Among the speakers was Abu Hamza, head of the Supporters of Shariah. One of many dissident Muslims using London as a haven, under previously lax anti-terrorist laws, Abu Hamza lost both his hands fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. His ongoing links with fundamentalist Middle East activities were highlighted by the recent arrest of his son, in connection with hostage-taking and bomb-plots in the Yemen.
From his base at the North London Central Mosque in Finsbury Park, the 41-year old Egyptian former bodyguard runs SoS by mobile phone and a web-site. At weekly meetings and military training camps, Abu Hamza seeks to counter the ‘terrorism of the West’.
Hamza told the conference there is a global conspiracy against Muslims, who are seen by almost every religion and culture as an enemy. ‘Islam needs the sword’, he declared to the audience. ‘Whoever has the sword- he will have the earth.’ This prompted a feverish chorus of Allah Akhbar (God is great) and the waving of black Ar-Raya flags, used by Muslim armies as a standard during jihad (Islamic holy war).
Abu Hamza is not alone. A recent pamphlet on Islamophobia from the equally radical British group Al-Muhajiroun, led by Omar Bakhri, pointed out, ‘The animosity of the kuffar (infidel) against the Muslims is so apparent that the Ummah (Muslim community) is being butchered on a global scale. How is it that the UN and US can mobilise an army overnight to bomb Muslims in Iraq, yet take years to mobilise an army in Kosovo against the Serbs?’
The answer is simple- Muslims must fight back themselves. And the battleground is not just the Balkans and the Middle East. Britain’s Muslim community is increasingly challenging the need to conform to Western ideals and is fighting for a more Islamic way of life in Britain.
Al-Muhajiroun has called on Britain’s apathetic Muslim youth to act. ‘The disease of secularism is against Islam. Man-made laws cause destruction everywhere,’ said Omar Bakhri. He urged young Muslims to ‘obey no law but the law of Allah, wherever we are’, and to abandon Westernized practices, even such as abbreviating the name Mohammed to ‘Mo’. The idea is to create a ‘powerful fifth column’ devoting time, money and effort to fighting British secularism.
More than one young Muslim has found this inspirational. ‘It is part of my obligation as a Muslim to support the Ummah in wealth, words and action,’ said a 25-year old at the February conference. Britain’s Sakina Security Services, founded by Muhammad Jameel, is providing one outlet by training Muslims in outdoor survival strategies and self-defence, and offering community-based personal security services. ‘Islam is not an aggressive belief but we have the right and obligation to defend ourselves,’ stated Jameel. ‘We are not going to escalate violence because we’re restricted in what we do by Islamic law.’
British Muslims should neither integrate nor isolate themselves to deal with Islamophobia, according to Omar Brooks of the Society of Converts to Islam. They should instead have the courage to be outspoken and force others to accept them. Jameel agrees. ‘The Muslim cannot blend with society,’ he said. ‘He changes society to blend with him.’
Adapted from Reuters, Mar 6 1999
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