Author: Richard Alleyne
Publication: The Daily Telegraph,
UK
Date: November 15, 2001
Members of extreme Muslim groups
in Britain remained defiant yesterday despite the apparent collapse of
the Taliban regime.
Omar Bakri Muhammad, the leader
of Al-Muhajiroun group, claimed that far from the war coming to an end
it had only just begun.
And Abu Hamza, of the Supporters
of Shari'ah, said that even if the Taliban regime had been defeated, the
war would only increase solidarity among Muslim people around the world.
Mr Muhammad, who in the past has
been reported as issuing a fatwa against John Major, said that the "withdrawal"
of the Taliban was a tactic to draw in Western soldiers, who would become
legitimate targets.
"The Taliban have not fallen," he
said. "They let the Northern Alliance come in. They welcomed them in. It
is the only wav they can stop the bombing of the cities.
"It is a tactical withdrawal. They
want the Western forces to come. It will justify the jihad.
"They will now become guerrillas.
It will be hit and run. The war will go on and on as long as there are
foreign forces with the Northern Alliance. The Taliban forces are now in
a safe place. I have no doubt they will claim back the cities."
Mr Muhammad, who has a home in Edmonton,
north London, and used to run an office in nearby Tottenham, said that
the Northern Alliance soldiers had betrayed their religion.
"As far as Muslims are concerned
the Northern Alliance soldiers are traitors. Whoever aligns with non-Muslims
against Muslims are no longer Muslim," he said.
"It is written in the Koran. This
is not the end. It is the beginning. The fighters against America and Britain
will become martyrs. They die for their own belief. To be killed in a horrible
way is the best way to become a martyr.
"Those seen to die in the media
are going to eternity in paradise. These deaths by the Northern Alliance
will provoke more Muslims to choose to become martyrs.
"The Arabs and Pakistanis killed
were aid workers. I do not know if there were any Britons. But it makes
no difference. They will all become martyrs."
Abdul Rehman Saleem, the spokesman
of the group in Pakistan, added: "Of course this is a tactical retreat.
They will now begin guerrilla warfare. I have been told that Osama bin
Laden has 500 people ready for suicide operations."
He then criticised mainstream Muslims
in Britain. "They are not clerics. They are stooges of the Western government."
