Islamist rebel apologises for wrecking Timbuktu shrines in landmark trial

August 22, 2016 Article

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi (C) appears at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, August 22, 2016 at the start of his trial on charges of involvement in the destruction of historic mausoleums in Timbuktu during Mali's 2012 conflict. REUTERS/Patrick Post/Pool

A former Islamist rebel admitted wrecking holy shrines during Mali’s 2012 conflict and apologised at the start of his trial at the International Criminal Court on Monday – its first case to focus on cultural destruction as a war crime.

Mahdi asked for forgiveness and said he had been swept up in an “evil wave” by Al Qaeda and the Ansar Dine Islamist groups which briefly seized control of Timbuktu during the fighting.

Prosecutors said they hoped the case would help put an end to wrecking of cultural sites reported in wars from Libya in the west to Afghanistan in the east.

“This is the first and last wrongful act I will ever commit,” Mahdi told the Hague court in a measured and grave opening address.

“I regret what I have caused to my family, my community in Timbuktu, what I have caused to my home nation Mali,” he added.

Mahdi would be the first defendant convicted of Islamist-related charges by the global court that has only secured three other convictions in its 14-year existence.

Court officials said the trial would proceed despite his confession, as the judges still needed to be satisfied he was guilty.

Prosecutors say Mahdi led a group of religious police using pick-axes and crowbars to destroy nine mausoleums and the door of a mosque, and at times took part himself.

Most of the sites dated from Mali’s 14th-century golden age as a trading hub and centre of Sufi Islam – a branch of the religion seen as idolatrous by some hardline Muslim groups.

In the build-up to the hearing, prosecutor Fatima Bensouda compared the attacks to Islamic State’s smashing of monuments in the Syrian city of Palmyra and the Taliban’s 2001 destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan.

On Monday, she praised Mahdi’s cooperation while setting out the charges against him and saying she hoped his case would help bring an end to destruction of cultural objects by drawing attention to the fact it is a war crime.

“What must it have felt like in that fateful day in 2012 … to witness the wanton destruction of that cultural heritage, a deliberate assault on one’s identity, spiritual beliefs and prized cultural possessions?” she said.

“All of this was reduced to dust by a destruction operation led by the accused,” she added.

Mahdi faces a maximum sentence of 30 years, but prosecutors are expected to ask for a lesser sentence, given his cooperation. He told the court he was not sure of his age, but estimated it at 45.

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Categories: Al Khader, Ansar Dine, destruction, Islamic State, Islamist, Mahdi, Mali, News, Timbuktu

For Years Press Sources Made Anjem Choudhary the ‘Go To’ Person To Raise Viewer Numbers

August 16, 2016 Article

Anjem Choudary, the leader of the dissolved militant group al-Muhajiroun, arrives at Bow Street Magistrates Court in London July 4, 2006. REUTERS/Stephen Hird/Files

Today, 49 year-old Anjem Choudhary was convicted at London’s Old Bailey court of using online lectures and messages to encourage support for the banned group, Daesh or Islamic State, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Prosecutors said that in postings on social media, Choudary and his close associate Mizanur Rahman, 33, had sought to validate the “caliphate” declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said Muslims had a duty to obey or provide support to him.

In one hour-long speech, Choudary set out the requirements for a legitimate caliphate under Islam and why he believed the Islamic State met those criteria.

Time and time again in bomb plots in the UK, individuals who had come into the sphere of influence of Choudhary and groups that he helped set up, such as Al-Muhajiroun, were convicted of attempts to harm, maim or kill. In some cases, young men who had come into contact with Choudhary, were involved in brutal killings in the UK and in other countries.

Yet, there is also another story – that of media sources and editors whose natural reaction on stories about extremism, radicalisation or even on Islam, was to approach Choudhary, as the ‘go to’ person. This not only elevated him in the eyes of some sympathisers, it lionised him in the minds of sympathisers who were overseas who saw him as some form of Muhajideen (or holy warrior), ‘sitting in the land of the disbeliever and standing firm.’ What it did for community relations, was simply to toxify perceptions of wider British Muslim communities many of whom called for his arrest and conviction many years ago.

For some of these media sources, Choudhary was the gift that kept giving. He would raise viewer numbers, be the villain that they wanted him to be and highlight an extremist midst in the heart of our country. Choudhary knew this and played to the media sources knowing that any publicity was ‘good’ publicity for him. These sick and symbiotic relationships simply grew and grew to the point that Choudhary was on TV screens in the UK on virtually a weekly basis. From New York to Tokyo, Choudhary’s face was beamed to millions of viewers and what they saw was a Muslim who was extreme in his views.

Choudhary may well be looking at a ten year jail sentence in the coming weeks. Yet, there are more actors to this sorry saga than just Choudhary. His sympathisers and supporters, media platforms that held onto his every word to ensure higher viewing figures and those that gave Choudhary succour and support, all had a role to play. They had a role to play in creating this monster and in giving his toxic views a realism that may well have influenced others. Only time will tell on that score.

Commenting on the conviction, the Founder of Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal stated;

“Anjem Choudhary was repeatedly the go to person for mainstream press sources. They knew this man craved the press and limelight and he sought to talk to vulnerable young men through those very same press sources and many willingly and obligingly gave him media platforms in a their ratings war. He served their purposes of raising the numbers of viewers and he received a platform for his horrendous and twisted abuse of Islam. It became a symbiotic relationship and some of these press sources should also hang their heads in shame after the verdict.

“Choudhary was made a household name by some of these media sources and he damaged the view of British Muslims by his extremist views. Today, he rightly has been convicted by a jury of his peers. Yet, editors of some of these media sources will be heading to pubs and drinking venues as if they played no part in the creation of Choudhary. However you slice and dice this, Choudhary, his supporters and sympathisers were given oxygen by some sections of the media. On that score, the public deserve an apology by some of these media editors.”

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Categories: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Anjem Choudhary, conviction, Daesh, Islamic State, Mizanur Rahman, Opinions

Orthodoxy in Islam Does Not Equate to Extremism

June 1, 2016 Article

Security must always be intelligence led and not led by assumptions based on personal beliefs. This is the basis of policy making around community safety, yet with the heightened atmosphere around extremism, it is sadly the case that some people automatically link orthodoxy in Islam with extremism, as though the former must lead to the latter.

Throughout our work, we regularly come across British Muslims who can be regarded as being orthodox or conservative in their faith. Many of them live lives which add value to families, communities and to the State. Driven by strong parameters of how to live their lives and with a strong sense of God-consciousness, they quietly and diligently get on with their lives and do not ask anything of the State. Yet, many also feel that their religiosity is seen negatively and through the prism of extremism, which has had a depressingly chilling effect on what they say and to whom they are open and honest to, about their feelings. This, some have said, has become the norm for them and they genuinely believe that they are at risk of confirming the world view of someone who thinks that orthodoxy equates to susceptibility towards extremism, if they have a conversation on a range of issues from foreign policy through to religiosity within their lives.

Government and police forces have sought to re-assure Muslim communities that religiosity does not equate to being seen as suspect in nature, despite what some civil society groups may say. On the other hand, some of the language and statements made by leading politicians have given the impression that orthodox religiousity and extremism go hand in hand.

Some of these very civil society groups groups think that whatever the Government does will automatically be problematic for Muslim communities and the actions of these groups simply fuels mistrust and insecurity through conjecture and the manufacturing of a long term victim mentality. Yet these feelings of religious orthodoxy being seen through the prism of extremism are present within Muslim communities and especially those from orthodox Muslim communities. Many truly believe this.

If we, collectively, are to bring in communities from the margin to the mainstream, such perceptions about orthodox Muslim communities need to be broken down and reframed so they are seen to be active and equal citizens. No less and no more. A good starting point to reach this noble goal is in challenging those who believe the world view that there is a strong link between orthodoxy and extremism. This can be challenged by simply looking at those who have been involved in terrorist plots with a large number of them knowing little about Islam.

Let us also not forget – ‘Jihad for Dummies‘, and the case of the two ‘wanna-be’ Jihadis who purchased the book as though it was the guide that was going to get them on their way. Such cases illustrate the religious illiteracy of some of these extremists and runs contrarty to those who believe that orthodoxy means more succeptibility to extremism. If anything, there is no clear answer and uniform fit around who may turn to extremism and this simply underscores how complex human nature and the mind truly is.

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Categories: Jihad for Dummies, News, Orthodoxy, Religion

Nigerian schoolgirl rescued after two years as Boko Haram captive

May 18, 2016 Article

A Nigerian teenager kidnapped by Boko Haram more than two years ago has been rescued, the first of more than 200 girls seized in a raid on their school in Chibok town to return from captivity in the insurgents’ forest lair, officials said on Wednesday.

Soldiers rescued the girl near Damboa, army spokesman Sani Usman said, without giving details. A parents’ association said she had been found by a vigilante group.

Activists named her as Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki. They quoted her saying that her schoolmates were still in the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram’s biggest stronghold in the remote north.

Boko Haram captured a total of 276 girls from their school in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, in April 2014, part of a seven-year-old insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the north which has killed some 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.

Dozens of the girls escaped in the initial melee in 2014 but more than 200 remained unaccounted for. Parents had accused former President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s leader at the time of the mass kidnap, of not doing enough to track them down and bring them home.

Ali’s rescue should give a boost to President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who had made crushing the Boko Haram insurgency a central pillar of his presidential campaign in 2015.

Activists at #Bringbackourgirls, which have been campaigning for the girls’ release, confirmed her release.

“She says all of the others are still in the Sambisa forest

area. That they are heavily guarded,” the group said in a statement.

Hoses Tsambido, chairman of the Chibok Community in the capital Abuja, confirmed the discovery but did not provide details.

“Her name is Amina Ali Darsha. She was found yesterday in an area of Kulakasha at the fringes of Sambisa forest. Right now she is with the military in Damboa,” he told Reuters.

Borno state governor Kashim Shettima told reporters Ali was on her way to the state capital, Maiduguri.

Lawan Zannah, secretary of an association of parents of the missing girls, said he saw Ali sitting in a military vehicle at the area commander’s residence in Chibok but he was not allowed to question her beyond exchanging greetings in their local language, Kibaku.

Zannah said he had first heard of Ali’s rescue from Yakubu Nkeki, chairman of the parents association, who had received a call from members of a vigilante group in Chibok saying they had found one of the missing girls.

“She was carrying a baby but I do not know whether it is a boy or girl,” Zannah told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Chibok.

The insurgents, who last year pledged loyalty to Islamic State, have kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children in their campaign to carve out a mediaeval Islamist caliphate in northeast Nigeria.

Under Buhari’s command and aided by Nigeria’s neighbours, the army has recaptured most territory once lost to Boko Haram but the group still regularly stages suicide bombings.

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Categories: Boko Haram, Chibok town, News, North East Nigeria, rescue, schoolgirls

Junead Khan jailed for plot to kill U.S. troops

May 13, 2016 Article

A delivery driver who plotted to kill U.S. troops based in England by staging road accidents to lure soldiers from their cars and then attack them with knives and possibly a home-made bomb was jailed for life on Friday.

In a message to a suspected accomplice in Syria, Junead Khan, 25, a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, told how he had missed an opportunity to kill Americans on his rounds in Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire in central and eastern England.

“When I saw these U.S. soldiers on the road it just looked simple but I had nothing on me or would’ve got into an accident with them and made them get out the car,” he wrote.

In sentencing at London’s Kingston Crown Court, Khan, who was convicted last month of preparing terrorist acts and planning to fight with IS in Syria, was jailed for life and told he would serve at least 12 years in prison.

His uncle Shazib Khan, 23, who was also found guilty of planning to join IS, was given a 13-year jail term.

Police said they had recovered British and U.S. flags stolen from a diner near Junead Khan’s home in Luton, north of London, which they believe were potentially to be used for a symbolic act during the attack.

“Junead Khan’s ambition was to attack an innocent U.S. soldier on our streets. He sought inspiration from terrorist videos, bomb-making guides and contacts in Syria,” said Commander Dean Haydon, head of London police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

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Categories: Jihadi, Junead Khan, Kingston Crown Court, Shazib Khan, terrorism, US Troops

The Wider Image: On patrol with the Sinjar Resistance Units

May 11, 2016 Article

Pictures from resistance units in Sinjar Province – stand off against IS forces.

The Wider Image: On patrol with the Sinjar Resistance Units

Bullets lie next to a gun at a Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) check point, a militia affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in the village of Umm al-Dhiban, northern Iraq, April 30, 2016

A picture of jailed Kurdistan WorkersÕ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan is seen in a PKK mausoleum in Sinjar region, northern Iraq, May 1, 2016

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Categories: News, Northern Iraq, PKK, Sinjar

Al Qaeda chief tells jihadist fighters in Syria – Unite or die

May 8, 2016 Article

Ayman al-Zawahri Issues a Stark Warning Showing Real Tensions on the Ground

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged rival jihadist fighters in Syria to unite or risk death but again decried fellow Sunni Muslim militants Islamic State as “extremists” in an audio recording posted online on Sunday.

As successor to Osama bin Laden, Zawahri has the allegiance of al Qaeda branches in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. But the group’s dominance is being challenged by Islamic State, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq and followings in Libya and Yemen.

In Syria, al Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front and Islamic State are the two most powerful groups fighting government forces. Once a single group, they split in 2013, largely due to a power struggle among leaders.

“We have to want the unity of the Mujahideen in Sham (Syria) so it will be liberated from the Russians and Western crusaders. My brothers … the matter of unity is a matter of life or death for you,” Zawahri said.

The authenticity of the recording, the first since January, could not be immediately verified, but it had the hallmarks of previous Zawahri tapes. In January, the Egyptian former doctor called for revenge after Saudi Arabia executed dozens of militants.

He is believed to be hiding in a border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

On the recording, Zawahri lambasted a U.N.-backed political process to find a solution in Syria, and praised Nusra Front, which controls most of Idlib province.

Nusra is also part of an alliance of Islamist brigades known as Jaish al Fateh, which is leading battles against Syrian government forces and its Russian- and Iranian-backed allies in the southern Aleppo countryside.

In January, Nusra Front tried unsuccessfully to convince rival Islamist factions to merge into one unit, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham.

Zawahri also emphasised once again the ideological divide between al Qaeda and Islamic State, which is fighting a Western-led coalition and Russian forces while also clashing with Western-backed rebels and the Syrian army.

He described them as “extremists and renegades” whose followers would eventually disavow their beliefs and methods.

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Categories: Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, Islamic State, Mujahideen, News, Osama Bin Laden, Syria

Linking Sadiq to Extremism is the ‘Rough and Tumble’ of Politics Says Michael Fallon

May 7, 2016 Article

Efforts by the Conservative party to link the new Mayor of London to Muslim extremism during campaigning for the capital’s election were just part of the “rough and tumble” of politics, a senior MP said on Saturday.

As politicians from all sides lined up to condemn his party’s tactics in the mayoral race won by Sadiq Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants and the first Muslim to hold the job, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon refused to apologise.

“In the rough and tumble of elections, you get stuff said, questions asked,” Fallon told the BBC when asked if he regretted describing Khan as a “Labour lackey” who speaks alongside extremists.

“I think it is right that candidates for some of the most important offices in Britain do get scrutinised about their past associations.”

Conservatives including Prime Minister David Cameron and Fallon himself had sought to question whether London would be safe being run by the 45-year-old Khan, a Labour Party MP who grew up in public housing in the capital’s inner city.

Khan, whose parents worked as a bus driver and a seamstress, defeated Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, the son of a billionaire financier, by a record margin to secure the biggest individual mandate in British political history. His victory in Thursday’s election made headlines around the world.

Some commentators suggested the focus on Khan’s religion had backfired in a city noted for its diversity and which is one of the world’s top financial centres. Britain remains largely free of the identity politics seen in the United States.

During the race Goldsmith had joined forces with Cameron and other senior party members to question Khan’s past appearances alongside radical Muslim speakers at public events, accusing him of giving “oxygen” to extremists.

CONTROVERSY, CONGRATULATIONS

A former human rights lawyer, Khan said he had fought extremism all his life and regretted sharing a stage with speakers who held “abhorrent” views.

“This election was not without controversy and I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division,” Khan said in a short speech after the results were announced early on Saturday. “I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again.”

Sayeeda Warsi, a former Conservative Party chairman, said the campaign had damaged the party’s reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion, while Labour politicians called on Fallon and Cameron to stop smearing their candidate.

As the left-wing mayors of New York and Paris saluted Khan, the Financial Times newspaper described the win as a “remarkable triumph over the racial and religious tensions that have bedevilled other European capitals”, saying it highlighted London’s tolerance.

Among the first to congratulate Khan was Goldsmith’s sister Jemima, a journalist and campaigner who described London as a city for all cultures, backgrounds and religions. She said the victory was a great example to young Muslims.

“Sad that Zac’s campaign did not reflect who I know him to be — an eco friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity,” she tweeted.

Sajid Javid, business secretary and a Conservative, said on Twitter: “From one son of a Pakistani bus driver to another, congratulations.”

Khan’s victory makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital, presiding over such issues as policing, transport and housing for 8.6 million people. The mayor does not run the City of London financial district but can try to influence the government in lobbying for the capital.

The Labour party also maintained control of the London Assembly, making the capital one of the few bright spots for the opposition party, which endured a day of poor results in elections elsewhere in the country.

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Categories: London Mayor, Mayoral campaign, Michael Fallon, News, Sadiq Khan, Zac Goldsmith

Islamic State of Bangladesh Arrests Made in Singapore

May 4, 2016 Article

Singapore has detained eight Bangladeshi men planning to stage terror attacks in their home country as the Islamic State in Bangladesh (ISB), the city state said on Tuesday, the second group of Bangladeshis investigated in the past six months.

The men, aged 26 to 34, were working in Singapore’s construction and marine industries, the government said in a statement. At least two more members in the group were in Bangladesh, it added.

“ISB poses a security concern to Singapore because of its support for ISIS and its readiness to resort to the use of violence overseas,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said, referring to Islamic State.

The men were detained in April under Singapore’s Internal Security Act, the government said. It was not immediately clear if or when they would be charged or deported. Singapore’s Straits Times called it the first detentions under the act involving a foreign workers’ cell.

The government of wealthy, multi-ethnic Singapore, which has not faced any militant attacks in decades, said investigations showed the ISB had identified several possible attack targets in Bangladesh.

Islamist militants in Bangladesh have targeted atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers in a series of killings that date back to February 2015 and have claimed at least 20 lives. A Hindu tailor was hacked to death on Saturday.

The Islamic State and a group affiliated to al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. Bangladeshi police said home-grown militant group are responsible.

In January, Singapore said it had arrested 27 Bangladeshi construction workers who supported Islamist groups including al Qaeda and Islamic State and deported 26 of them.

Fourteen of the 26 have since been jailed in Bangladesh on “terror charges”, Bangladeshi police said, but denied they had any link to the Islamic State or al Qaeda.

The Singapore ministry said the eight detained men had intended to join Islamic State as foreign fighters. It provided photographs of the men, a bomb making manual and other documents it said the group had used.

The ministry said the men felt it would be difficult for them to make their way to Syria and focused instead on returning to Bangladesh to overthrow the government by force, and bring it under the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate, the ministry said.

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Categories: arrests, Bloggers, ISB, Islamic State of Bangladesh, News, Singapore

Swiss intelligence monitoring online activity of 400 possible jihadists

May 3, 2016 Article

Swiss authorities were monitoring the social media activity of about 400 possible jihadists who might pose a security threat, the NDB federal intelligence service said on Monday.

Switzerland is not a primary target for Islamist attacks because it is not part of the military campaign against groups such as Islamic State, but the security threat level has been elevated nonetheless, the NDB’s annual report said.

The report showed a photo of a Swiss passport next to an explosive belt posted online by a suspected Swiss jihadist who had travelled to the Middle East, and an Islamic State video showing the Swiss flag among the 60 countries seen as targets.

“Attacks in Switzerland are more to be expected from lone wolves or small groups that would be conducted with simple means, little preparation and minimal logistical effort,” the report said.

Authorities have been closely tracking suspected jihadists who return to Switzerland from countries, Syria in particular, where they are believed to get training in carrying out attacks.

A Swiss court last month sentenced three Iraqis for terrorism offences, a verdict that the senior prosecutor said should send a message to jihadists not to see the country as an easy target.

The three main defendants, who had denied wrongdoing, were arrested in early 2014 on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks and helping Islamic State militants enter the country.

The Swiss attorney general’s office has more than 60 open cases linked to jihadist militancy, it said on Monday.

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Categories: Islamic State, Islamists, Jihadist, News, online, Swiss, Syria