IN THRALL TO LUTON’S PREACHER OF HATE

AMONG those who helped radicalise me in Britain was rabblerousing Syrian-born preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed — a cheerleader for Al Qaeda, who came to public notoriety for describing the 9/11 hijackers as ‘the magnificent 19’ before fleeing to Lebanon.

I remember Bakri (pictured) addressing young bearded men wearing Taliban-style robes at a community centre in Luton, while women shrouded completely in black stood in a segregated section at the back.

The U.S. was massacring Muslims in Iraq, he declared, and it was our duty to fight back. There was no distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. The only real distinction was between Muslims and disbelievers, and the life of a disbeliever was worthless.

Several of his acolytes had become involved in terrorist plots — including one sponsored by Al Qaeda to set off large fertiliser-based bombs in the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London. He himself managed the trick of never being involved in their plans and thus evading the UK’s tough terrorism legislation.

Behind closed doors, though, he gave permission for the killing of disbelievers, the kuffar, in Britain. He was a man who had come to the UK to escape prosecution for his militancy in Saudi Arabia, but gave his blessing to followers to kill people in the country that had given him sanctuary.

Omar Bakri designated me his ‘Emir of training’ and I led weekly expeditions of young British extremists to Barton Hills, a nature reserve near Luton, for paramilitary exercises. I made the drills up as I went along from online Al Qaeda training videos.