Exclusive: Woolwich killings suspect Michael Adebolajo was inspired by cleric banned from UK after urging followers to behead enemies of Islam
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-woolwich-killings-suspect-michael-adebolajo-was-inspired-by-cleric-banned-from-uk-after-urging-followers-to-behead-enemies-of-islam-8630125.html
Latest: Second suspect named as footage emerges of pair being shot by police
1 / 2
Related articles
-
Threat of new rebel Lebanese army as tensions grow over killing of Sunni clerics
-
'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Bloody attack brings terror to capital’s streets
-
Robert Fisk: The rebel sheikh defying Hezbollah to take aim at Assad
-
Shashank Joshi: Minorities are rightly fearful as Islamists step in to fill power vacuum
-
Cloud of Syria's war hangs over Lebanese cleric's death
One of the suspected killers who attempted to behead and disembowel a
young soldier in the horrific Woolwich attack had listened to the
preachings of a radical Muslim cleric banned from Britain over extremist
activities, including alleged links to al-Qa’ida, The Independent has learnt.
Last night the second suspect was understood to be Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich.
Shocking footage also surfaced of the pair being shot by armed response officers from the Metropolitan Police.
A clip on the Daily Mirror's website shows one of the men charge at police and drop one of his knives before being gunned down.
His accomplice is seen raising his arm and aiming a handgun at officers before he too is downed, as eight shots ring out in total.
'Angel' did not want victim to die alone
The son of a woman who became known as the "angel" of the Woolwich attacks has spoken about what made his mother stay praying by the side of dying soldier Lee Rigby.
He told The Independent: "She just thought at the time, imagine if that was my son. No one wants to die with no one by their side. She just wanted to comfort the guy." He did not want to be named.
Family friend Joe Tallant said: "She wanted to comfort the man... She put her hands on his chest and prayed."
Emily Dugan
The cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed has been secretly filmed
stating that decapitation of the enemies of Islam was permitted. Today,
in comments met with outrage, he told The Independent that he
could understand the feeling of rage that had motivated the attackers
and that what they had done could be justified under certain
interpretations of Islam.
Michael Adebolajo, a
British-Muslim convert of Nigerian origin who gave a video interview
with a meat cleaver in his bloodied hands while the body of 25-year-old
Drummer Lee Rigby lay on the street behind him, declared that he was
fighting for “Almighty Allah”.
Mr Bakri Muhammed, who now lives in Lebanon, told The Independent: “I saw the film and we could see that he [the suspect] was being very courageous.
“Under
Islam this can be justified, he was not targeting civilians, he was
taking on a military man in an operation. To people around here [in the
Middle East] he is a hero for what he has done.”
Mr
Bakri Muhammed said of the suspect: “I knew him as Michael when he came
to the meetings and then he converted and he became known as Abdullah; I
hear he then started calling himself Mujahid. He asked questions about
religion, he was curious. He had first started coming when there was a
lot of anger about the Iraq war and the war on terror. Whether I
influenced him or not, I do not know. But he was a quiet boy, so
something must have happened.”
In other developments,
two new arrests were made: a man and a woman on suspicion of conspiracy
to murder, following raids at six addresses in London and Lincoln.
A clip on the Daily Mirror's website shows one of the men charge at police and drop one of his knives before being gunned down.
His accomplice is seen raising his arm and aiming a handgun at officers before he too is downed, as eight shots ring out in total.
It
also emerged that the two suspected killers of Drummer Rigby were
already known to MI5 and, almost certainly, to counter-terrorism
officers in the police. One of the men was stopped from travelling to
Somalia to join the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab last year.
Security
officials insisted that there had been no evidence that either of the
two men were planning an imminent attack. Nor was there any evidence,
they say, that they were discussing beheading. They point out that there
were plenty of references to it in Islamist websites.
In
2007, following the conviction of a group British Pakistanis who had
plotted to kidnap and behead a British soldier, a secret recording
emerged of Mr Bakri Muhammed saying: “When you meet [Westerners], slice
their own necks. And when you make the blood spill all over, and the
enemy becomes so tired, now start to take from them prisoners. Then free
them or exchange them until the war is finished.
“Verily
they remind the sunnah of removing the head of the enemy. They remind
the sunnah of slaughtering the enemy. They remind the sunnah of how to
strike the neck of the enemy. They removed the head of the enemy. Use
the sword and remove the head of the enemy.”
In
another message, Mr Bakri Muhammed had said he hoped that “British
Muslims who are in the Army over there” (Afghanistan) can be captured.
Mr
Bakri Muhammed, who is Syrian-born, and has named one of his sons after
Osama bin Laden, stated that he and his followers were not involved in
violence while residing in the UK due to what had become known as the
“covenant of security” under which Islamist organisations were allowed
to carry out their activities, but desisted from taking armed action in
the country which had given them refuge.
“But in this case obviously the covenant of security did not apply,” he said.
“Beheading
is how criminals were executed under the laws; but that must happen
with a Sharia court and decision by judges with criminals. On this
occasion he was taking military action, not a legal one.”
Mr
Bakri Muhammed had set up the organization Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK,
where he had claimed asylum in 1986, but split with them after doctrinal
disagreements and set up the Al-Muhajiroun group which attracted
hundreds of followers including Adebolajo. That was also wound up but at
least a dozen of its members are thought to have become or affiliated
to suicide bombers.
Mr Bakri Muhammed left London
soon after the 2005 bombings because, he said, of constant harassment by
the authorities. When Israel carried out attacks on Lebanon during its
war with Hizbullah a year later he attempted to join civilians being
evacuated from Lebanon by the British military, but was refused. He
protested at the time: “What concerns me is my safety. I’d be happy with
a month’s visa but this morning they told me I couldn’t because I’m not
a British citizen any more.”
He was subsequently
informed by the UK government that he would not be allowed to return
here. Since then Mr Bakri Muhammed had repeatedly warned that the
foreign policy being pursued by the UK would lead to retaliation by
Muslims in the West and states would be powerless to prevent this.
A 29-year-old woman at a home in south London, and a man of the same age, were arrested in arrested at an undisclosed location.
The
two men shot by police remain in hospital with non-fatal injuries but
it is understood officers are yet to interview the pair. It emerged that
the shooting was captured by a council camera. Two officers fired their
guns and a third fired a taser weapon, the Independent Police
Complaints Commission said.
The son of a woman who became known as the "angel" of the Woolwich attacks has spoken about what made his mother stay praying by the side of dying soldier Lee Rigby.
He told The Independent: "She just thought at the time, imagine if that was my son. No one wants to die with no one by their side. She just wanted to comfort the guy." He did not want to be named.
Family friend Joe Tallant said: "She wanted to comfort the man... She put her hands on his chest and prayed."
Emily Dugan
No comments:
Post a Comment