By: Rachel Rogosnitzky Jewish Press April 5, 2006
A little over two years ago, Waheed Mahmood and his companion, Omar Khyam, held a fateful conversation in a car that turned out to have been bugged by police.
“Is it worth getting all the brothers together tonight and asking who would be ready to go?” Mahmood asked.
This apparently referred to the bombing of Britain’s largest shopping center. Mahmood further elaborated: “A little explosion at Bluewater – tomorrow if you want.”
The Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent has 330 shops, restaurants and bars, as well as golfing, fishing, boating and other leisure activities. On a spring weekend, the complex would be filled with shoppers and families enjoying a day out.
Six alleged accomplices are standing trial at the Old Bailey for conspiring to detonate explosives at key sites in Britain, causing maximum damage and fatalities. Among the intended targets were Bluewater, the National Grid, and synagogues across the country, including one in Manchester.
Of the mostly British-born terrorists, six trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan, two were said to have worked for al-Qaeda’s third-in-command. One of them said that Britain “needed to be hit because of its support for the U.S.” Among the numerous charges against them is that they participated in a plot to buy a “dirty bomb” from the Russian mafia.
Prosecuting counsel David Waters said that for the purposes of the trial he would focus on two themes – explosives training in Pakistan and bombs in the UK. He told the court that Waheed Mahmood worked for Transco National Grid at its Brighton depot. Computer disks giving detailed plans of Britain’s electric and gas systems, including pipelines, cables and sub stations, had been found at another defendant’s house.
The gang bought 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, hired a truck and transported it to a storage depot in West London. Staff at the depot became suspicious and contacted police, who exchanged the fertilizer for an innocuous substance. An undercover officer began working as a receptionist at the depot. As they considered which of many potential targets to strike, the gang did not realize that their movements were being monitored by police who bugged their cars and homes.
The defendants were said to have acquired other bomb ingredients: aluminium powder had been discovered in a biscuit tin behind a shed at the home of Omar Khyam and his brother, Shujah Mahmood. They stored detonators, which they referred to as “cigarettes,” the deadly poison ricin, and bomb-making ingredients such as ammonium nitrate in a bedroom cupboard.
Mohammed Babar, who plotted to assassinate the president of Pakistan, is testifying against British extremists in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He told jurors that he met several of the defendants in Pakistan, where they set up a terror training camp and allegedly carried out a successful dry run using explosives.
Babar could have faced life imprisonment in the U.S. or the death penalty in Pakistan if he did not cooperate with the FBI and British authorities. He arrived at the Old Bailey guarded by armed anti-terrorist police while a helicopter hovered overhead. The court was cleared of media and members of the public while the former parmacy student was escorted in by U.S. marshals.
Police found a list of British synagogues at the home of one of the suspects. David Waters said the synagogues were potential bombing targets and were linked with an e-mail of October 2003 that spoke of a “one-way operation to the most high … maybe in Yahoodiland.” Waters said the message suggests the group had been planning a suicide bombing campaign against Jews, possibly at a location connected to Israel.
“Clearly, six months later the plan wasn’t for a suicide bomber,” Mr. Waters said, “and the location had changed because all these synagogues in this list were situated in Britain.”
Shabina Begum and the Case of the Jilbab
In September 2002, after two years of wearing a type of Islamic dress permitted by her school, Shabina Begum turned up swathed in the head to toe jilbab. She was promptly sent home. The school’s head teacher explained that one of the reasons the school maintained its jilbab ban was to help children to resist the efforts of extremist Muslim groups to recruit them.
Cherie Booth, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, supported Begum in her plea that the head teacher and governors of Denbigh High School in Luton, Bedfordshire, were denying her the “right to education and to manifest her religious beliefs” by the ban on the jilbab. Booth said the case involved “fundamental issues” about the nature and interpretation of Ms. Begum’s rights to education and freedom to practise her religion.
After an initial ruling in the student’s favor, the House of Lords responded to an appeal by Denbigh High School by overturning the ruling. They determined that Begum’s right to freedom of religion was not infringed, since neighboring schools that she could have attended did allow her to wear the jilbab.
At the time of her court victory, Begum said the ruling was “a victory for all Muslims who wish to preserve their identity and values despite prejudice and bigotry. As a young woman growing up in a post 9/11 Britain, I have witnessed a great deal of bigotry from the media, politicians and legal officials. This bigotry resulted from my choice to wear a piece of cloth, not out of coercion, but out of my faith and belief in Islam. It is amazing that in the so-called free world I have to fight to wear this attire. This amazement has not been left unnoticed in my community, the Muslim community, who see a concerted effort to dehumanize Muslims and vilify Islam.”
These were not the untutored words of a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Ms. Begum was later found to have been coached by the extremist Islamic organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir, whose aim is a worldwide Muslim state. Labor MP Khalid Mahmood said: “Hizb ut-Tahrir targeted the school, they grandstanded this case, they are trying to pick a fight . . . social services should have looked at this case.
While supporting the freedom of religion, Article 9 of the Human Rights Act does not give people the right to manifest their religion at any time or in any place of their choosing. Speaking for the Law Lords, Lord Bingham ruled, “It would, in my opinion, be irresponsible for any court, lacking the experience, background and detailed knowledge of the head teacher, staff and governors, to overrule their judgment on a matter as sensitive as this.”
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, MP Boris Johnson said: “This case was about power. It was about who really runs the schools in this country, and about how far militant Islam could go in bullying the poor, cowed, gelatinous and mentally spongiform apparatus of the British state.”
350th Anniversary of Jewish Return
Last week British Jews celebrated the 350th anniversary of the return of Jews to Britain. (Jews were expelled from the country by Edward I of England in 1290.) An anniversary ceremony was held in the City of London at which Prince Philip, husband of the Queen, was present.
Lord Levene, who stood in for the Lord Mayor of London, reminded the celebrants that Prince Philip had attended the 300th anniversary half a century ago. The prince was the first member of the royal family to visit Israel when he attended a ceremony at Yad Vashem in 1994 that honored his mother, Princess Alice, as a Righteous Gentile.
President of the Board of Deputies Henry Grunwald stated: “The Jewish community has been given the gift of freedom. With that freedom, we have always accepted the responsibility of ensuring that others can enjoy that gift.”
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