Author: Rashmee Z Ahmed
Publication: The Times of India
Date: September 16, 2001
Those who might pilot the flying
bombs of tomorrow walk these streets, take the tube, work out at neighbourhood
gyms, go on rough camping holidays and buy books from local bookstores.
They are also likely to be receptive to the prescriptions of Al Muhajiroun,
a north London organisation spread across 25 British cities and most often
associated with recruiting young British Muslims to train for jihad in
distant lands. Tomorrow's holy warriors pay particular attention to the
last four activities, for these constitute the basic tenets of the simple
prescribed training for jihad.
We have it orb good authority, notably
Anjem Chaudhary, 34, who heads Al Muhajiroun, which translates as The Emmigrant.
"We are the only organisation in Europe to openly endorse jihad," Chaudhary
said.
Kashmir, Chechnya, the Palestinian
territories, Al Muhajiroun is openly and outspokenly concerned about them
all. Six months ago, a spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin,
called on Britain to ban Al Muhajiroun under its new terrorism law, alleging,
it was the European hub of the waves of fighters converging on the Caucasus
to wage a holy war. India should care as well. An alleged Al Muhajiroun
recruit from Birmingham blew himself up in a car in Srinagar on Christmas
Day.
Al Muhajiroun is wary. Both its
founder, Syrian-born Muslim cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed and Chaudhary,
the current head, pronounce in favour of jihad but deny they actually organise
training.
In the past, Sheikh Omar openly
admitted to being responsible for sending as many as 700 British undergraduates
to fight abroad, mostly in Kashmir. Now, is he more circumspect.
"Physical training is part of a
Muslim male's religious obligation, but I do not train anyone myself for
jihad," Sheikh Omar told the Sunday Times, "I am disabled".
Adds Chaudhary: "If you want to
describe us to your readers, we are a political and ideological movement
based on the principles of the Quran". However, Chaudhary does not deny
his own impulse to jihad or indeed that of other members of Al Muhajiroun.
"Outside of the organisation, we are individual Muslims, so yes, there
may be people inside and outside the organisation who are preparing to
go," he explains. "It is the duty of young, male Muslims to train for jihad.
I myself would hope to participate in a jihad".
So how do they do it? And does any
of this happen here in Britain, with its huge Muslim population, a traditional
safe haven for political refugees from around the world and rising tally
of angry allegations from as far afield as India, Egypt, Yemen and Russia
to crack down on potential jihadis sporting a British accent? "There are
no training camps here," stresses Chaudhary.
There is a reason for the over-emphasised
denial. It keeps Al Muhajiroun within the bounds of British law. And it
is apparently true. Chaudhary's unequivocal claim is backed by Jihad al
Khazen, London editor of Al Hayat, one of the largest-circulating Arabic-language
dailies.
More crucially still, it is affirmed
by Azaam publications, which maintains a London post box address and offers
much useful, practical information on how to become a jihadi: "There are
NO live-ammunition firearm training camps within the UK. One can obtain
almost any type of military training in some countries, legally, so there
is no need to risk going to prison for years just for learning how to use
a single firearm illegally".
The piece de resistance is the information
it offers to potential jihadis: "Jihadi military training is provided free
in Pakistan from the training centers of Mujahideen Lashkar-e-Taiba".
Sources say the prospect of free
training elsewhere, makes the UK an undesirable location for training camps.
More pertinently, as Chaudhary explains, Britain does not have conscription,
so jihadis are unable to obtain the low-cost, highly-skilled military training
they can easily get abroad. "North Africa, Pakistan, Afghanistan, even
the US," he says, "these are areas where the jihadi would go".
But while still here, tomorrow's
Mujahideen undertake other, crucial tasks, guided by Azzam: "Many Muslims
who are in the West have an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge in
a wide range of areas that can be of benefit to the Mujahideen. Examples
of these are: management, organisation, computer operation, computer set-up
and maintenance, foreign languages, radio satellite and tele-communications,
medicine, car mechanics etc. The Jihad does not only consist of one person
firing a gun." America's 19 hijacker-pilots with a deathwish were obviously
listening.
