Tag: Abu Qatada

In today’s Religion News Briefs: A “guru” who brainwashed a family into parting with their fortune has been jailed.

Also: Tufts University curtails religious freedom in an effort to combat religious discrimination.

Plus: Rabid Muslim hate preacher Abu Qatada is free on bail after a UK court ruled he might not get a fair trial if deported to Jordan to face terrorism charges

In an authoritative report, Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank funded by the UK’s Home Office, claims “mismanagement” by the Prison Service is helping Al Qaeda gain recruits and risks “strengthening jihadist movements”.

For instance, Abu Qatada, described by MI5 as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has published fatwas — religious rulings — on the internet from Long Lartin prison, in Worcestershire, calling for holy war and the murder of moderate Muslims, it reveals.

Extremist preacher Abu Qatada, once called Osama bin Laden’s ambassador to Europe, faces a hearing Tuesday after being re-arrested in West London.

Abu Qatada was taken into custody over the weekend, apparently for violating his strict bail conditions, according to British newspaper reports.

He is forbidden to use the Internet, computers, or mobile phones and is specifically prohibited from any contact with bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Abu Qatada’s bail conditions were under review last night after security experts said allowing the hate preacher to associate with a convicted terrorist made a ‘mockery’ of the rules.

Home Office officials are investigating the Daily Mail’s exclusive picture showing Qatada – dubbed ‘Osama Bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe’ – strolling through London with fellow fanatic Yasser Al-Sirri.

The hate criminal was ordered last month when three high court judges upheld the radical Palestinian-Jordanian preacher’s appeal against deportation to Amman on the grounds that he was likely to face a terrorism trial based on evidence from witnesses who had been tortured.

A radical Muslim cleric who was held under house arrest on suspicion of fomenting terrorism is being investigated for repeated breaches of the terms of his control order. A mobile phone and a computer modem – both banned – were found at Abu Qatada‘s house earlier this summer and he is also suspected of consorting with Islamists. The suspected breaches are said to have happened over the summer, the period of the bomb attacks on London. Mr Qatada is currently back in prison while the Home Secretary tries to deport him to Jordan, but he is seeking bail from the Special Immigrant

Daily Telegraph (England), May 25, 2003 http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/ By David Bamber, Home Affairs Editor Abu Qatada, the Muslim cleric held in Britain, has been linked to last weekend’s suicide bombings in Casablanca which killed 29 people. Moroccan investigators have found material from his sermons in the homes of the suicide bombers. The sermons praise Osama bin Laden and encourage young Muslims to take a stand against the West. Their discovery will add weight to the Government’s claims that the cleric, jailed under anti-terrorist laws last October, is directly involved in terrorist operations. In documents submitted to an immigrations appeals commission on