Radical sheikh makes his return

Sheikh Omar Bakri back online, slams anti-Muslim alliance of 'pigs', says Hizbullah 'is not real'


Extremist Islamist leader Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, banned from Britain after encouraging young Muslims to become suicide bombers, has broken his radio silence and reestablished contact directly with his UK followers from his new home in Beirut, Lebanon.
Six months before the July 7, 2005 London bomb attacks, Syrian-born Bakri told followers on an Internet chat room to join al-Qaeda, and instructed his listeners to commit acts of terrorism "wherever you are," citing the end of a "covenant of security" with Britain.
On February 13 and 14 of this year, Bakri returned to the same chat room. "The covenant (of security) has been restored," Bakri said on Tuesday evening, February 14. "Now tomorrow, there could be a change of the situation of the reality in Britain and you can do the jihad physically. It's not something rigid. The situation keeps changing," he warned.
Bakri said British Muslims should refrain from carrying out terror attacks on Britain, due to the British government's decision not to implement a number of anti-terror laws, but made it clear the 'ceasefire' was very fragile.
"I can see nowadays, they (the UK government) back down on a lot of things, and they are really giving a sense of security to the Muslim community in Britain. But now, if tomorrow (the British government) issues another new law, if they start to arrest you, and start to attack Muslims, this immediately is another situation," he said.
Bakri also called for Danish cartoonists who drew images of Islam's prophet Muhammad to be killed.
'Hatred will reign forever'
The sheikh's followers appeared excited by Bakri's online return. One user, with the screen name al-Ghurabaa, the name of the group formed by Bakri's British followers, said that sending petitions against the cartoons was useless. "Unless the petition is gonna have anthrax on it then forget about it," he wrote.
Barki spoke of an "alliance of kuffars (unbelievers)," between the "pigs of the Jews and Christians."
"The animosity of the Jews and Christians is going to be always there. And in particular the Jews," said Bakri.
Quoting the Koran, Bakri said: "Verily, you will find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers (Muslims) the Jews and those who are al-Mushrik (unbelievers)."
Speaking of the struggle between the "two camps" of Muslims and non-Muslims, Bakri declared: "The kuffar are one nation all of them together, communists, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and Jews, Christians, and we are so happy to see them all gathered together against us, because that shows us that we are on the right path. Therefore we should declare day and night to those kuffar, who worship the cow and those who worship the cross declare to them: We reject you. We disbelieve in you. We completely distance ourselves from you. And between us there is going to be animosity and hatred forever until you worship Allah exclusively."
Bakri then slammed British Muslim organizations, "those who claimed to be Muslims," describing them as "the fifth column who live among us who puts his fingers with the hands of the kuffars," naming the Muslim Council of Britain, and the Muslim Association of Britain, among others.
'Hizbullah just a propaganda machine'
Turning his attention to his new home country of Lebanon, Bakri, who promotes a fundamentalist Sunni Islamist interpretation, attacked Hizbullah as an Iranian puppet designed to promote Shiite Islam. He expressed frustration with what he said was Hizbullah's "propaganda" and "monopolization" of southern Lebanon.
"The reality is, Hizbullah, it is in my opinion, besides that it is Shiite and has allegiance to Iran and has alliance with Syria what people do not know, Hizbullah is a media platform. It is not a real organization that has a real military objective to liberate anything," he said.
Bakri, who participated in an Islamist attempt to overthrow the secular regime of Syria, once again attacked the Syrian government, saying: "Syria, the one that guarantees the security of Israel in south Lebanon, by not letting mujahadeen (holy warriors) go from there to attack. Because they put on the border Hizbullah, and Hizbullah prevents everybody, they don't want anyone there except for them, in order to monopolize the issues of so called resistance in jihad in south Lebanon they lose all credibility. I'm witnessing that in Lebanon now."
"I found it (Hizbullah) just people who want to promote Shiism and promote their own views and ideas, and make the Muslims weaker and weaker. They call for democracy, they call for secularism, they make alliance with the Kuffar. I don't feel Hizbullah has any agenda to liberate any land," he lamented.
'Hizbullah exaggerates attacks on Israel'
"Why is it allowed for Hizbullah to bomb Tel Aviv and to bomb Israel but it's forbidden for others?" Bakri asked. "I can tell you why. Simply because all the rockets Hizbullah launch is part of the framework of normal military exercise between Hizbullah and Israel. This is a necessary tool for propaganda in order to say that Shiites in Lebanon are fighting and to promote Shiism, which is really led by Iran," he said.
"Nasrallah said, you see, we throw at Israel 500 rockets; 500 rockets?! What are you talking about. You see, they throw two missiles, and they say 500 missiles. You can see how they exaggerate things achieving nothing. Hizbullah leaders say they have obedience, to whom? To Christian Maronites, to Lebanese government. Which itself is another tool, to implement kuffar (infidel) law, and alliance with the Syrian regime." Bakri added.
Bakri also mocked Hizbullah's claim that the disputed Sheba farms area, currently under Israeli control, is in fact Lebanese territory.
"All that they are talking about is they want to liberate Lebanese land. And by the way brothers, I can tell you something, don't say it to anyone, there is none of the Lebanese land under occupation left. Sheba farms, the Lebanese people say it belongs to Syria."