The lovely one
Muhammad Dawood, aka David Hicks, is an Australian convert to and misunderstander of Islam. “Osama bin Laden a ‘lovely’ man, Hicks says in letter,” from the Herald Sun (thanks to all who sent this in):
DAVID Hicks praised Osama bin Laden as “lovely” in letters read to a court as a magistrate considered the conditions of a control order to be placed on the former Guantanamo Bay detainee.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) today used the six-year-old letters to argue the 32-year-old terrorism supporter remained a perceived threat to Australia.
But although they say the letters are out of date and he poses no threat, Hicks’s lawyers today did not oppose the AFP’s application to the Federal Magistrates Court for Australia’s second control order.
Hicks will be released from Adelaide’s Yatala prison on December 29 after serving out his US-imposed sentence for providing material support for terrorism.
AFP lawyer Andrew Berger today asked that as part of a control order Hicks be forced to attend a police station three times a week and stick to a midnight to 6am curfew, among other conditions.[…}
Oh, well, then, nothing to be concerned about!
Arguing for the control order, Mr Berger said Hicks had admitted taking part in four al-Qaida training camps between January 2001 and August 2001, a month before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York.
Hicks undertook “substantial training” in basic arms and combat training, guerilla warfare and advanced marksmanship, he told the court.
Mr Berger said there was a “plethora of evidence” against Hicks, including letters he sent to his family in Adelaide while training with al-Qaida.
In one, Hicks wrote: “By the way, I have met Osama bin Laden 20 times now, lovely brother, everything for the cause of Islam. The only reason the west calls him the most wanted Muslim is because he’s got the money to take action.”
Hicks also described himself as a “fit, young Muslim, ready to defend Islam“, and in another letter wrote of the “poison” of the west, which he said was trying to crush Islam.
“Jihad is still valid to this day,” he wrote.