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British extremists urge young Muslims to fight against US By Sandra Laville and Gabriel Rozenberg (Filed: 17/09/2001)

ISLAMIC extremists in Britain are calling on young Muslims to fight to the death against America and her allies.

At a meeting of the Al-Muhajiroun organisation in Birmingham at the weekend, a group of 50 young men and women was encouraged to travel to Afghanistan and give their lives in the defence of Islam.

"Martyrdom operatives will be rewarded in heaven," one speaker declared.

Others on the platform at the meeting, in the suburb of Sparkbrook, asked: "Who are the real terrorists?" and called on the audience to oppose any western reprisals against Osama bin Laden.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohamed, the founder of Al-Muhajiroun, has openly courted controversy in Britain.

He supported the bombings of the United States' embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and said after Tuesday's terror attack: "I am very happy today.

As much as I regret the innocent people who passed away, with the USA you must pay."

Although Al-Muhajiroun is believed to have a membership approaching 1,000, mainstream British Muslims insist that its hardline views are wholly unrepresentative.

One speaker at the Sparkbrook meeting accused Americans of widespread butchering of Muslims from Chechnya to Iraq.

He warned moderate Muslims who had condemned last Tuesday's attack that they, too, would be the target of "true" Muslims.

"I am a Muslim first and foremost," he said. "We will never be accepted by the Kufr [the west] so we should not pander to their whims or support their actions like some so-called Muslims have been doing.

"If they continue to do so, it is our duty to persuade them not to. But if they do not listen, they are Kufr too and so it is our duty to fight and even kill them."

Leaflets for the meeting stated: "The final hour will not come until the Muslims conquer the White House." In the background was a picture of the Pentagon in flames.

By contrast, moderate British Muslims worshipping at the Central London Mosque yesterday condemned extremism and the attacks on New York and Washington.

Sultan Pervez, 57, from Hendon, north-west London, called for swift justice against those responsible.

He said: "A madman has done this, whoever it is, if it is Osama bin Laden we have to find him and the sooner justice is done the better. But it has to be a justified policy, revenge is not the answer."

A woman who asked not to be named, said: "It's a terrible loss of life, we don't condone that.

"Killing is absolutely against Islam. But it is not right to attack Afghanistan without proof."

-- Anonymous, September 17, 2001