it seems Blair wants to turn his country into a police state
BRITAIN will deploy teams of intelligence officers and surveillance experts in cities where it is feared that extremists are radicalising Muslim youth, according to The Times.
The internal security service, M15, would fan officers out from its London HQ in a bid to snuff out any incipient terrorist threats within urban Muslim communities, the paper said, citing “government sources”.
It was hoped the scheme would greatly improve co-operation between special police services and counter-espionage officers, it reported.
Teams of intelligence officers will be discreetly deployed in several towns in northwest England within the next couple of months, the paper said.
“The scale of the terrorist threat is such that MI5 and the police need to be able to work together even more closely, which means that the Security Service must be dispersed in a different way, to be able to respond rapidly to any particular activity,” an official told the paper.
The Government was also seeking powers to detain suspects longer without charge, a senior legal official said.
is it only muslims who kome under such laws or they r for the locals equally as well ???.... i have a few friends there in London .... they r not happy wid the life they r spending there :(
Listen, why blame Blair for this when your own folks go about promising to kill everyone?
**Terror on the dole **
By David Cohen, Evening Standard
20 April 2004
Four young British Muslims in their twenties - a social worker, an IT specialist, a security guard and a financial adviser - occupy a table at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Luton. Perched on their plastic chairs, wolfing down their dinner, they seem just ordinary young men. Yet out of their mouths pour heated words of revolution.
**“As far as I’m concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the better,” says Abdul Haq, the social worker. “I know it’s going to happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey, like Madrid - I pray for it, I look forward to the day.” ** :rolleyes:
“Pass the brown sauce, brother,” says Abu Malaahim, the IT specialist, devouring his chicken and chips.
“I agree with you, brother,” says Abu Yusuf, the earnest-looking financial adviser sitting opposite. **“I would like to see the Mujahideen coming into London and killing thousands, whether with nuclear weapons or germ warfare. And if they need a safehouse, they can stay in mine - and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb], I’ll tell them where to get it.” **
His friend, Abu Musa, the security guard, smiles radiantly. “It will be a day of joy for me,” he adds, speaking with a slight lisp.
As they talk, a man with a bushy beard, dressed in a jacket emblazoned with the word “Jihad”, stands and watches over them, handing around cups of steaming hot coffee. His real name is Ishtiaq Alamgir, but he goes by his adopted name, Sayful Islam, meaning “Sword of Islam”. He is the 24-year-old leader of the Luton branch of al-Muhajiroun, an extremist Muslim group with about 800 members countrywide, who regard Osama bin Laden as their hero.
The strange thing is that four years ago, Sayful Islam was a jeans-clad student completing his degree in business economics at Middlesex University in Hendon, north London.
The son of a British Rail engineer who came to this country from Pakistan, Sayful grew up in a moderate, middle-class Muslim family in Luton. At the local Denbigh High School, he is remembered as one of the smartest kids, and was selected to attend a science masterclass at Cambridge University. He would go on to marry, have two children and find work as an accountant for the Inland Revenue in Luton. He was thoroughly uninterested in politics.
THEN he met Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad at a local event. Within two years, he had swapped his decently paid job as an accountant for an unpaid one as a political agitator. What turned him into an extremist? And how far is he prepared to go to achieve his aims?
Prior to seeing the group at the fastfood restaurant, Sayful meets me at his semi-detached rented home in Bury Park, Luton’s Muslim neighbourhood. He no longer works, even though he is able-bodied, he admits, preferring instead to claim housing benefit and jobseeker’s allowance. He smiles sheepishly and says the irony is not lost on him that the British state is supporting him financially, even as he plots to “overthrow it”.
“I made a decision that I wanted to follow what Islam really said,” Sayful begins, sitting on his sofa in his thowb (a traditional robe) and bare feet. "I went to listen to all the local imams, but I found their portrayal of Islam was too secularised. When I heard Sheikh Omar [the leader] of al-Muhajiroun speak, it was pure Islam, with no compromise. I found that appealing.
“At the same time,” continues Sayful, “wars were happening in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Afghanistan. People were being oppressed simply because they were Muslim. Although I had never experienced racism in the UK, it opened the eyes of a lot of Muslims, including mine.”
But it was the events of 11 September that crystallised Sayful’s worldview. “When I watched those planes go into the Twin Towers, I felt elated,” he says. “That magnificent action split the world into two camps: you were either with Islam and al Qaeda, or with the enemy. I decided to quit my job and commit myself full-time to al-Muhajiroun.” Now he does not consider himself British. “I am a Muslim living in Britain, and I give my allegiance only to Allah.”
According to Sayful, the aim of al-Muhajiroun (“the immigrants”) is nothing less than Khilafah - “the worldwide domination of Islam”. The way to achieve this, he says, is by Jihad, led by Bin Laden. “I support him 100 per cent.”
Does that support extend to violent acts of terrorism in the UK?
“Yes,” he replies, unequivocally. "When a bomb attack happens here, I won’t be against it, even if it kills my own children. Islam is clear: Muslims living in lands that are occupied have the right to attack their invaders.
“Britain became a legitimate target when it sent troops to Iraq. But it is against Islam for me to engage personally in acts of terrorism in the UK because I live here. According to Islam, I have a covenant of security with the UK, as long as they allow us Muslims to live here in peace.”
HE USES the phrase “covenant of security” constantly. He attempts to explain. “If we want to engage in terrorism, we would have to leave the country,” he says. “It is against Islam to do otherwise.” Such a course of action, he says, he is not prepared to undertake. This is why, Sayful claims, it is consistent, and not cowardly, for him to espouse the rhetoric of terrorism, the “martyrdom-operations”, while simultaneouslylimiting himself to nonviolentactions such as leafletting outside Luton town hall.
He denies any link between al-Muhajiroun and the Muslims arrested in the recent police raids. But, as I later discover at the fastfood restaurant, not everyone attaching themselves, however loosely, to al-Muhajiroun draws the same line. Two members of the group - Abu Yusuf, the financial adviser, and Abu Musa, the security guard - scorn al-Muhajiroun as “too moderate”.
“I am freelance,” says Abu Yusuf, fixing me with his piercing brown eyes. What does that mean? I ask.
“The difference between us and those two,” interjects Abu Malaahim, pointing to Musa and Yusuf, “is that us lot do a verbal thing, [but] those brothers actually want to do a physical thing.”
Referring to the latest truce offered by Bin Laden, and Britain’s scathing rejection of it, Abu Malaahim adds: “He tried to make a peace deal. When terrorism happens, you will only have yourselves to blame.”
How far are you prepared to go? I ask.
“You want to know how far I will go,” says Abu Musa, his high-pitched lisp rising an octave. “When Allah said in the Koran ‘kill and be killed’, that’s what I want. I want a martyr operation, where I kill my enemy.”
Are you saying, I probe, that you are looking to kill people yourself ? “Yes,” Abu Musa says, “to kill and to be killed.” He emphasises each word.
What’s stopped you doing it? “As you know from watching the news,” intones Abu Yusuf, “there are brothers who do leave the country and do it.” He is referring to the four Muslims from Luton who died fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the two British Muslims, said to have had ties to al-Muhajiroun, who last April left to become suicide bombers in Israel. “In-shallah Godwilling], there will be a time to go.”
It is hard to know whether Musa and Yusuf are deadly serious or just pumped full of misguided, youthful bravado. Though I see coldness - even ruthlessness - in their eyes, I sense no malice. Both young men agree, perhaps foolishly, to be quoted using their real names, though they decline photographs - thus illustrating their uncertainty of which way to jump.
**"Islam is not like Christianity, where they turn the other cheek. If they raid our homes, it could lead to the covenant of security being broken.
“Islam allows us to retaliate. That would include” - he tugs his “Jihad” coat tight against the night air - “by violent means.” **
ak47.. You have a unique definition of the term 'serial killer', it seems.
In any case, it remains to be seen how effective this would be. More likely it will have enormous impact on resources but the usefulness of such a largescale spying operation remains unidentified. More like needle in the haystack.
while being against a police state, I am also against giving free reign to goons like these who are a liability to the muslim community at large. The longer term viable solution is somewhere in between and is an external and internal one.
Community should report anyone that they think is upto no good, although it has to be managed properly, I recall desis turning in others thatthey had financial or family disputes with as terror suspects.
Tomorrow if you find out that your local extremist is talkign about plans to bomb some schoolk that your kid bro studies i, will you or will you not stop him and report him?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
ak47.. You have a unique definition of the term 'serial killer', it seems.
In any case, it remains to be seen how effective this would be. More likely it will have enormous impact on resources but the usefulness of such a largescale spying operation remains unidentified. More like needle in the haystack.
[/QUOTE]
Have i, i thought i said serial liar not killer,
But yes it is a needle in haystack and is most likely used as a scare tactic for the UK population and in particular yet another attack on the muslim community there.