UK-based Muslim preacher leading jihad in Syria

Britain's newest export: jihad. "The Poplar preacher leading an armed gang of jihadis in Syria," by Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, October 19 (thanks to 538):

An influential British-based preacher is leading an armed gang of more than a hundred Islamist fighters in Syria, it can be disclosed.
In a video posted on the internet in the last few days, Abu Basir al-Tartusi can be seen on a balcony surrounded by Kalashnikov waving rebels after apparently capturing a hilltop village in the war-torn country.

Security sources believe that dozens of British extremists, possibly as many as 50, have travelled to Syria to join the fighting and some may have been recruited by Basir.

This week a junior doctor of Bangladeshi origin from, East London was charged with kidnapping two photographers in Syria, where he was said to be part of a 15-strong group of Britons.

The security services are concerned that the brutal conflict in Syria could become a "new Afghanistan" drawing in young men who return to Britain radicalised and keen to continue a fight to spread Islam.

A source said the numbers were "small but increasing" and there were concerns about "who they meet and the knowledge they could gain."

Basir, whose real name is Abdal Munem Mustafa Halima, was running classes at the al-Ansar Institute in Poplar, East London just months ago. He has his own website and his sermons are readily available on the internet.

The preacher has been based in Britain since fleeing the Assad regime following an uprising in the early 1980s.

He has been compared with fellow preacher Abu Qatada and was described by one academic as one of the "most influential and most prolific radical scholars in the world right now" and by another as one of the "primary Salafi [fundamentalist] opinion-makers guiding the jihadi movement."

Usama Hasan of the Quilliam think-tank said: "Basir is a leading jihadi theologian on a level with Abu Qatada. Syria has become the number one destination for wannabe jihadis and no one knows who is recruiting them, but it could easily be Basir."

Aaron Zelin, of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, who monitors radical groups in Syria, said Basir had been described as the “emir” of one brigade but the name Ansar al-Sham appeared to be new.

Basir's first video from Syria appeared in links from radical forums to the YouTube video-sharing site in May, labelled: "Shaykh Abu Baseer al-Tartousi In Jihad in Syria!"

It featured Basir sitting in a circle, clutching a stick and lecturing a group of his students, one of them holding a Kalashnikov.

Subsequent photographs and videos showed Tartusi brandishing his own Russian-made assault rifle and a video showed the death of his nephew in the fighting.

He now features in regular updates on his Arabic-language Facebook page labelled "The Islamic Opposition to the Regime in Syria," the most recent posted on Friday....

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4 Comments

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dumbledoresarmy | October 21, 2012 3:57 PM | Reply

Memo to the Authorities in the UK:

This bloke is right where he belongs - deep inside dar al Islam, fighting like cats and dogs with other Muslims whom he deems to be the wrong kind of Muslim, and who in turn deem *him* to be the wrong kind of Muslim.

Leave him there.

DON'T let him back into Britain or into any other part of the lands of the Infidels.

Cancel his British citizenship papers, if so be he possesses them; cancel his British passport.

Or officially and publicly declare him Outlaw, or publicly place him under a ban of Exile For The Term of Your Natural Life.

And don't hinder any of the others who are preparing to swan off to the Jihad in Syria; if so be you have a reasonable suspicion that this or that Muslim, leaving the UK, is off to the Jihad, then...BAM! bring down the gates with a clang behind them, cancel their citizenship or their residency papers, and be done with it: X [number of aspiring jihadis heading off to Syria] fewer Muslims on British soil. And with any luck the Alawite snipers or rocketeers will take them out.

Combine the - enthusiastically self-funded - self-deportation of Muslim wannabe jihadists, with a ban on further Muslim *immigration*, and things would gradually start to look up for British infidels...

dumbledoresarmy | October 21, 2012 9:58 PM | Reply

From the article - "dozens of British extremists, possibly as many as 50"

They are not 'British'.

They are 'dozens of Muslims with British passports'.

Again:

"a 15-strong group of Britons."

Nope, NOT 'Britons' but, rather, 'British-passport-carrying Muslims'.

It is abundantly clear that their prime and only loyalty is to the Sunni portion of the Ummah, or Mohammedan Mob.

'The preacher has been based in Britain since fleeing the Assad regime following an uprising in the early 1980s.'

In other words, he was a fanatical Muslim Brotherhood type and cried 'persecution!' in order to gain asylum in Britain.

And Britain, with abysmal stupidity, let him in: pooor widdle persecuted lambkin that he was...

They should never, never, never have let him in.

Muslims fleeing from other Muslims, claiming 'persecution', should not be admitted.

NON-MUSLIMS, yes: Copts and such.

Muslims, proudly-card-carrying Muslims..no.

France should *never* have given asylum to the Ayatollah Khomeini.

The USA should EVICT Fethullah Gulen: it was absolute madness to allow him to claim 'asylum' because of his being in trouble with the somewhat-secular regime in Turkey, and ensconce himself in the USA, and spin his sticky webs all over.

Final passage that stood out, from this report:

'The security services are concerned that the brutal conflict in Syria could become a "new Afghanistan" drawing in young men (that is, 'young MUSLIM men' - dda] **who return to Britain radicalised and keen to continue a fight to spread Islam.** {my emphasis - dda}.

Why, pray, is it so damn impossible to prevent them from **returning**? There would be NO need to be 'concerned' about Syria becoming a 'new Afghanistan' and drawing in young Muslim men, **so long as those young Muslim men were prevented from coming back into Britain! - dda

'A source said the numbers were "small but increasing" and there were concerns about "who they meet and the knowledge they could gain."

Good god, just STOP them from coming back in, and you won't *have* to be 'concerned' about 'who they meet and the knowledge they could gain'.

I would encourage all UK jihadwatchers to write to the relevant government ministers, and to their own MPs, *demanding* that something be done, *not* to stop these Mohammedthugs from *leaving*, but, rather...**to stop them from ever coming back, once they are known to have gone!**.

There is , so far as I can see, NO valid reason for permitting them to return, all fired up and battle hardened and ready, when the imam/s give the signal, to start **killing non-Muslims wholesale** ON BRITISH SOIL!!

Bewick114 replied to comment from dumbledoresarmy | October 22, 2012 7:56 AM | Reply

Funnily enough I tried to comment or write to Duncan Gardham but there was, unusually, neither means on the Telegraph site so I wrote to the Telegraph instead.
When I returned to this article "no comments" had become two - both from you.

Your comments said much the same as mine to the Telegraph. I went a little further though and said that
1. ALL welfare (jizzya) payments should be stopped. Most of these jihadists will still be being paid benefits. IF they aren't then how can they take time off work and afford to go to Syria?
2. The whole extended family should be deported whether "British" or not. They are all likely to have dual citizenship and/or multiple aliases and passports.
3. That there were likely rather more than the quoted 50 in Syria alone, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, in other conflict zones and some would be actually fighting against the British military (and other westerners).
4, That just as muslims take offence at cartoons and films and articles I take grave offence that thes people are described as "British". They aren't and never will be.

Charlie Griffith | October 22, 2012 8:29 AM | Reply

General Observation:

It seems as if the U.K. and the U.S.A. are having a huge problem with "political correctness" and "civil rights" and perceptions of "racism"....all, and each one, stemming from our Muslim enemy using our Constitutional freedoms against us in a perverse irony.

Here in America we call it "Lawfare" ...I don't know if the term originated with Robert Spencer or not...but whatever its origin, it is a very apt description of our growing problem.

The C.A.I.R. in particular, is very shrill in jumping to the ramparts at the merest perceived "slight".

The same applies to these Muslim users of United States Passports.

I've posted elsewhere that Muslims in America who're here because of our economic opportunities...meaning all of them...and who somehow have gained United States citizenship either by birth or naturalization procedures are straddling a very thorny hedge (no pun intended) of hypocrisy as their Koran seems so adamant about our materialism.

We have a very big problem and our media evade this.

Big thanks to Jihad Watch for their awareness.

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