Omar Bakri Muhammad

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Omar Bakri Muhammad is the founder of Al-Muhajiroun.

Background

Bakri was born in Syria in 1958.[1] He left that country in 1982, following the Assad regime's repression of the Muslim Brotherhood revolt in which he had taken part.[2] He founded Al-Muhajiroun in Saudi Arabia in 1983.[3] Following the proscription of Al-Muhajiroun in Saudi Arabia, Bakri fled to Britain in 1986.[4]

Hizb-ut-Tahrir leader

Bakri subsequently became leader of the British branch of Hizb-ut-Tahrir.[5] He was arrested in 1991 after saying that John Major was a legitimate target for assassination as a result of the Gulf War.[6] He was not charged over the incident.[7]

During the 1990s he supported the KLA in Kosovo.[8] The American intelligence writer John Loftus has claimed he was working with British intelligence at this time.[9]

Forms Al-Muhajiroun

Bakri split with Hizb-ut-Tahrir in early 1996, when he formed his own separate Al-Muhajiroun organisation.[10]

Journalist Mark Curtis reports that in the late 1990s, Bakr claimed to be operating in Britain under a 'covenant of security' with the British state.[11] This must be treated with some caution as it is sourced to a MEMRI report.[12] MEMRI in turn cites an interview with Bakri by Patrick Goodenough for a news site associated with the US conservative movement, CNSNews.com.[13]

Bakri left Britain for Lebanon a month after the 2005 London bombings. The Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced in 2006, that he would not be allowed to return to Britain.[14] Mark Curtis suggests that this was an arrangement designed to conceal potentially embarrassing past links between Bakri and the intelligence community.[15]

Notes

  1. Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque, HarperCollins, 2006, p.105.
  2. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.273.
  3. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.244.
  4. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.245.
  5. Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque, HarperCollins, 2006, p.105.
  6. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.273.
  7. Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory, The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque, HarperCollins, 2006, p.113.
  8. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.245.
  9. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.244.
  10. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.273.
  11. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.243.
  12. Yotam Feldner, Radical Islamist Profiles (2): Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad - London, MEMRI, 25 October 2001.
  13. Patrick Goodenough, UK Muslims Being Trained in US for Jihad, CNSnews.com, 24 May 2000.
  14. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.274.
  15. Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tale, 2010, p.275.