Al-Muhajiroun
Al-Muhajiroun / Hizb ut Tahreer / Khilafah
(off shoot of Wahabism)
Al-Muhajiroun (The Emigrants) is a defunct1 organization whose two offshoots, The Saviour Sect and Al-Ghurabaa are banned under the British Terrorism Act 2006,2 for the ‘glorification’ of terrorism. It operated in the United Kingdom from 14 January 1986 until the British Government announced an intended ban in August 2005.3 Omar Bakri Muhammad and Anjem Choudary led Al-Muhajiroun.4 It became notorious for its conference “The Magnificent 19”, praising the September 11, 2001 attacks. Home Secretary Charles Clarke banned Bakri from the United Kingdom on 12 August 2005 because the British government considered his presence in Britain “not conducive to the public good.”5
1 http://www.furqaan.com/refutations/exposmenace.htm
2 Police raid Islamic group BBC News
3 Radical terror cleric Omar Bakri tries to flee Lebanon Pipeline News
4 Police raid Islamic group BBC News
5 ‘Preacher of hate’ is banned from Britain Times Online
^ a b c d Islamists Down Under Assyrian International News Agency
6 Essential Fiqh, Bakri (London: The Islamic Book Company, 1996), page 3
7 Hizb ut-Tahreer, Dr. AbdurRahman Dimishqia, (Istanbul: Maktabah ul-Ghurabaa’, 1417 AH/1997 CE)
8 Hizb ut-Tahreer, Dr. AbdurRahman Dimishqia, (Istanbul: Maktabah ul-Ghurabaa’, 1417 AH/1997 CE)
History
Bakri, along with 39 others, founded Al-Muhajiroun in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The founders announced the creation of the organization on 3 March 1983, “the 59th anniversary of the destruction of the Ottoman Caliphate,” in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Bakri claimed6 that he studied at the universities of Umm ul-Qura’ in Makkah and The Islamic University of Madinah. The dubious ‘scholarship’ of Bakri was also studied and assessed by Dr. AbdurRahman Dimishqia.7 It was also discovered that during the 80s he was working for Eastern Electric owned by Shamsan and Abdul-Aziz as-Suhaybi in Riyadh, and then Bakri moved to the Jeddah branch. Later he travelled to America to study English after which he travelled to the UK to assume the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahreer and became their Mufti.
The Saudi Arabian government banned Al-Muhajiroun in January 1986, prompting Bakri to flee Saudi Arabia. On 14 January 1986, he arrived in Britain, where he founded Al-Muhajiroun’s British branch in secret and in parallel joined Hizb ut-Tahrir, another organization. Bakri’s involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir ended on 16 January 1996 acrimoniously. In 1999 Bakri became the chief sponsor in Britain of the International Islamic Front, an organization that trained and sent British Muslims to fight in Chechnya and the Balkans. In October 2000 the Bakri and others issued a “Warning to All Jews… in the UK” that if they supported Israel “financially, verbally or physically” they would be killed.9
9 Islamists Down Under Assyrian International News Agency
10 Islamists Down Under Assyrian International News Agency
Islamic Council of Britain
Convicted terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri created the Islamic Council of Britain to “implement sharia law in Britain,” on 11 September 2002, the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, primarily through funding from Al-Muhajiroun. Masri celebrated the establishment of the ICB and the 9/11 attacks by holding a conference in Finsbury Park mosque in North London entitled “September the 11th 2001: A Towering Day in History.” Bakri, who attended the conference, said, that attendees “look at September 11 like a battle, as a great achievement by the mujahideen against the evil superpower. I never praised September 11 after it happened but now I can see why they did it.” Flyers distributed at the conference referred to the 9/11 hijackers as the “Magnificent 19.” Bakri said he saw Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda terrorists as “sincere [and] devoted people who stood firm against the invasion of a Muslim country.” Anjem Choundary, British spokesman for Al Muhajiroun also attended.10
NUS ban
In March 2001 Britain’s National Union of Students banned Al-Muhajiroun after they received complaints from Muslim and non-Muslim students about the group distributing hate literature and the organization training members in militant camps. Al-Muhajiroun members put up posters and handed out leaflets in Manchester University’s campus where the police were called and at the University of Birmingham campus that called on Muslims to kill all Jews. A spokesman for NUS said that if Al-Muhajiroun did not support violence against Jews then they should change their “highly militant and definitely not peaceful” literature. 2006 Russian government officials asked the British government to ban Al-Muhajiroun because members who attended the London School of Economics were fighting against the Russian army in the Second Chechen War.11
11 UK Islamic Group, Banned from Campus, Claims Misrepresentation CNS News.
12 Islamists Down Under Assyrian International News Agency.
13 Muslims in police will rise up, Bakri insists The Daily Telegraph.
Aims
Al-Muhajiroun’s proclaimed aims were to establish public awareness about Islam, to institute sharia, influence public opinion in favor of Islam, increase membership in Al-Muhajiroun, convince non-Muslims to convert to Islam or accept it as the political norm, to unite Muslims in facing threats to the Ummah on a global scale, to increase al-Muhajiroun’s influence in societies throughout the world, to create a “fifth column” community pressure group to push for Islamization of the non-Islamic world, and to recreate the Caliphate globally.12
Disbandment
Al Muhajiroun disbanded on 13 October 2004.13 However, it is believed that “The Saviour Sect” is to all intents and purposes Al Muhajiroun operating under a new name.