The Times of India Sept 13, 2001

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'America had it coming'

RASHMEE Z AHMED

LONDON: In London, a disabled Muslim cleric with a passport revoked by the government, a following across continents and ambitions to convert the West to Islam, pronounces on the attacks in New York and Washington: "America had it coming".

Even as he faces the predictable rush of Western hostility and suspicion against a section of the Muslim community, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder and leader of the radical Al Muhajiroun group, told The Times of India, "Yes, it is Muslims who have done this. There is no one else who would feel that much anger against America".

Al Muhajiroun, which has offices here, in Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Mauritius, is alleged to train "fighters" for Kashmir, the Palestinian territories and Chechnya.

Sheikh Omar, who openly acknowledges that he shares ideas and information and has friends and acquaintances among some of the Muslim groups denounced as terrorist organisations worldwide, said in an exclusive interview that he had spoken to 68 groups since the attacks happened on Tuesday.

"I have spoken to everyone, jehadi groups, radical groups, people who offer support of all sorts. You name it: Algeria’s GIA, Hezbollah, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish –e Mohammed, Tanzeem ul Jihad of Egypt… none of them know who did it, none of them claim responsibility, but everyone is agreed that these are the consequences of American atrocities".

The Al-Muhajiroun leader, who is bitterly opposed to Britain’s new anti-terrorism law, "which makes it an offence even to carry a pamphlet supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba", added however, that he had not spoken to those close to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile that America regards as its enemy number one. "We don’t agree with bin Laden’s methodology," he said blandly.

In the hours since the attacks on American soil, the world media has been increasingly keen to hear the views of Sheikh Omar, a Syrian exile, who advocates pan-Islamic militancy against the West.

Craftily denying that he had "arms training camps," Sheikh Omar would only say that several young Muslim men in his group "follow their religious obligation to keep fit and have physical training".

Sheikh Omar, a spokesman for the International Islamic Front, is seen to represent the growing radical Islamic threat across the Western world, not least in Britain, France and Germany with their huge Muslim populations running into several millions.

Even as the British prime minister insisted on Wednesday that it was time for right-thinking Muslims to make clear that "acts of terrorism and savagery were wholly contrary to the Islamic faith", Sheikh Omar repeated that "Muslims believe that if they die for a just cause they go to paradise".

Commentators warn of the inherent potential for conflict, something West Asia expert Toby Dodge describes as "a very worrying climate for Muslims in Europe, especially with talk of a civilisational clash".

But Sheikh Omar, for one, remains unconcerned and outspoken. "They rush to judge Muslim groups because they feel guilty that they have done something to us. The question is not who did it, but why America creates more enemies than friends".

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), September 12, 2001

Answers

Nuke Mecca!

-- (Roland@hatemail.com), September 12, 2001.

Easy answer the the sheik's last question. Jealousy.

It's tough to be a loser. It's tough to look around the world to a nation where poverty is defined by having only one TV and one car.

Dunno. The rest of the world has been watching us for 200 years. What we do. How we've achieved our living standard. Don't how else we'd teach 'em.

Doesn't really matter now. When guys like this so successfully subvert a religion that the religion itself becomes a threat to mankind then it's time to pull of the collars, pull the trigger, take the heat and let God sort it out.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), September 12, 2001.

...afterward.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), September 12, 2001.

I'm sure this "holy" man of Allah will understand what he and his following of vipers have coming to them and will welcome the opportunity to enter Paradise.

-- Jack Booted Thug (governmentconspiracy@NWO.com), September 13, 2001.

PARADISE is a burning hell. What's good enuf for me may not be good enuf for America. I place my bets on America coming out on top. I'm an American and proud to be one. Any liberal asshole freak who wants to remain one...well, better keep your thoughts and feelings to yourself. I'm sure the Rescue Response Team in Manhattan can use your services to recover arms and limbs.

-- terrycloth (terrycloth@turban.com), September 13, 2001.

Keep our thoughts to ourselves? Hmmm is that the way a discussion board works?

-- (think@about. it), September 13, 2001.

FutureShock wants to nuke fuckers like you, and I agree with him.

-- Last (fuckin@fghani.should.die.too), September 13, 2001.

We need to take stupid fucks like this asshole that says we deserved this and burn them at the stake! Lets take our list of known terrorists and demand that the countries harboring them turn them over to us now (within 24 hours) or we nuke their countries. Fucking terrorists!!

-- Tony Baloney (Fuck the@terrorists.com), September 13, 2001.

"AMERICA HAD IT COMING", said Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
""The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this. And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God or successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'."
-- Jerry Falwell, The 700 Club, 9/13/01"
Listen to them on CBN video.

-- (TheFucks@mong.US), September 15, 2001.

Isn't religion a wonderful thing? Look how it brings the whole world together!

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrits, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The words of Jesus (Matthew 6:5-6)

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), September 15, 2001.