Al-Muhajiroun

This is a story of how political correctness, multiculturalism and denial permitted or enabled a terror network to flourish in the UK.

The network

The five men jailed for life in London last week for a fertiliser bomb plot were all members of a violent Islamist group. With a worldwide influence and a radicalised following, is al-Muhajiroun waiting to strike again? Jamie Doward and Andrew Wander report

Sunday May 6, 2007
The Observer

Rewind to London, Sunday, 8 September, 1996. Al-Muhajiroun, an obscure Islamist organisation, has booked the London Arena in Docklands for a conference dedicated to 'the struggle for Khilafah', the creation of an Islamic state. Speakers are to include Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, al-Muhajiroun's leader, who 10 years later will flee Britain to Lebanon after praising the 7 July London bombers.

Video addresses will be beamed in and letters of support are to be read. There will be one from Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas leader held in an Israeli prison for authorising the execution of two Israeli soldiers. There is another from Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, jailed in the US for plotting to set off bombs in New Jersey and New York.

There will also be an address on behalf of a man called Sheikh al-Jihad, better known as Osama Bin Laden, who a month earlier had publicly declared war on America.

Bin Laden's address, according to the conference organisers, will refer to the heroes of the Taliban. It will talk about Muslim suffering, about injustice, about the need to take action. For al-Muhajiroun this is a coming of age moment, the day the group emerged from its hinterland and on to the world stage.

At the time the conference, which the organisers cancelled at the last moment, raised hardly a blip on the radar of British intelligence. Now The Observer can reveal how al-Muhajiroun became the incubator of a global terror network that played a decisive role in radicalising the five 'fertiliser bomb' plotters jailed for life last week for planning a multiple bombing campaign at targets that included the Bluewater shopping centre in Essex, the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and Britain's domestic gas network.

Read more:

---

Isn't it interesting? Eventually all roads lead back to Pakistan. It might be time to shut down the roads leading in and out of Pakistan. By that, I mean monitor the "high roads" like airline flights . It shouldn't be too difficult to identify frequent flyer jihadis. A little profiling is definitely in order. Who would object? I'm sure that the international community will cooperate in such an endeavor and I doubt that anyone is still misled by the misguided notions of political correctness and multiculturalism. In a year or two we can have the bad ones all rounded up and then it will be a simple matter to implement the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies five step plan to reform the madrassas. (ht: Doug) It should be a simple police matter. No need to involve a military. These are religious men, after all. We can reason with them. We need dialogue, not guns....

US and EU want closer ties, but there is a problem

...and the problem is that these "English gentlemen", Islamic psychos all, are also holders of English passports. If you scan down the article you will come to the part about the EU wanting their citizens to not require visas. That is a problem. Their immigration standards are at least as bad as ours, but they are more generous in handing out ( in this case) English passports. What do you say about that?


US and EU foresee 'single market'

The United States and the European Union are to sign up to a new transatlantic economic partnership at a summit in Washington.
The pact is designed to boost trade and investment by harmonising regulatory standards, laying the basis for a US-EU single market.

The two sides will sign an Open Skies deal, designed to reduce fares and boost traffic on transatlantic flights.

But there will be only limited agreement on climate change.

Richest regions

The two sides will agree to set up an "economic council" to push ahead with regulatory convergence in nearly 40 areas, including intellectual property, financial services, business takeovers and the motor industry.


Without the US there can't be any success in coping with a globalised world
European diplomat

Limited hopes for EU-US summit
The aim is to increase trade and lower costs.

Some reports suggest that incompatible regulations in the world's two richest regions add 10% to the cost of developing and producing new cars.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said last month that if the US and EU can set business norms today, they will "secure the markets of tomorrow".

She has made repairing damaged relations with the US a top priority, since she came to office 18 months ago.

Emission cuts

According to the Reuters news agency, a draft statement to be agreed at the summit says climate change is a central challenge that requires "urgent, sustained, global action".

The draft reportedly also says the EU and US are committed to stabilising greenhouse gases, acknowledges the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and urges the development and commercialisation of advanced technologies to "significantly cut" global emissions.

But correspondents say Ms Merkel faces a hard task persuading the US to agree to binding international commitments on fighting climate change, before a G8 summit Germany is chairing in six weeks' time.

President George Bush has refused to impose national limits on greenhouse gas emissions, saying they would harm the international economy.

Visa hope

The EU is hoping that the US will agree to withdraw its demand for travellers from a number of EU states to apply for visas.

It also wants an agreement to start work on another aviation deal, that would deepen the Open Skies pact, and enable Europeans to buy US airlines.

The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, will also represent the EU side.

In three working sessions with President George Bush, they are expected to discuss Iran, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.