Updated: 10:55 a.m. PT Aug 23, 2006
Aug. 23, 2006 - Since last summer’s terror attacks on London, British authorities have focused a keen eye on radical Muslim groups in the United Kingdom. The revelation this month of the purported plot to destroy U.S.-bound airliners over the Atlantic Ocean, and the belief that its suspects may be tied to terrorists in Pakistan, have only heightened British concerns about so-called homegrown terrorists.
To fight what security officials consider dangerous elements, the government has cracked down on groups believed to support terrorist activities. Anjem Choudary, 39, has been associated with two such organizations that have been outlawed. A lawyer from Ilford, East London, and a longtime Muslim activist, he was a leader of Al Muhajiroun, a U.K.-based group committed to the creation of a global Islamic state. Al Muhajiroun was dissolved in 2004 and its founder, Omar Bakri Mohammed, deemed “not conducive to the public good” by the British government shortly after he fled to Lebanon in the wake of the July 7, 2005, London bombings. Choudary was also a spokesperson for Al Ghurabaa, widely believed to be a successor group to Al Muhajiroun. Last month the British government banned Al Ghurabaa under new antiterror legislation that prohibits the glorification of terrorism. According to U.K. media reports, Rashid Rauf, a principal target in the investigation into the recent airline plot, was acquainted with members of Al Muhajiroun. NEWSWEEK’s Karla Adam recently spoke to Choudary in Walthamstow, East London, a neighborhood where several of the suspects in the airliner plot were arrested. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Who are you associated with now?
Anjem Choudary: I belong to a sect that has attributes of Al Muhajiroun and Al Ghurabaa that really mean more or less the same thing. The name is not that important.
What are the consequences of banning Al Ghurabba?
I think the majority of practicing [Muslim] youth agree with what we say, even though they may not feel they want to be part of the organization for security reasons. So these people now have no one to refer to, and as a Muslim, you are going to go elsewhere, find someone on the Internet, travel abroad, and you have people out there who believe in a global jihad.
Why do you think you have been more successful than people like Omar Bakri Mohammed in evading the authorities?
I don’t think I have been successful. I have been raided a couple of times. Because the profile that some people have given you, like “Al Qaeda spokesperson,” you end up in a position where a relatively innocuous statement could be taken as glorifying terrorism. I think very sadly Muslims nowadays are guilty until proven innocent.
Are you aware of any terror of plots in Britain?
No.
Would you be aware if there was a plot afoot?
I don’t think people are going to communicate with someone who is public with the media and who has been raided a few times by the police and who has a big mouth.
Do you know how to make liquid explosives?
No, I’m not military-trained. I can make an omelette.
Do you condone acts of terror?
I’m not in the business of condemning or condoning. If I say I condone [the terror attacks of July 7, 2005,] the government will probably arrest me, and they will say, therefore, our foreign policy is justified. If I condemn it, that also supports the government, so therefore all the Muslim community were united in condemning people who attack, therefore it has nothing to do with our foreign policy.
What is your involvement with Al Qaeda?
When I say Al Qaeda, I mean Sheik Osama bin Laden, and people who [he has] given instructions to do things, and I certainly don’t have connections to these as far as I’m aware.
Do you know any of the suspects recently arrested in connection with the alleged plot to blow up commercial airliners?
I don’t know any of them personally, no. But I know people—obviously because Walthamstow [where many of the suspects were arrested] is a small place, and the Muslim community is quite close-knit—and people who know them say that they are not involved in anything, they are not part of any organization or any group.
What do you think of “positive” profiling, whereby European governments would share passenger details?
It doesn’t surprise me that they want to profile Muslims. But I think it’s rather foolish because if you announce you have a profiling procedure, people are not going to be of that profile. If you have a profile of young men, then they are maybe going to be going to be little old ladies.
Is there a growing rift between Muslims and non-Muslims?
Certainly there is. The situation has deteriorated enormously, and it’s something to be very concerned about.
Why do you infuriate so many moderate Muslims in Britain?
They believe you can sit with Tony Blair and have tea with him and somehow negotiate. I believe we don’t negotiate with people who are murdering our Muslim brothers and sisters overseas. The time for negotiating is over. You need to expose him and remove him.
Is there an inherent conflict between being British and being Muslim?
If British means adopting British values, then I don’t think we can adopt the British values. I’m a Muslim living in Britain. I have a British passport, but that’s a travel document to me.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14484217/site/newsweek/?rf=nwnewsletter
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