Author: Ben Leapman
Publication: The Telegraph, UK
Date: August 19, 2007
Introduction: A Muslim terror suspect -living in the UK has publicly praised
the insurgents who are battling British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hani al-Sibai claimed that Islamic fighters
were humiliating Western forces, adding: "In the battlefield, they are
the masters."
Al-Sibai has lived in Britain since 1994,
after fleeing his homeland of Egypt where he has been convicted by a military
court in his absence of plotting terrorist attacks. Tony Blair, the former
Prime Minister, once described the failure to remove him from the country
as "not good enough".
The 46-year-old radical was refused asylum
nine years ago after British security chiefs concluded he was a senior member
of the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad, an allegation he denies. He
has, however, been granted temporary permission to live in the UK while officials
consider his latest claim for asylum.
While he waits, al-Sibai continues to speak
out against the West. In a debate on al-Jazeera television last month, he
declared: "There are no real men except for the people of Islam. Look
at the people who give reason to hold the head of Islam high.
"In politics they are the masters. In
the battlefield they are the masters. They are the ones who rub in the mud
the nose of the occupation forces in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Palestine, throughout
the world."
He also contrasted Islamic extremists with
pro-Western secular leaders in the Middle East, who, he said, "should
be placed in public squares so that people can hit them with their shoes and
spit on them".
Al-Sibai's outburst on al-Jazeera, delivered
in Arabic, was spotted and translated by Memri, a US-based translation institute.
An Arabic speaker consulted by this newspaper confirmed the accuracy of the
translation.
Challenged about his outburst, al-Sibai insisted
he was speaking as a political analyst, rather than glorifying the insurgents.
He claimed his words had been "mistranslated and taken out of context".
The comments will reignite concerns over Britain's
policy of sheltering extremists. Al-Sibai lives with his wife and five children
in a £600,000 four-bedroom housing association home in a fashionable
area of
Hammersmith, west London.
When he first claimed asylum in the UK in
1994, he told officials he had been tortured in Egypt because he had acted
as a lawyer for Islamist groups and was linked to the opposition Muslim Brotherhood.
He was refused asylum on national security
grounds, and was jailed in 1998 pending deportation. However, human rights
laws make it impossible for suspects to be returned to countries where they
might be tortured or killed, and Britain was unable to obtain from Egypt the
necessary assurances as to al-Sibai's welfare.
Tony Blair intervened personally to try to
deport him, scrawling on a letter warning that he might have to remain in
the country: "I don't believe we shld (sic) be doing this. Speak to me."
Nevertheless, al-Sibai was freed after spending nine months behind bars. A
High Court judge has ruled he was unlawfully detained for nine days of this
time.
In 1999 he was granted "exceptional leave"
to remain in Britain for five years. Before the leave ran out in 2004 he lodged
a fresh asylum claim, still being processed by the Home Office. He and his
family have the same entitlements as British citizens to work or claim welfare
benefits.
Al-Sibai runs the al-Maqreze Centre for Historical
Studies, an Islamic website, from his home. His name is on a UN "watchlist"
of terrorist suspects subject to travel restrictions and freezing of assets.
"I never celebrate the deaths of any
British soldiers," he said. "I am a Middle Eastern political analyst,
and in this programme I was highlighting the fact that it is the Islamists,
and not Middle Eastern secularists, who are seen to be defending their lands
from occupation. I do not glorify, incite, or call to terrorism in any way."
Under the Terrorism Act 2006, it is an offence
to "glorify" terrorism in a way which incites attacks by others.
However, police sources said al-Sibai's comments on al-Jazeera were probably
within the law.
Khurshid Ahmed, chairman of the British Muslim
Forum, said: "People who seek to undermine our liberal democracy and
our traditions and values have no business being in this country."
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said:
"Clearly this man has deplorable views, and the sooner he is removed
from Britain the better."
