Omar Bakri Muhammad
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Omar Bakri Muhammmad (born 1958 in Syria) is a Muslim cleric, and, allegedly, a spokesman for Al-Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden.
He joined the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man and participated in their revolt against the Syrian Ba'ath Party and the government of Hafez al-Assad. He later moved to Beirut, Lebanon in 1982 after the rebellion was crushed by the Assad regime. In Beirut, he joined the local branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
In 1983, he moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he established Al-Muhajiroun as a front organization for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Saudi Arabia.
Bakri moved to Britain in 1985 and was given indefinite leave to remain under political asylum laws after this. He founded the Al-Khilafa publishing house in London and serves as a judge in the Shari'a, or Islamic Law, Court of the United Kingdom.
In 1996, he split from Hizb ut-Tahrir citing differences with the global leadership, and Al-Muhajiroun was declared as an independent party. Since then, the political party has had many ups and downs throughout its tumultous career, and is now vilified by some moderate Muslims and certain elements in the press for trying to revive the Islamic state globally and for supporting various jihadist organisations.
In 2003, his organization held a celebration to commemorate the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. [1] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/12/nwtc112.xml) The organization is planning another celebration in 2004. [2] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=L0ZM4ZMPN1ITTQFIQMGSM5WAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/09/05/wosse705.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=12647)
Quotes
- "the life of an unbeliever has no value, it has no sanctity"[3] (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18465514.htm)
- "If an Iraqi Muslim carried out an attack like that in Britain, it would be justified because Britain has carried out acts of terrorism in Iraq. As long as the Iraqi did not deliberately kill women and children, and they were killed in the crossfire, that would be okay." [4] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=L0ZM4ZMPN1ITTQFIQMGSM5WAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/09/05/wosse705.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=12647)(referring to the Beslan hostage crisis in which over 300 children were killed.)
See Also
- There Can Be No End to Jihad (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/105/22.0.html) an interview with Omar Bakri Muhammad (Christianity Today article)