Abu Qatada
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Abu Qatada al-Filistini (Arabic: أبو قتادة الفلسطيني), sometimes called Abu Omar (ابو عمر) has operated for fourteen years in London as the most influential terrorist cleric in Europe[1]. Under the name Omar Mahmoud Othman (عمر محمود عثمان), he is under worldwide embargo by the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267[2] for his affiliation with al-Qaeda. He is wanted on terrorism charges in Algeria[3], the United States, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and his native Jordan[4].
After the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq (which Abu Qatada opposed) he was expelled from Kuwait to Jordan. From there he travelled to the UK in 1993 on a forged UAE passport, and requested asylum on grounds of religious persecution. He was granted asylum the following year. He has been in British custody since his most recent arrest, in August of 2005, shortly after the London transit bombings. A British court ruled on 26 February 2007 that he may be deported to Jordan[5]. Appeals are pending.
Abu Qatada is a Jordanian national, having been born in Bethlehem in 1960[6], at which time the West Bank was part of Jordan. Al-Filistini means the Palestinian.
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[edit] Writings and speeches
Abu Qatada opposes any authority that is not subordinate to Muslim clerical authority.[7] There is no country anywhere whose government or regime he recognizes; he calls for the violent ouster of them all, and their replacement by a single Muslim theocracy.
One piece of his, Islamic Movements and Contemporary Alliances, which is widely cited by Sunni terrorists, argues essentially for no affiliation whatsoever between Muslim and non-Muslim countries.
Dozens of writings and a few audio recordings of Abu Qatada are stored on the Tawhed website, which is al-Qaeda's online library, run by the organization of Abu Qatada's fellow Jordanian Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (who is the chief cleric of al-Qaeda in Iraq). Abu Qatada is frequently cited – always with approval – in the 2004 al-Qaeda policy paper called Management of Savagery.
His writings and speeches have been critically assessed by a contemporary Muslim scholar, Shaykh 'AbdulMaalik ar-Ramadani al-Jaza'iri, in the book Talkis al-'Ibad min Wahshiyyat Ab'il-Qataad aladhi yu'du ila Qatli'n-Nisa wa Awlad (Jeddah: Maktabah Asalah al-Athariyyah, 1422AH).The Savage Barbarism of Abu Qatada
[edit] Terrorist activities, affiliations, and influence
Abu Qatada has been described by Jamal al-Fadl, in his testimony in the Southern District Court of New York on February 6, 2001, as a member of al-Qaeda’s "Fatwa Committee". According to the indictment of the Madrid al-Qaeda cell, Abu Qatada was the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in Europe, and the spiritual leader of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and the Tunisian Combat Group.[8] (One of Abu Qatada's Tunisian admirers is Sami Essid.)
In 1997 Abu Qatada ordered his followers to kill the wives and children of Egyptian police and army officers.[9]
While free in the UK Abu Qatada was the editor-in-chief of GIA's Al-Ansar magazine, and contributed fatwas to that magazine authorizing the indiscriminate mass murder of random Algerians. (Mustafa Setmariam Nasar was an editor and contributor at the same time, when he too was in England with political refugee status.)
Abu Qatada is reported by the British press[10][11] to have been a preacher or advisor to al-Qaeda terrorists Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid.
When questioned in the UK in February 2001, Abu Qatada was in possession of £170,000 cash, including £805 in an envelope labelled "For the Mujahedin in Chechnya". He was not charged.[10]
Abu Qatada has been affiliated with Mohammed Omran, who heads the fundamentalist Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jemaah organization in Melbourne.
Nineteen video cassettes of Abu Qatada's sermons were found in the apartment of Mohamed Atta when it was searched after the September 11, 2001 attacks, which he led[12].
[edit] Legal status
In early 2004, an immigration appeals committee, convened to decide whether Abu Qatada should be allowed at large at that time, ruled in part, "The appellant was heavily involved, indeed was at the centre in the United Kingdom of terrorist activities associated with al-Qaeda" and remarked also on "his passionate exposition of jihad and the spread of Islam to take over the world."[13] But soon thereafter, the Law Lords struck down the basis on which he was being held, and he was again released.[14]
Jordan sentenced Abu Qatada in absentia in 2000 to life imprisonment[6] for his involvement in a plot to bomb tourists who would be in Jordan to attend the Millenium celebrations.
[edit] References
- ^ Suspect linked to radical UK cleric, Times Online, 13 November 2005
- ^ UN list of affiliates of al-Qaeda and the Taliban
- ^ Statement from the Algerian government to the UN 1267 Committee, English translation by Nuclear Threat Initiative
- ^ Britain's most wanted (meaning Abu Qatada, who was missing at the time), The Observer, 12 May 2002
- ^ Court rules that Abu Qatada can be deported, Home Office, 26 February 2007
- ^ a b The Challenge of Terrorism and Religious Extremism in Jordan, Center for Contemporary Conflict, United States Navy
- ^ Militant Ideology Atlas, Combating Terrorism Center, United States Military Academy
- ^ The Global Jihadist Movement, Rand Corporation p. 27
- ^ Radical Islamist Profiles (1): London -- Abu Hamza Al-Masri, MEMRI, 16 October 2001
- ^ a b Profile: Abu Qatada, BBC, 26 February 2007. (May be updated.)
- ^ Move to expel 'al-Qaeda cleric' will test Britain's resolve on law, Times Online, 11 August 2005
- ^ The Recruiters: Interview with Abu Qatada, CBC, 16 March 2004
- ^ 'Qatada's key UK al-Qaeda role', BBC, 23 March 2004
- ^ British Plan to Deport 10 Foreigners, Fox News, 11 August 2005
