About time. From ITV.com, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
Police are examining an internet sermon given by a radical cleric which reportedly called for young British Muslims to join al-Qaeda.
Syrian-born Omar Bakri Mohammed, 46, reportedly used a webcast to address his followers, claiming that Britain had become a “land of war” for the Muslim community.
Detectives are “assessing” his latest remarks, in which he also allegedly pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and told listeners they were “obliged” to join the Mujahidin.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: “We are assessing purported comments made by an individual to determine whether a criminal offence has been committed.”
Bakri, a father-of-seven, moved to the UK in 1985 after being deported from Saudi Arabia because of his membership of a banned group.
The Home Office has since given him leave to remain in the UK for five years but is reviewing his status.
Last year he sparked outrage by suggesting that an attack on a British school, as happened in Beslan, Russia, would be justified as long as women and children were not deliberately killed and only died in crossfire.
He also once praised the September 11 hijackers as the “magnificent 19”.
And at the Quaker meeting house, Bakri calls for Brits to join the jihad. From the TimesOnline, “Extremist cleric staged al-Qaeda recruiting rally”:
THE radical Islamist cleric whose internet sermons are being investigated by police has held a secret conference at which British Muslims were urged to join al-Qaeda.
About 600 people, including women and children, punched the air and chanted Allahu akbar (God is greatest) as they were shown videos of hijacked airliners crashing into the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical Syrian-born cleric, said that if the British Government did not relax its tough anti- terrorism laws, the response from Muslims would be “horrendous”. He added: “I declare we should ourselves join the global Islamic camp against the global crusade camp.”
The event was held this month at The Friends Meeting House in Central London, the British headquarters of the Quaker movement. Mr Bakri Mohammed’s followers booked the hall for a health conference entitled Women’s Dawah UK and the Quakers were unaware that it was a political gathering.
Two reporters from United Press International, a United States-based news agency, attended and reported a series of inflammatory speeches by Mr Bakri Mohammed and his cohorts. One speaker said that Western governments would face “a 9/11 day after day after day”.
As the crowd chanted, the man shouted: “Whether they be stones, whether they be sticks, whether they be knives, whether they be bombs, whatever they may be, prepare as much as you can.”