A group of south Asians were trapped in a restaurant.

Some of the rabble wore cardboard masks. These depicted the leader of the local branch of Islam 4 UK, who had previously been Al Muhajiroun's regional representative. The masks had red horns, and bore the words "SICK VALUES." This demonized individual goes under the name of "Sayful Islam" ("Sword of Islam"), but his real name is Ishtiaq Alamgir.



Sayful Islam (pictured) frequently mans a roadside stall in Luton, accompanied by other Islam 4 UK/Al-Muhajiroun supporters. He has never made a secret of his contempt for Britain and Britishness. In April 2004, the London Evening Standard revealed his views. Sayful Islam, a former employee of the Inland Revenue (Britain's equivalent of the IRS) said: "When a bomb attack happens here, I won't be against it, even if it kills my own children. Islam is clear: Muslims living in lands that are occupied have the right to attack their invaders."

Sayful Islam's Luton friends in Al-Muhajiroun at that time were more vocal. One said: "As far as I'm concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the better. I know it's going to happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey, like Madrid – I pray for it, I look forward to the day." This individual was a social worker. Another associate longed for the day when London would be attacked by nuclear weaponry or biological weapons.

On April 19, 2004, the day before the Evening Standard interview, Omar Bakri Mohammed had been quoted in an article in the Lisbon, Portugal, magazine "Publica". Here, Bakri had spoken of several attacks upon London that were being planned. He spoke of a group calling itself "Al-Qaeda Europe" reputedly had a "great appeal for young Muslims. I know that they are ready to launch a big operation."

Bakri stated: "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity."

Bakri's statements were more than prophetic. Members of Al-Muhajiroun were arrested on March 30th that year, awaiting trial for planning attacks using ammonium nitrate. The leader of that particular cell had several meetings with Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, who would later be part of the four-man suicide team that carried out the London bombings of 7/7, 2005. One individual intimately connected with putting both Khan and Tanweer and the Al-Muhajiroun terrorists in contact with al Qaeda in Pakistan worked as a taxi-driver in Luton. His name was Mohammed Quayyum Khan – or "Q" – and he had contacts with Omar Bakri Mohammed. A former mosque leader claimed that "Q" had brought Bakri to Luton. Q was under surveillance but was never charged. He has now disappeared.

Luton was also one of the towns from which British Jihadists had embarked on the Jihadi pipeline, which had been set up by Al-Muhajiroun to supply fighters against coalition troops in Afghanistan. On October 27, 2001, an Al-Muhajiroun spokesman claimed that four British Jihadists had died in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed by an American rocket. Three of these men were said to have come from Luton, though one (Yasir Khan) came from Crawley in Sussex.

Before Sayful Islam (aka Ishtiaq Alamgir) was the head of the Luton branch of Al-Muhajiroun, his predecessor had been harshly condemned by Luton's mainstream Muslims. This individual, known only as "Shahed," had publicly celebrated the deaths in Kabul of the British jihadists. He was accompanied by 10 supporters. He had said that it was the duty of every Muslim to fight for the Taliban. As a result Shahed was physically beaten on October 29, 2001 by three "moderate" Muslims.

In the atmosphere of uncertainty following 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, moderate Muslims were scared that the strident attitudes of Al-Muhajiroun would bring reprisals to their communities. As one Luton Muslim said, referring to race riots that had taken place that summer: "It happened in Oldham, it happened in Bradford, and this week is the acid test for us." There were fears that white soccer thugs called the "Men in Gear" who had attacked South Asians in Luton a decade earlier, would once again attack.

On June 1, 2009, the deliberately provocative actions of Al-Muhajiroun did bring racially-motivated violence to the streets of Luton. On March 10, 2009, the day Sayful Islam's small band harangued soldiers from the Anglian regiment, the Sikh mayor of Luton was physically attacked. Because he wore a turban, he was assumed to be a Muslim by Keir McElroy, a young white soccer supporter.

Dividing communities and creating conflict are some of the aims of Al-Muhajiroun. The backlash that happened in Luton on June 1st this year was ugly and unproductive, but it was inevitable. Al-Muhajiroun has exploited the weaknesses of the current British government. The Labour party came to power on May 27, 1997, just over a year after Al-Muhajiroun was founded. It is impossible to effectively describe the activities and influence of Al-Muhajiroun without also discussing the government whose policies of appeasement and multiculturalism have allowed the group's virulently anti-Western and anti-democratic policies to thrive.

There are lessons for Americans to learn, as the current administration seems to be sleepwalking into the same mindset that has characterized Britain's politics over the past dozen years, and has brought the country to its knees. Al-Muhajiroun has also been active in the United Sates. In Britain, Muslims who believe in Western ideals have been sidelined by a government that has allowed anti-Semitic Islamists and their supporters to act as its official advisers. The current recession will act as a recruiting tool for extremists in Britain and also in America. In the past, Omar Bakri Mohammed claimed that unemployment had assisted Al-Muhajiroun's recruitment of new members.

Though the members of Al-Muhajiroun may be few in number, their intransigent and confrontational attitudes have done more to damage social cohesion in Britain's Muslim and non-Muslim communities than any other group. In subsequent articles here, I will detail the history of Al-Muhajiroun and its close associates, and their links to extremism and terrorism. I will also show how the UK government inadvertently created the conditions for the organization's growth.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Adrian Morgan is a British-based writer and artist who has written for Western Resistance since its inception. He also writes for Spero News. He has previously contributed to various publications, including the Guardian and New Scientist and is a former Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society. He is currently compiling a book on the demise of democracy and the growth of extremism in Britain. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
.