NWOBJ Update

I pointed out last year the contrast between the social isolation of adherents to the New Wave of British Nazism (NWOBN - © Laban Tall 2008) as compared with those of the New Wave of British Jihad (NWOBJ - © Laban Tall 2007) :

"... there's really very little practical equivalence between the "incomer" terrorist and his native equivalent, other than incompetence (a tribute to Brit science education). Indeed, the only jihadis who seem to fit the "weirdo loner" profile of yer average native pyrotechnician seem to be converts like poor lost Nicky Reilly.

The differences, on the other hand, are significant. The main one being that unlike the native wannabes, 95% of wannabe jihadis are not sad loners. They have comrades, sometimes support networks, lots of ideological support even from those who aren't going to set any bombs anywhere. Quite a few of them have reasonably successful lives. There's a big Islamist sea for them to swim in. If 10% of UK Muslims - nearly twice the percentage that voted for the BNP in the Euro elections and got lefties in such a tizz - are prepared to tell an interviewer that they wouldn't tell the police if they suspected that a fellow-Muslim was a terrorist (another 10% either didn't know, were 50/50 or wouldn't say) that's a lorra lorra potential support."

Rachel Cooke in the NS reviews Episode 2 of the BBC's 'Generation Jihad' documentary and mentions Episode 1 :

In the first programme of the series (8 February), Taylor went north, to West Yorkshire, to talk to two men who, thanks to their fondness for gore tapes and al-Qaeda's nonsensical dribblings, had fallen foul of Britain's anti-terrorism laws. I'm not qualified to say whether they should indeed have served prison sentences for their activities. But they were loathsome: ignorant, boastful, utterly lacking in imagination or - and here's the irony, given their belief in the umma - any kind of empathy...

Episode 1 - Pt1, 2, 3, 4 (proselytising in Peckham), 5 and 6. Some nice shots of Halifax, Savile Park and the road to Sowerby Bridge in 1 and 2.

The case of our old friend Hamaad Munshi, aka 'Britain's Youngest Terrorist' and grandson of a leading imam, features. But I missed the convictions of the two men here, Rizwan Ditta and Bilal Mohammed, who got four years and three years for distributing jihadi videos and possessing suicide vest instructions. Mohammed and Ditta were released after half their sentences, but you wouldn't say from the long interviews they gave the BBC that they were exactly penitent.

To be fair to them, the terror laws are somewhat debateable - as I've said before, I'm a little - more than a little - concerned about the legislation under which you can be charged with possessing items "likely to be of use for terrorism" - a category so vague and wide-reaching as to render pretty much the entire UK population liable to arrest. A road map ? A Stanley knife ? Every arable farmer with a bag of ammonium nitrate is a potential mass-murderer. Perhaps they should be taken into preventive custody.

In Mohammed's case, suicide vest instructions are pretty damning. One could potentially have explosives or firearms out of enthusiasm for shooting or making bangs, or even (see Robert Cottage) for alleged self-defence, but it's difficult to argue that blowing yourself up is a hobby.

As for Ditta, cheering on our enemies is reprehensible, and he deserves to be publicly horsewhipped, but is it criminal ? When our Yankee colonists ('Provincials') revolted 200 years back, they had some UK supporters, but we didn't bang them up. Sir Gilbert Eliot :

"The parricide joy of some in the losses of their country makes me mad. They don't disguise it. A patriotic Duke told me some weeks ago that some ships had been lost off the coast of North America in a storm. He said a thousand British sailors were drowned — not one escaped — with joy sparkling in his eyes all the time... In the House of Commons it is not unusual to speak of the Provincials as 'our army'. This is not general, however ..."

While Sir Gilbert was mad with rage, he didn't want the Yankee fans imprisoned.

Be that as it may, recall that this somewhat rambling post opened with the thesis that unlike the NWOBN, the NWOBJ aren't socially isolated. Well, our two boys aren't exactly being shunned by their fellow-Muslims in Halifax. Back to Rachel Cooke's review :

I thought back to the first part of the series, to the two cocky young men in their nylon tracksuits and flashy trainers, newly released from prison. Taylor asked them how their communities had welcomed them back. Cue wide smiles all round. The food, the presents! The money, the visitors! No one thought that they were terrorists, or anything like terrorists. It was more a case of: "Hail the conquering heroes!"

I think we have a problem on our hands.

UPDATE - not much social isolation here either:

Radical Muslim gangs are imposing a form of sharia law inside some of Britain's prisons, a BBC investigation has found. Non-Muslim inmates at the high-security Long Lartin jail have been forced by the gangs to stop playing "Western" music and take down pictures of women from their cells, according to one former prison officer there. Prisoners at the jail, although allowed to cook their own food, are not allowed to prepare pork for fear of offending the Muslim inmates, the officer said.

The officer, speaking to Radio Five Live's Donal Macintyre show, told how younger prisoners were targeted for forced conversion to Islam by the gangs. "They went along because they were intimidated. They genuinely weren't of the Muslim faith," she said. "I knew one lad quite well, who was approached by the radical Muslims and he changed. He was being controlled and bossed around and he wasn't even allowed to look at me or speak to me. "He just seemed very frightened all the time. He used to be forced to pray at certain times and he was even forced to grow a long beard even though he didn't want to."

One Catholic prisoner who refused to convert was seriously assaulted after being repeatedly threatened by the gang, the officer said. "He said every so often they would come to his cell and hold the Koran up through the small window in the cell door and start running their fingers along their throats," she said.

The officer's testimony is consistent with findings by the official prison watchdog, the chief inspector of prisons. In a report last year, the inspector, Anne Owers, quoted a number of prisoners at Long Lartin about the increasing dominance of Muslim gangs in the jail.

Long Lartin was, said one, "turning into an American-style jail, [where] if you are not in a gang, you're in trouble. People are converting to Islam for protection."

or here :

The Muslim prison population in England and Wales has sharply increased in recent years. The BBC's Ushma Mistry hears from former inmates and prison officers who claim gangs of Muslim prisoners are an increasingly powerful force.

"Muslims run it. Muslims run the prisons and there's nothing the screws can do about it. For a Muslim you'd say it's good but for a non-Muslim, it's very, very bad," a former inmate called Jay says.

NYT - "20% of UK Students Are Muslim"

Is this true ? Seems like a high number to me, although I'd expect 10%ish - after all, a Government report in 2006 said that "in 10 years time, 15% of the workforce will be Muslim".

Where did the New York Times get these figures from ? Anyone know ?

Investigators are now, in fact, turning a sharper and retrospective eye to the passage in Mr. Abdulmutallab’s life that began immediately after his summer in Sana, Yemen, in 2005, when he enrolled as a $25,000-a-year mechanical engineering student at University College London. In recent days, officials in Washington and London have said they are focusing on the possibility that his London years, including his possible contacts with radical Muslim groups in Britain, were decisive in turning him toward Islamic extremism.

That view, if confirmed, would offer a stark reaffirmation that Britain, the United States’ closest ally, continues to pose a major threat to American security. Critics in Britain and the United States say the British security forces, despite major increases in budgets and manpower in recent years, have not yet succeeded in adequately monitoring, much less restraining, the Islamic militancy that thrives in the vast network of mosques that serve the nation’s 1.5 million Muslims — and on university campuses across the country where nearly 100,000 of the 500,000 students are Muslims, including many, like Mr. Abdulmutallab, from overseas.

UPDATE - Muhammad Abdul ('Two million Muslim terrorists') Bari of the Muslim Council of Britain, quoted at Socialist Unity : "there are approximately 100,000 Muslim students at universities across the UK, the vast majority of whom are law-abiding and play a full and active role in student life."

NWOBJ again

I've noted before the technical incompetence of the New Wave Of British Jihad (© Laban Tall 2007).

The New Wave Of British Jihad is IMHO very poor quality compared with its illustrious predecessors. If the "Fantastic Four" were alive today they'd be turning in their graves.

I'd been wondering for a long time why science education was being dumbed down so much, to seeming government indifference.

The fact that these guys can't put anything that makes a bang together is a tribute to our education system. I understand now that Blair and Brown have been playing the long game - ensuring that anyone who hates them won't have the skills to do anything about it.

If those guys had gone to a decent privately run educational establishment - say a madrassa in Waziristan - they'd have been far more successful in their chosen career.

Now we see an engineering graduate of University College London who can't detonate military grade explosive. As Ross puts it :

The fact that an engineering alumnus from one of Britain's most prestigious universities can't even detonate an explosive is a damning indictment of our education system. It was one thing when an ex con retard like Richard Reid couldn't light up his shoes but this is absurd.

No wonder employers are increasingly critical of the quality of UK graduates.

NWOBJ - what did I tell you ?

earlier this month ....

"... the only jihadis who seem to fit the "weirdo loner" profile of yer average native pyrotechnician seem to be converts ..."

And behold ... poor little rich boy ...

Returning to Colston's, Andrew Ibrahim's weight and lack of sporting ability helped other pupils label him a "loser" and his increasingly unruly behaviour led the school to ask him to leave in December 2002, shortly before his 14th birthday...

Despite his increasing addiction, his parents stood by him, splitting the rent with him on a flat in Kingswood, a suburb in North East Bristol, with his mother doing a weekly food shop for him. At the flat, Ibrahim had videos of women's feet he had taken on his mobile phone at college without their knowledge, which he admitted were part of a "sexual interest" and he had searched for pictures of Kiera Knightley's feet on the internet.

He had become hooked on heroin and crack cocaine, using the drugs several times a day and stealing to fund his habit. He was reprimanded by police for possessing heroin in May 2006 at the age of 17 and warned for shoplifting on two occasions in September and October 2006.

Alongside his various addictions, Ibrahim had five tattoos done during 2005 and 2006, including "Hardcore" across his stomach and "HTID" on his right bicep to represent "Hardcore Till I Die" after a style of rave music. He also had a variety of hairstyles and colours along with a series of facial and intimate piercings.

Well, he did - and then he changed.


Before - a typical young Briton, expressing his individuality by copying loads of other people.



After - altogether a more serious figure. Grow the beard a little longer and buy a motorbike ! I digress.

Sunny once again looks at the press coverage of this kid-with-everything and sees the cancer of racism rearing its ugly head yet again - or is it the cancer of Islamophobia ? I forget.

"Let’s see – nutjob wants to take out other Britons. Is working alone. Gets caught. But one story makes the front page of the Evening Standard. Another story involving a white guy who was in a more advanced stage of bomb-making barely rates a mention in the back pages. "

He's referring of course to this somewhat sorry figure.

I can’t believe that Sunny is as daft as he pretends to be. I guess it's just that his target audience need their fill of such stories to balance his often cogent criticisms of the cultures of the subcontinent. He must know perfectly well that the ‘public schoolboy’ angle will hit the Mail, Telegraph and Evening Standard erogenous zones – they just love a ‘middle-class gone wrong’ story and this guy has the dream background. Whereas the soi-disant Waffen SS guy was an inarticulate working class drunk.

A better parallel would be to compare Neil Lewington, inarticulate white Waffen SS UK Member, with an inarticulate white working class jihadi convert. Google ‘Nicholas Roddis’ – of the fearsome Al Qaeda Organisation In Rotherham. He didn’t make much of a media splash- got reported, but never hit the front pages or radio headlines.

And as for Sunny's ‘more advanced stage’ of explosive manufacture – our Waffen SS chap basically had some firelighters – call them incendiary devices if you wish. I also have some advanced stage incendiaries - I put them in the grate, light them - and they burn at once ! Then I put coal on top.

Our public schoolboy had HTMD in his fridge – that’s stuff that makes quite a bang – and a suicide vest for it to go in.

“When they entered his flat in April last year, police found between 125-245 grammes of the unstable explosive Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine, also known as HMTD, in a Family Circle biscuit tin in Ibrahim’s fridge. He had also made an electrical circuit capable of detonating the explosive at short range and a half-made suicide vest … Ibrahim made the HMTD, the same substance used in the July 7 attacks, and suicide vest entirely through instructions from the internet.”

(btw, I don’t know if the 7/7 attacks actually used HMTD – you get different stories from different sources. After the attacks the story was that it was TATP as used in Gaza rockets, then it changed to being ‘organic peroxide-based’ i.e. flour and concentrated H2O2. For obvious reasons I’d reckon there was a lot of disinformation about. I note that the wikipedia entry for HMTD has been pruned to remove information about the easily-obtainable ingredients and a link to a 'how to make it' site, among other things.)


UPDATE - two other thoughts ... both Ibrahim and Lewington were nobodies with big hopes (or big fantasies if you like). Now they're somebodies, even if they're not somebodies we'd like to be ourselves.

And this strikes me as far more significant than Mr Little-boy-lost Ibrahim. The reporter is at Regents Park Mosque, listening to preachers instructing the faithful to kill apostates, adulterers, homosexuals, avoid the company of non-Muslims - you know, that stuff that would come under 'hate crime' were a Christian saying it. But it's not that, it's this :

I was amazed at how many young British women seemed to find this version of the faith attractive. One young girl told me that when she first attended the circle, she was dressed in jeans and that she had many non-Muslim friends. She now loves only those that are around her - "other sisters in the circle" - and only engages with non-Muslims to try to convert them. Many of the sisters had the idea of living as a separate community - a concept alien to me and many other Muslims I know.

More canaries in the coal mine. Like Peter Hitchens, I think it's likely that this country will see a great religious revival in this century - but that it may not be a Christian one.

NWOBN update

Remember this chap ?

Either the New Wave of British Nazism (NWOBN - © Laban Tall 2008) is as incompetent as the New Wave of British Jihad (NWOBJ - © Laban Tall 2007), or there's something funny going on.

If you were in possession of timers, weedkiller, firelighters and tennis balls in connection with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism, and travelling on the train, would you really take time out to be abusive to a railway servant, resulting in your arrest and discovery ? It makes you wonder if someone knew about him all along.

It looks as if, once again, Mr Cock-Up is at home while Mr Conspiracy is nowhere to be found :

Police uncovered the alleged threat that Mr Lewington posed by chance last October as he travelled to Lowestoft, Suffolk, for a date with a woman he had met on the internet. He was smoking and being abusive on a train and was arrested at Lowestoft for the public order offences, including urinating at the station.

Hmm. Very professional. Our hero is cut from the classic cloth of the 'far-right terrorist'. 43 years old, lives with his parents but hasn't spoken to one for ten years :

Mr Lewington lived the existence of a "loner", his parents told police, and had not spoken to his father for 10 years. He left school at 16 without qualifications but had worked in a number of electronics jobs. He had been unemployed for 10 years after being sacked from his last job for being drunk.

It's this little detail that gets me :

"Lewington had made a number of girlfriends he met over mobile phone chatlines, calling himself Aristocrat or Amadeus. "

'Nazi' or not, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel for the guy, whatever idiotic or unpleasant ideas he may have. Mike Leigh is probably writing a script right now. But enough with the sympathy already - what of his evil plans ?

Mr Altman said: "He had the parts which, if assembled together, would have created devices which if ignited would have caught alight and caused flames and fire.

"Later searches of the house where the defendant lived with his parents in Reading, in particular his own bedroom, revealed nothing short of a factory for the production of many such similar devices.

That's bad news. I have whole boxes of devices "which if ignited would have caught alight and caused flames and fire". They're called firelighters, and you buy them from Wilkinsons at about 47p a packet. Much cheaper than Tesco or Sainsbury. In fact I notice from the first report that firelighters were among the items on him when arrested. Why the big deal ?

"In addition to all of that the police discovered evidence that the defendant sympathised with and quite clearly adhered to white supremacist and racist views."

Ah yes. Like Mr Robert Cottage, Mr Lewington is about to find that "a desire to make improvised explosive devices, when mixed with right-wing politics, can be extremely hazardous to your liberty." Not that Mr Lewington's right-wing politics are my right-wing politics, mind you. As regulars will know, I'm more of a 'content of character' kind of guy.

If only I could say the same of Sunny over at Pickled Politics :

Another white terrorist against 'non-British' caught

I'll pass over the fact that he seems to be pre-empting the verdict. You could just imagine how Sunny would react if the Mail and Sun started producing 'Another Asian terrorist' headlines every time a wannabe jihadi got banged up - which a year or so back was about every other week. He'd have a fit.

I can understand his (and the BBCs) desperation to have a few 'oppos' to the flood of jihadi reports over the last few years. But the simple fact is that the overwhelming majority of "white terrorists" are about as dangerous as this guy, who also got Sunny hot and bothered.

“The court heard how 35-year-old MacGregor admitted sending a race hate email to Strathclyde Police threatening to blow up [Glasgow Central] Mosque if certain demands weren’t met. Included in the chilling message was a threat to behead one Muslim a week in the same manner construction worker Ken Bigley was killed after he was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004.

MacGregor followed the email up with a 999 call to cops on February 5, 2007. The court was told that during the brief call MacGregor claimed he was from the National Front and that a bomb was going to go off. He said: “A bomb will go off in the Central Mosque later this week. Now f*** off.” Cops raced to the Mosque to search it for explosive devices, but failed to locate anything suspicious.”

Now while unpleasant, that's not a terrorist attack. It's a mouthy drunken idiot - maybe a racist one, but drunken idiot nonetheless. What kind of terrorist gives the police a buzz or an email announcing their intentions ? There was a story a couple of years back which I read and now can't find - I think in the (Staffordshire) Sentinel, where a couple of unpleasant chaps harassed a pub landlord, telling him he was an Al Quaeda target. It's in that league, if that.

So there's really very little practical equivalence between the "incomer" terrorist and his native equivalent, other than incompetence (a tribute to Brit science education). Indeed, the only jihadis who seem to fit the "weirdo loner" profile of yer average native pyrotechnician seem to be converts like poor lost Nicky Reilly.

The differences, on the other hand, are significant. The main one being that unlike the native wannabes, 95% of wannabe jihadis are not sad loners. They have comrades, sometimes support networks, lots of ideological support even from those who aren't going to set any bombs anywhere. Quite a few of them have reasonably successful lives. There's a big Islamist sea for them to swim in. If 10% of UK Muslims - nearly twice the percentage that voted for the BNP in the Euro elections and got lefties in such a tizz - are prepared to tell an interviewer that they wouldn't tell the police if they suspected that a fellow-Muslim was a terrorist (another 10% either didn't know, were 50/50 or wouldn't say) that's a lorra lorra potential support.

I'm not saying that a loner can't be dangerous. David Copeland killed several people with his firework and shrapnel bombs. But, as you may remember, there weren't another four people trying to do the same thing a fortnight later. He was a one-off.

Unless you're very skilled, have a lot of time on your hands, a quiet place to 'work' and access to, say, fertiliser, no one-man outfit is going to make a terribly big bang. For that you need friends and comrades - something the NWOBN just ain't got.

Another point relating to the sea in which the fish swim. Were there a sea for the Neil Lewingtons of this world to swim in, it would presumably be some kind of British nationalist or nativist community. But, as readers may have noticed

a) the Brits aren't that keen on blowing people up. In fact, I'd go as far as to say they're agin it.

b) what little Brit nationalist community exists is under attack already as if it were sheltering dozens of bombers - even though, as noted, that's not the Brit way. It's all the nationalist sea can do to avoid being evaporated, without worrying whether its diversity includes a safe refuge for rare and somewhat unprepossessing species like Lewingtonis Brittanicus. The jihadis have dozens of forums, there are organisations like the MCB and the Muslim Parliament, which do not support terrorism but among whose supporters they can trawl for potential allies, not to mention more radical groups and more radical mosques. Not surprisingly, Searchlight aren't going to spend a lot of time trying to crack that particular nut.


PS - the Muslim survey is quite interesting - I see that the BBC report left out the bits that didn't tell the good story, like the 2-1 against homosexuals having 'the right to have relationships'. One of the most interesting is Table 15 - "Do you have friends or family in Afghanistan or Pakistan? If yes, how concerned are you about their welfare?"

One of the answers is 'No - do not have any friends or family there' - which gives you a rough idea of the proportion of Pakistanis in Britain's Muslim community. Overall, 45% have neither in Pakistan or Afghanistan - but by region - North 33%, Midlands 37%, South 56%. You see the Kashmiris and Pakistanis in the North and Midlands, the Bangladeshis in London and the South.

A Few Daisies From The Curate's Lawn

Boom Bang-A-Bang (again) - in my post about the UK exploding community I mentioned the apparent use by the 7/7 bombers of boiled-down hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant in their bombs.

Those clever chaps at Blood and Treasure (who share my low opinions of the NWOBJ) actually did some experimental work to see if it were true. I think the verdict is 'not proven'.

Via them, a chap called George Smith who also asks if things are true. An interesting blog - a kind of Yankee Alex Harrowell.

True New Labour values. Former Scottish first minister Jack McConnell looks back over ten years of devolution to its crowning glory.

Jack McConnell rates the smoking ban as the crowning achievement of the Scottish parliament, which marks the 10th anniversary of its first meeting this month ... McConnell said: "I was so proud. I was proud of my country, proud of the people and proud of the parliament. It was a defining moment in that first 10 years."

You do have to worry about the mental state of a man who considers a smoking ban the finest achievement of ten years of government. Was it for this that Keir Hardie and the Red Clydesiders fought - for the right of a publican to go to jail if drinkers light up in a Scots pub ?


More New Labour snouts in the trough.

A Labour peer who lives in the East End of London has claimed about £100,000 in parliamentary expenses on a flat in Kent that neighbours say has been unoccupied for years.

Baroness Uddin, who worked closely with Tony and Cherie Blair, has been claiming allowances intended for peers living outside London although she resides only four miles from the Lords.

Inquiries by The Sunday Times have established that the baroness bought a two-bedroom flat in Maidstone in 2005 and has named it as her main home to claim almost £30,000 a year in accommodation expenses from the House of Lords.

Residents from the five other flats in the same block as Uddin’s property all say they have never seen her there. They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished.

Ms Uddin seems an archetype NuLab figure :

Born in Bangladesh, Manzila Pola Uddin came to Britain as a teenager and went on to become a community worker and social services officer while pursuing a political career that saw her rise to be deputy leader of Tower Hamlets borough council in the early 1990s.

She was made a peer by Tony Blair in 1998 and took the title “Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green in our London Borough of Tower Hamlets”. Aged 38, she was the youngest woman in the Lords.

As a campaigner on women’s and ethnic minority issues she has become part of the new Labour establishment, befriending Cherie Blair. Her Facebook friends include the cabinet ministers Harriet Harman, Hazel Blears and David Miliband and Alastair Campbell, the former spin doctor.

More vote fraud :

Raja Khan, 52, of Oban Court, Montem Lane, was jailed for three and a half years after admitting conspiracy to defraud the returning officer and perjury. He has since been expelled from the Conservative Party. Gul Nawaz Khan, 58, of Richmond Crescent, pleaded guilty to perjury and was jailed for eight months. Mohammed Basharat Khan, 46, of Mirador Crescent, admitted conspiracy to defraud the returning officer and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He was jailed for three years and four months. Arshad Raja, 53, of Broadmark Road, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the returning officer. He was given an 18-month prison sentence.

Now the sentences are good, even when you halve them and knock off 18 days. It's the kind of thing that will encourage the others - for a time, at least. According to "the electoral commission" there was less fraud in the 2008 elections - full report here.

Via Cranmer, an interesting paper on the success of the homosexual activist group Stonewall.

And finally, the American lefty singer, activist and songwriter Pete Seeger is ninety years old. While he should IMHO face a musical tribunal for popularising Kumbayah, against this must be set a number of services to music, including his fine tune to the poetry of Idris Davies. More jangly Sixties guitars, electric this time. I know they can't pronounce the name right, and there's a total disconnect between Depression South Wales and a bunch of amiable middle-class American stoners, but the Byrds do a lovely job on Bells of Rhymney.

Listen.

"the blood of the Romans"

Decent of Bilal Abdulla to identify us with the mighty empire of two thousand years back.

The draft will continues: "God has blessed us the ability to lick the blood of the Romans (a reference to westerners] as you have done before us in the past."

The court heard Abdulla went on to rail against "the Kingdom of Evil".

He is alleged to have written: "It destroyed our caliphate, tore apart our unity, defamed and distorted our religion and stabbed us in the heart the day it established that infernal state in our Palestine."

The court was told that, in a reference to conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wrote: "Their soldiers kill the young and old. They do not discriminate between men and women, so why should we? If the policy of their army is to kill women and children, then only a similar policy would deter them."

"These people do not care about what is happening in our land as they are all busy with alcoholic drinking and with their intimate friends…these people can only be awakened by the sound of booby traps and the Mujahideen hailing 'God is great'."

Hmmm. "These people do not care about what is happening in our land".

In separate letters, he praised Islamist fighters in Iraq and called on the Muslim community in Britain to "leave this land of unbelievers and atheism before losing your religion".

That's the thing, old chap. Most of "these people" do not care about what's happening in their land, either. I can't help thinking his advice to British Muslims is too pessimistic. Hang on in there, be fruitful and multiply - and you may well find that the mountain does come to Mohammed.

I Don't Know ...

Either the New Wave of British Nazism (NWOBN - © Laban Tall 2008) is as incompetent as the New Wave of British Jihad (NWOBJ - © Laban Tall 2007), or there's something funny going on.

If you were in possession of timers, weedkiller, firelighters and tennis balls in connection with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism, and travelling on the train, would you really take time out to be abusive to a railway servant, resulting in your arrest and discovery ? It makes you wonder if someone knew about him all along.

He is accused on five counts of recording or possessing information or documents likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. The documents allegedly include notebooks, a folder containing drawings and handwritten notes, the WAFFEN SS UK Members Handbook, and a book entitled Counter Bomb.

The Waffen SS UK Members Handbook ? I'm not sure the Waffen SS was a membership organisation, let alone one with a British branch. I thought you had to be invited.

I wonder what he was doing in Suffolk ? Perhaps, as a loyal member of the Waffen SS (isn't that treasonable ?) he was planning an attack on the birthplace of British radar at Bawdsey, where the Post Óffice carried out the pioneering work in the 30s. Someone ought to tell him he's a bit late.

NWOBJ (Junior Section)

Remember the Ravensthorpe Ravers, potentially (if convicted) 'Britain's youngest terrorists' ?

The trial continues :

The schoolboys attended Westborough High School, in Dewsbury, West Yorks, the home town of a number of the London Suicide Bombers, Leeds Crown Court heard. Ali's former religious education teacher and form mistress Nichola Colloby told the trial he school was 85 per cent Asian, but none of them was as religiously or politically obsessive as he was.

Mrs Colloby said: "Wasir said he was interested in becoming a politician and he was very interested in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was of the opinion that that he terrorist attack on America was a good, positive thing and he saw America as the enemy."

In art lessons his paintings concerned the teacher and he wrote the slogans 'President Bush must die' and 'Tony Blair must die'.

His year planner, in which ordinary pupils inserted holidays, birthdays or sports events, was confiscated as he wrote 'September 11, Twin Towers blown up – 3,000 dead!'

Mrs Colloby said all Ali ever wanted to discuss was the Muslim and American struggle. "It was quite disturbing really," she said. "He was vehement that his was the right opinion and he could not empathise with the other view."

Mrs Colloby, who has an American partner, told the jury that she entered her classroom in April 2006 to see Ali being restrained by fellow pupils.

On her white board in black marker were the words 'All Americans MUST die!'

She said: "Wasir was being held by one of the other students because some of the others wanted to be physically violent with him. One said 'Look Miss, look what Wasir has written on your board'. I was upset and angry."

She said the whole class knew her partner was American and their three-year-old daughter was half-American.

Hmm. Not a terribly empathetic chap, then. And what sensible children. Interesting look at the cultural front line - Mirfield Grammar School, where Wasir Ali enrolled to do A-levels.

The court was told that despite the initial concerns, Ali was enrolled to do A-levels in philosophy and ethics, history and psychology.

However, his vocal attitude in the classroom soon unsettled several members of staff – and within days they had expressed their concerns to Mr Hawkins.

The court heard Ali had become "excited and animated" by a picture of the 9/11 twin towers attacks which featured on one of his textbooks and had "challenged teachers in a really unhelpful way" about issues such as abortion and divorce. After a meeting with Mr Hawkins, Ali was eventually asked to go home in a bid to "cool him down a bit".
However he only attended once or twice more and eventually withdrew from the course completely.

I wonder if "challenged teachers in a really unhelpful way" means "challenged teachers" in the context of abortion and divorce. I must say it'd be interesting to know how teachers with 'partners', signed up to the whole liberal package, handle kids who've been taught, as British kids were once taught, that fornication and divorce are sins - and abortion is murder. I wish some of them - or even one of them - blogged.

But he doesn't seem to be quite as harmless as I'd supposed.

Ali, now 18, denies three charges of possessing articles for terrorist purposes, namely a copy of the Anarchists' Cookbook, 3.5kg of potassium nitrate and a quantity of calcium chloride. His co-accused Dabeer Hussain, also 18, denies one count of possessing the cookbook, which lists how to make lethal bombs.

I still don't know what the calcium chloride's for - unless to remove water from some other compound, as it's generally used as a desiccant - anyone know ? - but 7lbs of saltpetre is enough to make a fair whack of gunpowder - a David Copeland-sized device, if not bigger.

UPDATE - both were acquitted.

Mr Ali, of Dearnley Street, Dewsbury, was also accused of buying and storing significant amounts of potassium nitrate and calcium chloride, chemicals which can be used in the preparation of a bomb. But the teenager said he was a "prankster" who was interested in experimenting with fireworks and making smoke bombs.

Mr Hussain, of Clarkson Street, Dewsbury, said he had been sent a copy of the Anarchists' Cookbook but had not read it and was not interested in politics. Speaking outside the court after the verdicts, Mr Ali said he was "extremely relieved" that he had been cleared of the charges but was angry about how he had been treated. "I believe that if I was not from a Muslim background, I would not have been prosecuted," he said. "I have had to live in fear of being branded a terrorist. I feel it was completely obvious once the police looked up the evidence that I had nothing to do with terrorism at all. Silly teenage chat and things I said at school were taken out of context and presented as if it was evidence that I was an extremist."

Ravensthorpe Ravers - BNP Bomb Boys

More on the New Wave of British Jihad (© Laban Tall 2007).

When Dewsbury's Hammaad Munshi, "Britain's youngest terrorist" (do I sense the genesis of a new reality TV show, perhaps on Al-Jazeera - "Britain's Got Bomb-Making Talent" ?) was convicted of terrorist offences in August, I wondered if he was the same chap who'd featured in this story a year ago. I commented :

The age is right. I may be wrong, but I reckon Mr Munshi is the same guy. How many more teenagers in Dewsbury have been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 ? I'd like to hope it was only one more, but if anyone knows different please tell me.

Well, it was two separate cases. Are these guys linked to the Ravy Terror Squad ?

Two West Yorkshire school boys cooked up a plot to blow up a BNP building, Leeds Crown Court heard. Dabeer Hussain and Waris Ali, now both 18 and from the Ravensthorpe area of Dewsbury are accused of possessing a terrorism manual called the Anarchists Cookbook on their computers and of discussing a plan to spy on and blow up a building connected to the far right politicals group, British National Party, the jury at heard.

Sounds sinister. What exactly did they do ?

Ali, of Dearnley Street, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury is also accused of downloading a copy of the Proper Anarchists Cookbook onto his computer and possessing small amounts of potassium nitrate and calcium chloride, the court heard.

Both chemicals can be used in the preparation of a bomb, the court heard.

Well, you can certainly make a bang with potassium nitrate, finely ground charcoal and sulphur - aka gunpowder, but calcium chloride ? If these guys know how to make explosives out of that, GCSE chemistry is less dumbed-down than I thought. Not only that, but I'm worried - as there are a couple of pounds of the closely-related sodium chloride in our kitchen - and a couple of hundredweight of the stuff in a big yellow bin at the roadside.



Lancaster jihadis position a massive roadside sodium chloride device in an unsuspecting Cumbrian village.

I digress - where was I ? Ah yes ...

At the time of the offences between May 2006 and September 2007 Ali was still 15, and Hussain of Clarkson Street, Ravensthorpe was just 16.

Looks like Mr Munshi's "Britain's youngest terrorist" title is in danger (update - both acquitted).

As I've said before, I'm a little - more than a little - concerned about the legislation under which you can be charged with possessing items "likely to be of use for terrorism" - a category so vague and wide-reaching as to render pretty much the entire UK population liable to arrest. A road map ? A Stanley knife ? Every arable farmer with a bag of ammonium nitrate is a potential mass-murderer. Perhaps they should be taken into preventive custody.

Motivation is all. Possessing items "likely to be of use for terrorism" is such a broad concept that in practice the 'likeliness' is decided not by what the items are, but what the accused may have wanted to do with them. The 9/11 murderers used Stanley knives and Microsoft Flight Simulator, but those of us who possess both are unlikely to get arrested at 5 am unless we start posting on jihadi websites while simultaneously researching flight deck door locking mechanisms and when the stewards bring the pilots coffee.

Similarly Omar Altimimi got nine years despite the police admitting that "we will never know exactly what Altimimi was preparing to do". He had built up a library of terror-related literature - but on those grounds Professor Paul Wilkinson should be inside.

You see what I mean ? Young men have enjoyed making things go bang ever since gunpowder was discovered. I'm sure these two are very naughty boys - but does possession of information about making explosives, plus a very small quantity of an oxidiser, make these young men terrorists ?




("NWOBJ" and "New Wave of British Jihad " are registered trade marks (© Laban Tall 2007))

NWOBJ - Junior Section

If the New Wave of British Jihad (© Laban Tall 2007) has an epicentre, it must surely be Dewsbury, although Brum might run it close.

A West Yorkshire schoolboy who possessed a guide to making napalm on his computer and notes on martyrdom under his bed today became Britain's youngest convicted terrorist. Hammaad Munshi, whose grandfather is a leading Islamic scholar, was 16 and taking his GCSEs when he was arrested.

Munshi, now 18, was convicted of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism following a three-month trial at Blackfriars crown court in London. He was cleared of one possession offence. The judge, Timothy Pontius, remanded Munshi in custody until sentencing at the Old Bailey on September 19 when, Pontius warned, it was "inevitable" that he would be jailed. The Crown Prosecution Service said Munshi, of Greenwood Street, Saville Town, Dewsbury, was the youngest person to be convicted under the Terrorism Act.

Hmm. Evidently Saville Town. But ... what happened to this chap, in court last year ? or is it the same person, and if so, what's happened to the saltpetre under the bed ?

A British teenager who is accused of plotting to blow up members of the British National Party appeared in court today. The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London to face two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is alleged that he had in his possession a copy of the "Anarchists' Cookbook", containing instructions about how to make home-made explosives. The charges are that he was in possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year and that he collected or had information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism. The teenager, who is a British national but has dual nationality with Pakistan, stood in the dock wearing a baggy, blue hooded top. He said nothing other than to confirm his name and date of birth, before prosecuting counsel Piers Arnold outlined the evidence before Judge Daphne Wickham. He was arrested at an address in the Dewsbury area of West Yorkshire on Monday and taken to London this morning.
Judge Wickham ruled that the offences were not within the remit of the magistrates court and set a date for a committal hearing on October 25th.

There were two arrests - the second one being a young man from Ravensthorpe, who according to reports at the time had chemicals under his bed.

The story hit the papers last year then vanished - no reports on any convictions.

The age is right. I may be wrong, but I reckon Mr Munshi is the same guy. How many more teenagers in Dewsbury have been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 ? I'd like to hope it was only one more, but if anyone knows different please tell me.

The bit about wanting to kill BNP members also vanished from the stories - the BBC replaced it within a few hours and the police actually rang the BNP to deny the story. Shades of the disappearing rocket launchers in the Robert Cottage trial.

The press stories were pretty confusing anyway - the original BBC story had two boys from Dewsbury, one of whom wanted to blow up BNP members, the Dewsbury Reporter had two boys, one thought to be, and the other definitely, from Ravensthorpe, same for the Yorkshire Post with the information that the material was saltpetre.

Hmm. While Savile Town isn't far from Ravensthorpe, you couldn't mix them up. But if Mr Munshi (I think the name is Hindi for a clerk or scribe), "Britain's youngest terrorist", isn't our man, what happened to the two Ravensthorpe Ravers ?

"Al Qaeda Organisation of Rotherham"

More comedy capers from the New Wave of British Jihad (© Laban Tall 2007).

A white Muslim convert planted a hoax bomb on a bus full of people with a note saying that 'Britain must be punished', a court was told today. Nicholas Roddis, 22, is thought to have disguised himself with a long black beard before planting the fake home-made nailbomb on a crowded bus in Rotherham, in May last year.

Leeds Crown Court was told Roddis, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, had recently learnt the teachings of Islam in a move to convert over to the religion and had even recorded the preachings of disgraced cleric Abu Hamza. Prosecutor Edward Brown QC told Leeds Crown Court Roddis's conversion had been noted by work colleagues and he had alienated a childhood friend by talking about bomb-making.

On May 8 last year, a man disguised with a long black beard boarded a bus with two carrier bags, he told the jury. Not long after he disembarked, leaving one bag behind. A passenger checked inside and saw three packages with nails, wire, a working clock and a note with foreign writing on it. The writing on the piece of paper was in Arabic and read "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah. God is great, god is great, god is great. Britain must be punished." It was signed Al Qaeda Organisation of Iraq.

Hmm. This report isn't quite so funny. But be fair. The mobile, computer, diary, acetone and nails could all be found somewhere chez Laban. Perhaps the acetone is to get varnish off nails.

There are also 11 counts of possessing an article for a terrorist purpose, on July 11 2007. They relate to containers of hydrogen peroxide and acetone, a mobile phone and a computer, a quantity of nails, railway detonators, a bomb-making recipe, a diary, and a list "which included the particulars of terrorist acts".

Muslims Fear Backlash Part 39287

Following the latest comedy caper of the New Wave of British Jihad (© Laban Tall 2007), the BBC have terrible news :

Police have appealed to ethnic communities to work together following a bomb blast in Exeter. The Devon Racial Equality Council has said some local Muslims have reported instances of racial harassment.

Police said while there was no specific evidence of an increase in actual incidents, they were aware of emerging tensions in local communities.

Can't say the BBC don't get the big stories. The good news is that the police don't think there was any connection between the explosion and 'any one religion'.

Ch Supt Jim Webster said some local communities were "naturally concerned" and felt they were "under the spotlight. Additional patrols have been put on the streets of Plymouth to reassure local residents.

Mr Webster, who has been meeting MPs, councillors and community leaders to discuss the situation, said the investigation into the Exeter explosion in Exeter would be a "long inquiry". He added: "Terrorism isn't the product of any one religion or community - it is a crime."

It sure is a crime, Super. Although in this case not a very serious one. Your crimes against truth may be more serious for your nation than a poorly assembled weedkiller cocktail could ever be. Although most Muslims aren't terrorist (this chap - another slightly loopy convert - seems to have been shopped by a Muslim), there can be no doubt that in the UK, the vast majority of terrorist activity is alas motivated by the name of Islam. As the latest Europol terror survey (pdf - and is an EU publication) says :

The UK reported a 30 percent increase in arrested suspects. Although no affiliation could be assigned, UK authorities estimate that, out of the 203 persons arrested in 2007, the vast majority were in relation to Islamist terrorism.

(The EU police survey divides terrorists into the following categories - Islamist/separatist/Left Wing/Right Wing/Single Issue (e.g. animal rights). In terms of arrests, the Basque separatists, with 500+ arrests, keep the police busiest, although this is concentrated in just two countries - France and Spain. The Brit police don't categorise, but if we assume 75% as "the vast majority", the UK turns out to be the primary focus of Islamist terror in Europe, as measured by arrests.)

Doubtless our heroic police politico is following guidance from above. Our rulers are afraid. They are afraid. Fear is a very poor foundation for negotiation or action - especially in a situation where your strength is failing and your opponent's strength is increasing. If they cannot look the truth in the face now, for fear of 'the community', demographically heavy with fighting-age males, what will they not overlook when that community has doubled in size, only a few years from now ?

In the shorter term, the good news is that the NWOBJ seems to be keeping up the comedy competence of its illustrious predecessors :

A prisoner has pleaded guilty to making threats to blow up one of Europe's largest shopping centres with three limousines packed with explosives. Saeed Ghafoor, 33, of Southampton, made the threat to a prison officer while at HMP Haverigg in Cumbria on 7 February.

The former English teacher appeared via video-link at the Old Bailey charged with threatening to cause criminal damage at Bluewater in Kent. The court was told Ghafoor thought the shopping centre was in Exeter.

(For other BBC backlash fears, see here and here.)

Ravensthorpe Ravers

In my last update on the New Wave of British Jihad (NWOBJ), I noted that Ravensthorpe, in the heart of the former Heavy Woollen District of the West Riding, and the home of the young chap charged with trying to blow up BNP members, seemed to have enough racists to be going on with.

Mr Gentles said: “I think this is all because we are black. My two children are frightened of this gang - they are too scared to go outside. The oldest can’t go anywhere in Ravensthorpe – he can’t go to the park.” Mr Gentles said his car had been smashed up and shot at with pellet guns twice in the last two weeks, and he had seen the gang running away. He said: “They have thrown stones through the window and smashed everything up. They are young Asian boys from about 13 up – there are about 20 of them. At night they all linger in the park.

It turns out that Mr Gentles ain't the only one.

"Two men were badly beaten in an ambush by a 30-strong gang of Asian thugs, known as the Ravy Terror Squad. The two Dewsbury men, aged 37 and 41, were out digging for old bottles when they were attacked by a gang hiding in woodland. The random attack happened last Thursday night in fields off Park Road, Ravensthorpe.

Both men were beaten, kicked and punched ... Over the summer The Press reported how the so-called Ravy Terror Squad had been responsible for a number of attacks in and around the Spen Valley Greenway. Last week The Press was told that a 15-year-old, who had walked his girlfriend home to Ravensthorpe, had been attacked and beaten.

Dewsbury’s police commander, Chief Insp Jon Carter, said the Ravy Terror Squad was believed to be responsible but denied it was a real ‘gang’. “This is not a gang as such, more a peer group which has got involved in crime and anti-social behaviour,” he said. “They hang out together and one or two have become misguided and unlawful. “We have just got a positive lead on who they are and what they are about and we aim to lock them up.”"

Be fair. C.I. "Jon" may not know the definition of a gang, and he's obviously treading on diversity eggshells, but he's been as good as his word.

Shortly after 8am today, Tuesday 16th October, officers from the Dewsbury and Mirfield Neighbourhood Policing Team attended at seven addresses in the Ravensthorpe area, one in the Earlsheaton area and one address in the Mirfield area. A total of 5 men aged 16, 17, 19, 22 and 25 have been arrested on suspicion of assault and robbery and are being questioned by police. Searches have been carried out at the addresses and property has been seized.

The operation follows reports of robbery and assault and postings on the internet by a number of individuals claiming to be from the Ravensthorpe Terror Squad. Chief Inspector Jon Carter who is leading the operation said: "This operation marks the culmination of behind the scenes work to identify the individuals we suspect of being involved in criminal offences. We are listening to local communities and we are taking positive action to address their concerns.

I don't want you to get the idea that Asian gangs are the only problem in Heavy Woollen Country. There are plenty of native horrors - and the whole area, within living memory a respectable though hard-drinking network of working class communities, is now a bit of a disaster zone.

Yobs went on a three-night rampage in Mirfield as weeks of anti-social behaviour exploded in alcohol-fuelled violence. Seventeen youths aged between 15 and 18 were arrested after disturbances in and around Mirfield town centre and on London Park Estate. Fighting broke out between rival gangs in the town centre on Saturday night as up to 50 youths clashed in the street. Bottles were hurled at passing cars and shop windows in the town centre were smashed as yobs ran riot. Fighting had also erupted between gangs near the town centre on Thursday night and a children’s play area in the park next to Moorlands cricket ground in Huddersfield Road was set ablaze on Friday evening ... Police quelled the worst of the violence at 11pm on Saturday but later sparked anger from local residents by dismissing the trouble as “low level disorder.”

Low level disorder, eh. Not C.I. Carter abusing the dictionary again ?

The local Intelligent Weekly Press seems a rather good paper - and it's run by locals. So often local rags are emasculated by the simple economic fact of the local authority being the largest advertiser. I wonder how much advertising they get from the council ?

My respect for them grew when I read this.


A trial date has been set for Labour MP Shahid Malik’s £100,000 lawsuit against The Press and former Tory councillor Jonathan Scott. The five-day trial, to be held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, will start on November 12.

Dewsbury and Mirfield MP Malik launched his libel action last October over a letter from Mr Scott published in both The Press and the Reporter. The letter described what happened outside a polling station in Savile Town at the local elections in May 2006. Malik threatened to sue both newspapers but only took action against The Press, which immediately vowed to vigorously defend the case. Press editor and managing director Martin Shaw said the trial had been expected in April next year but the November date became available this week. “We are ready for this trial, we are ready to win and we decided to get it on,” said Mr Shaw. “This is not something we have entered into lightly and there are serious principles at stake. “Our defence is very strong, we have some respected and high profile witnesses and we will see Mr Malik in court in eight weeks.” The Press and Mr Scott will be represented by top media barrister Jonathan Crystal and Leeds-based law firm Fox Hayes. Stephen Taylor Heath, a partner at the firm, said: “All the hard work in preparing the case has been completed and we are ready for trial.” Mr Scott said he was ready for the battle and added: “This trial has been a long time coming but now it is here at last and we are all confident, fully committed and ready to fight hard in court for what we believe in.”

After news of Malik’s lawsuit became public knowledge, the Freedom of Speech Campaign was launched to help fund defence costs. Last Saturday Press director Danny Lockwood organised the biggest and most ambitious event yet, the Freedom Ball, a black tie dinner at Dewsbury Town Hall. The sell-out event, attended by some of the district’s leading businessmen, was a huge success and raised a staggering £7,000. Mr Lockwood said: “The amazing response to the Freedom Ball showed that the people of Dewsbury and Mirfield and the wider business community are right behind us. “We thank them for their support and hope they will continue to back us between now and the trial.”

Hmmm. Mr Malik dropped action against the Dewsbury Reporter, owned by the UK-wide conglomerate Johnston Press, and chose to concentrate on a small local paper, one of the few that's still locally owned and run. One to watch I think - and does anyone know what happened outside that Savile Town polling station ?

BNP Bomber Update

No, the one who allegedly wants to blow up BNP members.

More detail.

He is accused of plotting to make bombs following a trip to Pakistan and to have had a copy of the Anarchists Cookbook on his computer.

During an anti-terror raid on his home about 500g of potassium nitrate was allegedly found under his bed in the room he shared with his younger brother. Potassium nitrate is a critical oxidising component of gunpowder.

While gunpowder can kill people - it's what David Copeland used - it's not exactly a weapon of mass destruction. Given that from next week you can buy 90-shot firework cakes for around seven quid from Lidl, it should put into context the possession of a pound of saltpetre. Semtex it ain't.


Previous posts here and here.

"plotting to blow up members of the British National Party"

Looks like the original BBC story - which they hastily pulled to replace with something more anodyne - was kosher.

Yorkshire Post and icHuddersfield also report that BNP members were the potential target of the two young men arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.

We're in new territory here. I can't remember any previous cases in UK history of trying to kill people for their party membership, although one Billy Bragg did call in a Guardian interview for BNP members to be "duffed up in the street", while a Jeremy Hardy said on the BBC that they "should be shot in the back of the head".

UPDATE - when one considers the relatively peaceful past of UK party politics, one does tend to forget Erin's green isle, where killing politicians is an old and dishonourable tradition both North and South of the border - although even then, did people try to target ordinary members of, say, the DUP ? The situation is complicated when you consider that some parties were terrorist front organisations.

Which countries have traditions of political violence aimed at ordinary party members or supporters ? Well, pretty much all of them outside the Anglosphere and some parts of Europe, really. Pakistan and Bangladesh for starters. India's not immune. The Land of Wood and Water.

Looks like we're not just getting the voting practices of the subcontinent along with the kuthlama and the dosa.

New Wave Of British Jihad Update

Alum Rock, Ward End, Perry Barr - within living memory the home of working class Brummagem boys, now changed utterly.

One of the men, Parviz Khan, 36, is charged with engaging in conduct to kidnap and kill a member of the British Armed Forces. Mr Khan, of Foxton Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham, also denied two offences of having CDs on jihad, likely to be useful in terrorism. Mr Khan, Amjad Mahmood, 32, Mohammed Irfan, 30, Zahoor Iqbal, 30, and Hamid Elasmir, 44, denied assisting terrorism by supplying equipment. Basiru Gassama, 30, of Radstock Avenue, Hodge Hill, Birmingham, and Mr Mahmood, of Jackson Road, Alum Rock, denied failing to disclose information about the alleged plot. Mr Irfan, of Asquith Road, Ward End, Birmingham, denied having a CD containing information about explosives. Mr Iqbal, of Elmbridge Road, Perry Barr, Birmingham, denied having a CD on jihad.
Mr Elasmir, of Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, denied having information on how to make a suicide vest on his computer hard drive.

Dewsbury. Again.

Mohammed Asha & Co. Such an apt name, considering.

Hold on a minute - that Dewsbury story. What's this Google News heading ?



I don't remember that on the BBC story. Time to look at Revisionista. Strike a light.

"Before"

Boy 'plotted to kill' BNP members
Fri Oct 05 13:40:12 UTC 2007

A British teenager accused of plotting to blow up members of the British National Party has appeared in court ...

After the 40-minute hearing, the teenager was released on bail under several conditions. These include reporting daily to police, living at his home address, only leaving home in the company of a named adult, and not being allowed to access a computer, use an internet cafe or mobile phone.


"After"

Boy in court on terror charges
Fri Oct 05 16:01:11 UTC 2007
A British teenager who is accused of possessing material for terrorist purposes has appeared in court.

Dewsbury Reporter adds :

Another 17-year-old, from Ravensthorpe, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on September 19 to face the same charges. He had allegedly been found with bomb-making chemicals under his bed after a trip to Pakistan.



Hmmm. Dewsbury already has quite enough racist attacks.

Errol Gentles said: “I think this is all because we are black. My two children are frightened of this gang - they are too scared to go outside. The oldest can’t go anywhere in Ravensthorpe – he can’t go to the park.” Mr Gentles said his car had been smashed up and shot at with pellet guns twice in the last two weeks, and he had seen the gang running away.

He said: “They have thrown stones through the window and smashed everything up. They are young Asian boys from about 13 up – there are about 20 of them. At night they all linger in the park. I think they will come back and smash my house windows – I’m really worried about it. I don’t know what else they will do.”

I Didn't Say He Was All Bad ...

The trial also heard how the 21-year-old made a series of extremist claims to students, including how he would "blow up Glasgow".

Allahu ...

Ochbar !

Those Who Cure You Will Kill You

Times

Canon White, who runs Baghdad’s only Anglican parish, said that he met the al-Qaeda leader on the fringes of a meeting about religious reconciliation held in Amman, the Jordanian capital.

“He talked to me about how they were going to destroy British and Americans. He told me that the plans were already made and they would soon be destroying the British. He said the people who cure you would kill you.”

(Graphic via the excellent Curly's Corner Shop)

The BBC has been wondering for years what the common factor was in a wave of attemped or thwarted British terror attacks. At last they've found a link.

Terror suspects all linked to NHS



Peter Briffa agrees - the NHS rather than Islamist ideology is the problem :

"The fact is, murder has long been a part of the NHS' remit.
For forty years now, ever since David Steel decided to get all sentimental about the pregnant poor, NHS doctors have been practising their homicidal skills on the nation's foetuses. It was only a matter of time before they decided to move on to the rest of us. We see this with the craving to embrace euthanasia, forcefeed ritalin on our children, and exterminate Mongolian Idiots. Death is what the NHS does."


UPDATE - Dumb Jon :

"They probably subcontracted the bomb-making to a nurse practitioner".