Abu Izzadeen

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Abu Izzadeen (Arabic: ابو عزة دين‎, Abū ‘Izzä Dīn), born as Trevor Brooks (born on 18 April 1976), is a spokesman for Al Ghurabaa, an Islamist organization banned under the Terrorism Act 2006 for the glorification of terrorism, that operated in the United Kingdom.^[1]

1 Personal background
2 Political activities
- 2.1 February 2007 arrest
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Personal background

He was born in Hackney, East London to a family originally from Jamaica. Brooks converted to Islam in 1994, changing his name to Omar, but preferring to be called Abu Izadeen. He is fluent in Arabic.^[2]^[3]

He trained and once worked as an electrician. He also acted as a bodyguard for Omar Bakri Mohammed. He no longer works, living instead off state benefits of £700 a month. He and his Arab-born wife Mokhtaria were married in 1998; they have three children.^[3]^[4]^[5]

In 2006, he had a personal advertisement on an Islamic matrimonial website, seeking to marry up to three more wives in order to father more than nine children. Polygamy is illegal in the UK. Izzadeen did not respond to questions from the Evening Standard about the ad and it has since been removed.^[4]

[edit] Political activities

Abu Izzadeen met Omar Bakri Muhammed and Abu Hamza al-Masri at Finsbury Park Mosque in the 1990s; this is when he is thought to have been radicalized.^[4]

He visited Pakistan in 2001, before the September 11 attacks, as part of Al-Muhajiroun; he claims he went there to give a series of lectures. He also claimed to have attended terror training camps in Afghanistan.^[3]^[4]

He described the 7/7 suicide bombers in London as "completely praiseworthy".^[6]

On the eve of the anniversary of the 7/7 attacks in London, he was filmed preaching to a group of Muslims in Birmingham (UK) mocking and laughing at the victims of 9/11 and threatening further terror attacks in the UK.^[7]

He has openly stated that he wishes to die as a suicide bomber.^[8]

On 20 September 2006, Abu Izadeen and Anjem Choudary disrupted Home Secretary John Reid's first public meeting with Muslims since his appointment. He called Reid an "enemy" of Islam.^[9]. John Humphrys interviewed Izzadeen on the 22 September 2006 edition of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. In a heated discussion Abu Izadeen stated that his aim was to have the UK become an Islamic state and that this should be achieved without following the democratic process.^[10]

In early February 2007, ITV broadcast a video made in the summer of 2004 that was recently discovered on a password-protected website. In the video Abu Izadeen told his audience in Regents Park Mosque, London, to murder British and American Muslim soldiers:

"Whoever allies himself with the Kaffirs against the believers - he is one of them. So those so-called enemies to Allah who join the British Government - 'cos remember the British Government, my dear Muslim brothers, are crusaders... crusaders come to kill and rape Muslims. Whoever joins them - he who joins the British Army, the American Army, he is a mortal kaffir and his only hukum (punishment) is for his head to be removed. Indeed, whoever changes his deen (religious way of life); kill him."^[11]^[12]

[edit] February 2007 arrest

British police arrested Abu Izadeen on charges of inciting terrorism on 8 February 2007. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said the arrest is related to an "on-going inquiry," involving a speech Abu Izadeen gave in the West Midlands area in 2006, which predates the 20 September 2006 incident.^[13]^[14]