THE radical cleric Omar
Bakri Mohammed defied the Government’s clampdown
on extremism yesterday by warning on a new
website that the July 7 bombings “are not the
first and will not be the last”.
As Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary,
declared that hardline preachers such as Bakri
Mohammed, Abu Qatada and Yusuf al-Qaradawi could
be deported or excluded from Britain, the site
blamed the Government, the British people and
moderate Muslims for the atrocities.
The site carried a picture of the wreckage of
the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square and condemned
the fatwa against suicide bombs signed by 500
imams as “clear blasphemy against Islam”.
It attributed the bombings to al-Qaeda and said
that the British people should accept Osama bin
Laden’s truce offer “otherwise you will have
nobody to blame but yourself for what has and
will most probably happen again”.
Websites run by Bakri Mohammed’s followers
are monitored and regularly taken down by the
authorities but al-Ghurabaa (the strangers) was
still online last night.
It was also promoted in an internet chatroom
where extremists glorified the London bombs and
praised Bakri Mohammed and bin Laden.
The al-Ghurabaa name has been used by Bakri
Mohammed before and the current version went
online just before Mr Clarke told the Commons
that he was broadening his powers to exclude
people from Britain.
The Home Secretary also signalled that he was
considering establishing a formal “supergrass”
system to gather information on terrorist
recruiters and suspects. Mr Clarke has the power
to ban people on grounds of national security,
public order or risk to British relations with
another country.
Those powers will be widened to enable him to
ban “those who foment terrorism” through
preaching, running websites or writing articles.
A list of “unacceptable behaviours” will be
drawn up and a database of extremists around the
world will be made available to immigration
officers.
Extremists with leave to enter or remain in
this country, including asylum-seekers, students
and refugees, could be deported.
Mr Clarke indicated that the Government was
paving the way to deport Abu Qatada, described
by the Spanish authorities as bin Laden’s
“spiritual ambassador” in Europe, to Jordan.
He said that he was close to agreeing “a
memorandum of understanding” with Jordan about
the proper treatment of refugees returned there.
Qatada, 44, was sentenced in absentia to 15
years in jail for terrorist offences in Jordan.
But Qatada will have a right of appeal and
sources indicated that the Home Office expects a
lengthy legal battle if it attempts to deport
him.
Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty
International UK, said: “Memoranda of
understanding are not a new idea but such
promises from countries like Jordan, which are
known to have used torture, are not worth the
paper they are written on.”
Officials suggested that under the
strengthened powers, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 79, the
cleric who defended suicide bombings in Israel,
would have been stopped if had he gone ahead
with a planned visit to Britain next month.
Bakri Mohammed is likely to have his
indefinite leave to remain status removed but
trying to deport him would lead to another
difficult legal battle.
Officials said that he could be prosecuted
under the proposed new law on indirect
incitement to terrorism but that will not be on
the statute book until Christmas.
Mr Clarke has adopted a tougher approach to
extremists after a growing public outcry about
“preachers of hate”.
He said that the Government was working with
the Muslim community “to strengthen our capacity
to fight the destructive and nihilist philosophy
of those who promoted the London bombings”.
