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Italy: Muslim cleric led transnational network recruiting jihadis, hoped to establish caliphate in Kurdistan

Jul 15, 2020 1:00 pm By Robert Spencer

A mullah? But Mullah Krekar has devoted his life to learning Islam properly. How could he have misunderstood it so spectacularly as to get the idea that it called for violence against unbelievers? Pope Francis is doubtless preparing now to instruct Mullah Krekar in Islam and show him how “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence”

“Italian court upholds 12-year sentence for Kurdish Islamist cleric,” by Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Kurdistan24, July 11, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An Italian appeals court on Friday upheld all the convictions in the trial of suspected members of a so-called Jihadi cell, including its leader, Mullah Krekar, the Italian news agency Associated Press National Agency (ANSA) reported on Friday.

ANSA reported that the court upheld the Kurdish Islamist cleric’s 12-year prison term and convicted him of being the “spiritual leader” of the Rawti Shax (“toward the mountain” in Kurdish) terror cell, which was dismantled by Italian police in the autumn of 2015. Sentences for five other cell members were also reportedly upheld.

Dr. Francesco Marone, a Research Fellow for the Center on Radicalization and International Terrorism at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), described the group’s operations in an interview with Kurdistan 24 on Saturday.

“Italian investigators have argued that ‘Mullah Krekar’ was the leader of extremist network Rawti Shax, worthy of note because, among other things, it was a rather large transnational network and spread across different countries,” Dr. Marone said.

The expert stated further that the group was “involved in the recruitment of radicals and foreign fighters who sought to travel to Syria and Iraq in order to fight.”

“According to an original report on Italy’s foreign fighters I co-authored based on exclusive government information, at least one foreign fighter (a Kosovar man, named Eldin Hodza) had close ties to the Rawti Shax. Hodza (born 1988) left for Syria from eastern Italy in January 2014 with the financial help of the Rawti Shax,” Marone added.

Italian media reports suggest Italian investigators believe that the group had links to the so-called Islamic State.

According to a profile of the group by the Terrorism Research Analysis Consortium (TRAC), Rawti Shax claimed it aimed “to overthrow the Iraqi Kurdish regional government and replace it with a caliphate ruled by Shariah law.”

In November 2015, the Italian police dismantled a cell of 17 individuals (16 Kurds and 1 Kosovar) linked to the group spread between Norway, the UK, Finland, and Italy, with seven members arrested in the latter.

“The Internet helped their transnational contacts. They also set up online and offline jihadist educational activities in Italy. According to Italian investigators, they were reportedly ready to plot attacks, but not in Italy,” Dr. Marone said….

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Italy, Muslim clerics Tagged With: Mullah Krekar


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Jul 15, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    Dr. Marone should do a research paper on the total financial cost to Italians due to having Islamic terrorists within Italy.

    This will allow Italians to make an informed choice of political parties on the issue of Muslim migration … yes or no.

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 15, 2020 at 8:35 pm

      Yes–besides everything else, Islam is bankrupting us.

      • James Lincoln says

        Jul 16, 2020 at 7:21 am

        Correct, gravenimage.

        Just from a purely financial point of view, muslim migration to Western countries always results in a net financial negative.

        • gravenimage says

          Jul 16, 2020 at 9:32 pm

          Bin Laden said that bankrupting us was one of the main purposes of 9/11.

          Muslims are costing us a fortune.

  2. mortimer says

    Jul 15, 2020 at 1:26 pm

    Mullah Krekar is a true ISLAMIC TERRORIST CHIEF. He was the original leader of the Islamist armed group Ansar al-Islam, which was set up and commenced operations in Northern Iraq while he had refugee status in Norway. Krekar claims, however, not to have had foreknowledge of the various terrorist attacks performed by the group he was leading. Since February 2003 he has an expulsion order against him, which is suspended pending Iraqi government guarantees that he will not face torture or execution. Norway is committed to international treaties which prohibit the expulsion of an individual without such a guarantee.

    Kurdish authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government have repeatedly asked for Mullah Krekar to be extradited from Norway. The death penalty remains on the books in the Kurdistan region. Most death sentences have been changed into life sentences since the Kurdish authorities took power in 1992, the exception being that eleven alleged members of Ansar al-Islam were hanged in the regional capital of Erbil in October 2006. He has as of 8 December 2006 been on the UN terror list,and as of 8 November 2007 been judged by the Supreme Court of Norway as a “danger to national security”.

    On March 26, 2012 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for making repeated death threats against Norwegian politicians and the Kurds if they pursued certain civil actions against him. He has appealed this prison sentence. The next day, March 27, 2012, he was arrested by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) and Norwegian Police and taken into protective custody and incarceration. This occurred after certain additional statements of a threatening nature were linked to him, suggesting that others might take retaliatory actions against Norwegians if his civil prison sentence were implemented.

    On March 26, 2020 he was confirmed by Norwegian authorities to have been extradited to Italy. Italy had requested his extradition with the intent of deporting him to Iraqi Kurdistan.

    HOW MUCH DID THIS THUG COST NORWAY? HOW MUCH HAS HE COST ITALY?

  3. Michael Copeland says

    Jul 15, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    “Our Islam is political.” – Mullah Krekar

  4. gravenimage says

    Jul 15, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    Italy: Muslim cleric led transnational network recruiting jihadis, hoped to establish caliphate in Kurdistan
    ………………..

    This does not surprise me. Mullah Krekar has long been a Jihadist. He made threats to Norwegian authorities, and was finally deported–but ludicrously not to Dar-al-Islam, since it mostly has the death penalty. So now he is using Italy as a base…

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