To see the Muhammad cartoons, click here.
Not surprisingly, our old friends of al-Muhajiroun, the British-based Muslim group that held pro-Osama and pro-9/11 rallies and held seminars with titles like “The Obligation of Inciting Religious Hatred,” is stoking cartoon rage in Britain. From The Guardian, with thanks to John:
When worldwide Muslim fury over cartoons of the Prophet spread to Britain, the flag-burning protests outside the Danish embassy in London appeared to be an entirely spontaneous outpouring of anger.
Inquiries by the Guardian have shown, however, that a key role in organising the demonstration was played by an Islamist sect whose supporters have repeatedly been linked to violence and terrorism.
Al-Ghurabaa, the organisation which takes credit for the protest, is essentially the same organisation as al-Muhajiroun, a sect which claims to have disbanded more than a year ago and whose founder, Omar Bakri Mohammed, was excluded from the UK last summer, shortly after he fled to Beirut.
They are uniquely British organisations which share the same leadership and same incendiary rhetoric. Their websites appear to be registered to the same house in north London. They hold an identical allure for a small but bitterly disaffected group of young British Muslims. And their members say they owe allegiance to the same “spiritual leader”: Bakri. The organisation may be banned, under both its guises, after the terrorism bill reaches its final stage in the Commons on Wednesday. Already, however, there is evidence that supporters of al-Ghurabaa – which means the strangers – are reorganising themselves under several new names, such as al-Firqat un-Naajiyah and Ahl al Sunnah Wal Jamaa’ah: the Saved Sect, and the Messenger and his Companions.
Asked yesterday what the group would do if banned, Anjem Choudary, Bakri’s right-hand man, said: “It may push a lot of people underground, and that is something the government should be concerned about.”
Al-Ghurabaa, like al-Muhajiroun, makes no secret of its adoration of Osama bin Laden, and both are openly homophobic. Its website also espouses the murder of any who insult the Prophet.
In the wake of the Danish embassy demonstrations, al-Ghurabaa’s website was offering a series of articles and essays, some harmless, others bizarre, and a few which will be seen as offensive….
Another, headlined the Lion Roars Again, hails Osama bin Laden as a man of “honour and dignity”, whose roar causes the US to “shiver with fear and panic”.
An essay about the cartoons was entitled Kill Those Who Insult Muhammad. Others were entitled There is No Room for Homosexuality in Islam, Homosexual Today Paedophile Tomorrow, and Homosexuality: A Crime….