Islamic supremacists planting "the seeds of an Islamic emirate" under Sharia

London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Hard-line fundamentalists have pledged to ban alcohol and gender mixing in new areas throughout the United Kingdom where Shariaa will be imposed. According to this plan, a large number of posters bearing the slogans “no gambling”, “no music and concerts”, “no nudity or vice”, and “no drugs and smoking” will be distributed. The posters announce “Beware: You are entering a Shariaa-controlled zone - Islamic rules enforced.”

The fundamentalists are scheduled to start the plan in Waltham Forest, part of the London City Council, later this month and they are also claiming that thousands of “Shariaa police” will monitor the compliance with the Shariaa rules in the streets.

Lawyer Anjem Choudary, former secretary general of Al-Muhajiroun and Al-Ghurabaa movements in Britain, has called for implementing this plan as an alternative to the government's attempts to combat violent extremism under the “prevention” strategy.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “there are 25 areas in Britain under the British antiterrorism law which were described as centers for extremists. But we will visit these areas in the suburbs of Birmingham and Manchester.” He added: As Islamists, we have a clear stand on gender mixing, taking drugs, gambling, vice, and concerts where everything becomes mixed up and also have a clear stand on democracy which we consider “unbelief.” He said “the Shariaa police will include others who do not belong to the fundamentalist trend.”

The former secretary general of Al-Muhajiroun, “Al-Ghurabaa, and Islam4UK warned “the antiterrorism strategy approved by British Home Secretary Theresa May will be confronted during the next two weeks starting with Waltham Forest where the campaign to distribute the posters about the Shariaa controlled zones will begin.” He added: “This means that the Muslim community in this zone will not tolerate drugs, alcohol, nudity, gambling, usury, or the free mixing of men and women which are the fruits of Western civilization.” He pointed out that “there will be a very intensive campaign to distribute the posters to Muslim and non-Muslim communities about what the Shariaa means economically, socially, and politically.”

He went on to explain that “a march will target Waltham Forest, including Walthamstow and Leyton. We will administer the zone as one under Shariaa and plant in the long term the seeds of an Islamic emirate. We wish to create a zone where Muslims can live together, deal among themselves, and interact with each other instead of interacting with society at large.” The former lawyer added “there are 25 zones in various parts of the country which the government has classified as ones suffering from the problem of violent extremism. We will go to these same zones which refuse to apply the Shariaa rules so as to apply them as this is the ideal way for dealing with the consumption of alcohol, vice, and the pattern of hooliganism in British cities. We are living among non-Muslims but should distinguish ourselves from them.”

Choudary announced in May plans to form Islamic “guardian angels” teams to help implement the Shariaa in various parts of the United Kingdom but changed his mind later on and came to believe that a “Shariaa police” would play a better role than the traditional police in maintaining order inside Muslim areas. Choudary said “we now have hundreds, and even thousands, throughout the country who are ready to go out into the streets on patrols for us and print between 10,000 and 50,000 posters for distribution.”

However, preacher Omar Bakri, founder of Al-Muhajiroun and “Al-Ghurabaa movements which were disbanded before he left Britain for Tripoli in north Lebanon after the 7/7 attacks in London, has told Asharq Al-Awsat “the true Muslim is required to implement what he can of the Shariaa in all matters of his life and to call on the society in which he lives to monotheism and apply Islamic Shariaa as it is the only divine one that is suitable for every place and age and has the divine cure for all the problems of man and humanity.”...