Norway: Terrorist cell planned attacks in Norway

Dagbladet reports that the three suspects are:

* Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak Bujak (37), an Iraqi Kurd living in Oslo. He was arrested in Germany and Norway asked to extradite him.

* David Jakobsen (31), Uzbek living in Oslo. Jakobsen’s request for asylum was rejected, but he received a residence permit via family reunification. Several sources in the Uzbek community told Dagbladet that Jakobsen radicalized during his time in Norway.

* Mikael Davud (39), Norwegian citizen of Chinese-Uighur background. Suspected of leading the cell. Davud was formerly called Muhammad Rashidin, but changed his name in 2007.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

VG reports that the Norwegian security services installed cameras in Davud’s apartment next to the Ullevål Univesrity hospital in Oslo. According to the PST, it was there that Davud stored the bomb materials for al-Qaida’s first attack in Norway. The attack was planned in Norway, but the three hadn’t chosen a concrete target yet. The suspects bought the ingredients for the hydrogen peroxide bombs in February and March of this year. According to the PST they had enough material for a large bomb or several small ones.

According to VG, all the movements in the house were recorded and sent to the PST in Nydalen (Oslo).

Jakobsen’s lawyer confirmed to Dagbladet that Jakobsen visited Davud’s apartment on several occasions and had national dishes by him.

All three suspects deny any connection to terrorism. In his interrogation Davud denies that he knew about the hydrogen peroxide.

VG reports that Davud’s lawyer says that David Jakobsen bought the chemicals for somebody else who wanted to remove rust from his car.

Aftenposten reports that the PST has been following the radical Uighur community for a while, and has pressured people in the community to prevent them from radicalizing.

The case is compared to a case last year when former Taliban minister Abdul Mohammad Rauf supposedly managed to set up a community with a small group of supporters in a mosque in Oslo. The PST managed to break up the community and prevent radicalization. The PST contacted about 25 people who’s been in touch with Rauf through the mosque.

Einar Wigen, author of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment study “Islamic Jihad Union: al-Qaida’s Key to the Turkic World?” and researcher for the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, says that previous terrorist cells of this type traveled to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan to train in using explosives.

According to a New York Times report, the three are part of the Turkistani Islamic Party/East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The ETIM/TIP were formerly linked to terror attacks in China, but Wigen thinks that terrorist group has close contacts with other organizations who have a strategy aimed against the West.

“The 39 year old Uighur who was arrested could have been influenced by a more global, Jihadi ideology through contact with other Jihadist groups in Afghanistan or Waziristan. These see the West as the primary enemy and a target for terror attack, rather than focusing on establishing Islamic rule in their own homeland,” says Wigen.

“That the group is described as members of TIP could be linked to the Uighur’s background, and that he was the one who recruited the other two. There are few good sources and little research on TIP and ETIM, but what looks like a central-Asiatic terrorist network has emerged, with centrally Uighurs but also Uzbeks. Whether they can be considered part of al-Qaida or not, is difficult to say. The Germany Sauerland cell in particular, which was uncovered in 2007, had links to the central-Asiatic network. There are many similarities between the Sauerland cell and what been published about the Norwegian cell,” the NUPI researcher says.

The so-called “Sauerland cell” planned to create powerful car-bombs of more than 700 liters of hydrogen peroxide. The bombs were to be used in attacks against American installations, airports or discos. The aim was to force the German army out of Afghanistan.

The materials are the same as those the three terror suspects in Norway had.

Wigen says that the Uighur and Uzebek Jihadists are often in the same networks. Similarities in language could contribute to making the recruiting process easier.

“It could naturally happen that an Uighur and Uzbek get together, but Uighur and Uzbek are closely related languages, and it can therefore be relatively easy for the two to speak to each other. When the Taliban still ruled Afghanistan, they sent Uighurs to Kunduz, where the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) had their base. This can be some of the reason why Uzbek and Uighur Jihadists are often in the same networks,” says Wigen.

“In general it’s very ‘classic’ for Jihadists in Europe that just one in the group that plans terrorist acts gets training in camps, and has contact with the leaders, and that they recruit new members who already have citizenship or residence permits in Western countries. There are many similarities here with previous attacks in Europe, both those carried out and planned,” says Wigen.

Norway: ‘We want a Taliban-free Norway’

Norwegian Muslim Mohyeldeen Mohammad of Larvik praised Allah for the death of four Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan Sunday. The statement caused Frp politician Jan Fredrik Vogt of Sande to demand a Taliban-free Vestfold and Norway and to call to deny the Muslim from returning to the county, be it as a ‘guest, resident or traveling through’.

Minutes after Norwegian media announced that four Norwegian were killed in Faryab province in Afghanistan, Mohyeldeen Mohammad posted the following on his Facebook page: “Allah Akbar! Norwegian terrorists killed in Afghanistan! Alhamdulillah, praised be Allah, this will be celebrated!”

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Arfan Bhatti, who’d been acquitted on terrorism charges, agrees. “Norwegian soldiers are terrorists. They should take into account they will be killed,” Bhatti told VG Nett.

“It should be allowed to say what he does, but it should also be allowed to object. That’s what I’m doing. I was greatly provoked when I read what he had said after it was announced that four Norwegian soldiers were killed by a car bomb in Afghanistan,” Vogt told Nettavisen.

Q: When you urge people not to offer Mohyeldeen Mohammad housing, aren’t you trying to gag his statements?

“No, as stated he can express himself as he does, but it should be allowed to say that such elements are unwanted, as we do for example, in connection to establishing criminal motorcycle gangs. I will also draw a comparison to the time Brumunddal turned their backs on Arne Myrdal. The Vestfold community should also do the same to Mohyeldeen Mohammad.”

Vogt says that Mohyeldeen Mohammad take freedom of speech in Norway as a matter of course, while he attacks those who try to prepare the ground for democratic values in Afghanistan.

“I think that’s a big paradox. It’s even worse when he exults over the fact that Norwegian soldiers who participate in this mission are killed,” he said.

Q: But do you understand that it’s a different view of the US and NATO’s war in Afghanistan?

“Yes, it’s a different view, and Mohyeldeen Mohammad advocates a Taliban view. It’s important to remember that we aren’t there against the wishes of the Afghanis, but maybe against the wishes of the Taliban and some warlords.”

Vogt says he thinks Norway should participate in the mission in Afghanistan as long as it’s needed.

“If we pull out too early, the confidence in us from those who want freedom will be crushed. It will all be wasted.”

On his blog Vogt wrote as follows:

“I also want to urge not to exalt Mohyeldeen Mohammad’s statements as representative of Norwegian or ‘all’ Muslims. Neither he nor his yes-man, the hyper-criminal Arfhan Bhatti, deserve it. I would actually prefer that they both take a long walk off a short pier!”

Q: What are you trying to imply here?

“It was intended with a little humor. I want to say that those two need to cool down a little,” says Vogt.

Vogt’s party colleague in Larvik, the head of the local chapter Knut Anvik, doesn’t support Vogt’s call for a boycott.

“We didn’t discuss this in the local chapter, but my position is that people like Mohyeldeen Mohammad should instead be hushed up. He should be allowed to think what he does, but it’s sad to note that he has such opinions,” says Anvik.

Nettavisen tried to contact Mohyeldeen Mohammad by phone, so far without success.

One of the soldiers who was killed, Lieutenant Commander Trond André Bolle (41), had been involved in kidnapping the children of Norwegian-Moroccan Khalid Skah from Morocco. Last July the two children escaped their father and fled to the Norwegian embassy. Together with two friends from the Norwegian special forces, Trond André Bolle helped them get to their mother in Norway, Anne Cecilie Hopstock. The soldiers were off-duty and weren’t paid for the job. The case led to tensions between Morocco and Norway.

Sources: Nettavisen, VG 1, 2 (Norwegian)

For more on this story see:

* Norway: Mohyeldeen Mohammad is a security risk

* Norway: Sharia student continues to threaten
* Norway: 61.5% of Muslims think demonstrations are unreasonable, 44% see signs of radicalization
* Norway: Allah will decide if it’s peaceful

London: Gay nightclub owner slammed for Muslim boycott

Community leaders have slammed XXL club owner Mark Ames today after he vowed to boycott British Muslims.

The London nightclub entrepreneur promised to snub Muslim-owned businesses in response to racial unrest in East London. He also tried to justify his decision by reference to the death toll of British troops in Afghanistan, which has risen above 300.

He wrote on Facebook: “From today I will be boycotting any shops, petrol stations restaurants or businesses I know are owned by Muslims this also includes holidays to muslim [sic] countries today see [sic] our death toll up to 300, so why the hell are we not just flying this scum back out to there beloved states and pull out and let them fight out there [sic] own issues!”

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

PinkPaper.com has repeatedly invited Ames to speak to us but he has refused saying he has already been “tried and convicted” and adding, in an email to us, “i [sic] dont [sic] want to see anyone race or creed [sic] being kicked out of the country.”

There is no suggestion that others involved in XXL club share his views but one representative did say they would be supporting his right to freedom of speech.

Now, leading members of London’s gay community have criticised his original comments.

Ali Hili of IraqiLGBT said: “I don’t think it’s acceptable from anyone, especially someone with a high profile. This is especially when the people he’s talking about could be deported to a country which, in turn, may cause them harm. I am in this country because I have fear for my life and I still face discrimination – even here.”

Royston Ford, secretary of gay group Imaan, agrees: “If he [Mark Ames] holds the views attributed to him, he has shown himself to be a rather unpleasant, but unrepresentative example of the LGBT community in London and further afield.

“Whilst racist and Islamophobic views like this do exist amongst a minority of LGBT people, he is not representative of the majority of fair-minded and decent people. If Mr Ames chooses – whilst most of are preparing to celebrate the diversity of our communities in Pride 2010 – to descend into his own gay shame, then that is his loss.

“He is as representative of LGBT people as the drug-peddling, murdering gangsters of Afghanistan are representative of ordinary Muslims – whether gay, straight, in this country or elsewhere. Imaan, and LGBT Muslims are preparing to celebrate Pride 2010 with our brothers and sisters of all communities, both in the parade and with events in London and in Bradford. We suggest Mr Ames is best ignored.”

(…)

And Joseph was worried that the comments would make gay Muslims feel unwelcome at XXL.

“Gay Muslims are a minority amongst a minority and we should be supporting them,” he said. I hope gay Muslims stand up against what he says because their voice isn’t heard enough in this country. I would say boycott XXL if you support gay Muslims.”

However, some PinkPaper.com readers have backed Ames. In response to our exclusive yesterday, one forum user wrote: “whats the big deal? [sic] and why does a phoney pc liberal, pink paper [sic] reader find it disturbing? the reader should be more disturbed by the evil persecution and hate murder on a par to genocide of lgbt people in islamic states.” [sic]

(more)

Source: PinkPaper

UNHCR: New report on Afghan children asylum seekers

Growing numbers of Afghan children are making a difficult and dangerous overland journey to Europe, travelling without their parents and exposed to dangers and human rights abuses, a new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report has found. The report presents recommendations on how governments, including the government of Afghanistan, should respond to this complex issue.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

More than 5,900 Afghan children, mostly boys, sought asylum in Europe last year, compared to 3,380 in 2008. Last year Afghan youth made up 45 percent of asylum claims from unaccompanied children, almost three times those made by Somalis, who comprised the second largest group. UNHCR believes that there are many other Afghan children on the move who do not apply for asylum.

UNHCR’s study examines the reasons for the departures, the routes the children take, and their reception on arrival. It finds that while some children travel more or less directly from Afghanistan, others have lived for years in Iran or Pakistan.

Afghan youth are trying to reach Europe for reasons including the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and shrinking protection space in neighbouring countries. Individual experiences of war and human rights violations such as forced labour and kidnapping, combined with insecurity, widespread poverty, political instability, poor educational prospects and a declining hope for a brighter future are all fuelling the flows, as are expanding smuggling networks.

“Afghanistan appears to have turned a blind eye to the role of smugglers in irregular migration, including children. Afghan parents, families and communities have allowed and encouraged the departure of their children on hazardous journeys,” the report states. It urges more action in Afghanistan to ensure that families are aware of the risks of putting their children in the hands of people smugglers.

UNHCR’s study notes that Afghan youth arriving in Europe do not always receive the support they need. As a result, they often remain in the hands of the smugglers, who entice them to continue their journey. Large numbers of Afghan boys are among the inhabitants of makeshift settlements in places like Calais, France and Patras, Greece.

“These children face shocking hardships along the way,” said Judith Kumin, UNHCR’s Director for Europe. “But they feel an obligation to their families to continue their journey. As a result, they are victimized over and over again.”

Not all Afghan youth arriving in Europe qualify as refugees, although many receive an international protection status. The report urges states to take into account the deteriorating security situation in parts of Afghanistan. Where return to Afghanistan is contemplated, it must be assessed whether this is in the child’s best interest. The report underlines that family tracing, appropriate reception, guardianship and longterm integration opportunities on return are all important elements.

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Source: UNHCR

The study can be downloaded here: Trees only move in the wind: A study of unaccompanied Afghan children in Europe. Christine Mougne, June 2010

Norway: Woman establishes Jihad-promoting forum

Arfan Q. Bhatti has the distinction of being Norway’s first terrorism suspect. His wife, Marjam Salvesen Bhatti, now runs a Jihadist website, much like Malika el-Aroud, the “mother of al-Qaeda in Europe“.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

“I will honor Palestinian, Chechen and other Muslim women who contribute as freedom fighters in the resistance struggle,” says Marjam Salvesen Bhatti.

On Facebook the Trondheim woman established a forum for promoting Jihad, where she publicized a series of pictures of female Jihadists with guns and suicide bombs.

For Marjam Jihad is not a negatively charged term, but an obligation for her as a Muslim.

“For me pictures of Israeli fighter planes and American tanks are far more frightening than Muslim women with a Kalashnikov. I don’t see it as any weirder that a Muslim woman would do Jihad as compared to a Norwegian female soldier participating in the war in Afghanistan,’ says Salvesen Bhatti, who in today’s Ukeadressa says she got her second name after marrying Arfan Q. Bhatti.

When Bhatti was acquitted several weeks ago of attempted murder after shooting at a building in Asker in 2006, she was there in court to support her husband.

Salvesen Bhatti is half Norwegian and half Algerian. She studied religious history at NTNU, was a stewardess for SAS and had an exclusive shoe and handbag shop in Trondheim. Today she sees her past life in the fashion industry as meaningless.

“Now I use my time for my family and Islam – and so far I’ve had the opportunity to fight injustice,” she says.

After Christmas she was the only Norwegian among the activists in the Freedom March which entered the Gaza Strip to mark the one year anniversary for Israel’s bombing and siege of Gaza.

“Israel has made the Palestinians into refugees in their own land. I can see a Jewish state being established in the US or Germany. It was after all the Germans who led the mass extermination of the Jews, and it’s the Europeans they had been persecuted by. The Palestinians are innocent of the Holocaust,” says Marjam, who doesn’t justify killing civilians, but understands suicide bombers.

Source: Adresseavisen (Norway)

For more on Bhatti see the following:

* Norway: Former terror-suspect organizing Muhammed cartoon protest

* Norway: First terrorism trial ends with acquittal

* Norway: First terrorism trial opens

* Norway: Terror suspect suspected of planning Jew’s murder

UK: EDL to target Muslim centers

For the past four months the Guardian has joined English Defence League demonstrations, witnessing its growing popularity, from protests attracting just a few hundred hardcore activists at the end of last year to rallies and marches which are bringing thousands of people on to the street – and into direct conflict with the police and local Muslim communities.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

The EDL plans to step up its campaign in coming weeks, culminating in marches through some of the UK’s most high-profile Muslim communities, raising the spectre of widespread unrest.

Guardian video report

With the British National party beset by infighting and recriminations after its poor showing in last month’s local and national elections, the UK is facing the prospect of rightwing activists turning away from the ballot box and back to the street for the first time in three decades.

The English Defence League sprang up in Luton last year in reaction to a demonstration by a small extreme Islamist group during a homecoming parade by the Royal Anglian Regiment.

Since then this chaotic organisation – based largely around existing football groups and hooligan networks – has mobilised thousands of people against what it terms “Islamic extremism”.

In telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings, members of the EDL’s secretive leadership team repeatedly told the Guardian that the group is not racist and just wants to “peacefully protest against militant Islam”.

But at each demonstration I attended while making an undercover film for the Guardian’s investigative film unit, Guardian Films, I was confronted by casual – often brutal – racism, a widespread hatred of Muslims and often the threat of violence.

(…)

As we moved outside for the EDL protest – during which supporters became involved in violent clashes with the police – a woman asked me for a donation to support the “heroes coming back injured from Afghanistan”. I put a pound in the bucket. “Thanks love,” she said. “They go over there and fight for this country and then come back to be faced with these Pakis everywhere.” She paused, before adding: “But to be honest it is the niggers I can’t stand.”

This kind of casual racism is not hard to find on EDL demonstrations. The Guardian has also identified a number of known rightwing extremists who are taking an interest the movement – from convicted football hooligans to members of violent rightwing splinter groups. The EDL says it is doing what it can to keep them away but acknowledged their influence.

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—————

Senior figures in the coalition government were briefed on the threat posed by EDL marches this week. Tomorrow up to 2,000 EDL supporters are expected to descend on Newcastle for its latest protest.

MPs said the group’s decision to target some of the UK’s most prominent Muslim communities was a blatant attempt to provoke mayhem and disorder. “This group has no positive agenda,” said the Bradford South MP, Gerry Sutcliffe. “It is an agenda of hate that is designed to divide people and communities. We support legitimate protest but this is not legitimate, it is designed to stir up trouble. The people of Bradford will want no part of it.

(more)

Source: Guardian 1, 2 (English)

Brussels: Islamists vs. Communists

In a replay of the Marxist vs. Islamist Mujahideen war in Afghanistan, a Communist demonstration in Brussels last Saturday (May 8th, 2010), marking the 65th anniversary of the Red Army victory over Nazi Germany, was disturbed by Muslims shouting the shahada. (h/t le blog laiciste)
This article was translated by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com/

I can’t make out what everybody’s shouting. If you can, feel free to post in the comments.

Who were those Muslims?

At least one of them looks familiar. Fouad Belkacem (AKA “Abu Imran”), spokesperson of the recently established Sharia4Belgium group.

‘Abu Imran’ recently made headlines when he allegedly turned to Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi for guidance.

Via MEMRI:

An individual who described himself as belonging to a group of Muslims agitating for the implementation of the shari’a in Belgium wrote to the senior salafi jihadi sheikh Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi with a request for guidance. Al-Maqdisi, who lives in Jordan, is best known as the mentor of Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi; more recently he has provided guidance to the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus,[1] salafi jihadis in Nigeria,[2] and probably to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as well.[3] In his reply, Al-Maqdisi told the Belgian Muslims to support the active jihads by providing funding, men, or however else they could, but counseled against carrying out attacks in Belgium as long as they are incapable of mounting a sustained conflict.

The author of the letter signed his name as “Abu Imran” (written in Latin characters). There is in fact an Abu Imran who is known in Belgium as a leader in the group called sharia4belgium which has begun recently to draw some attention. Their website[4] is currently not working, but videos of this Abu Imran can still be seen on the sharia4belgium YouTube channel.[5] British Islamist Anjem Choudary, head of the Islam 4 UK organization, recently recorded a video in support of sharia4belgium.[6] It cannot be definitively confirmed that this Abu Imran is the one who wrote Al-Maqdisi, but it is definitely a possibility worth investigating.

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On April 21, Belgian media reported (NL) that the state had yet to start an investigation into Sharia4Belgium’s activities. Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck (CD&V) told the parliament that he’s working on it urgently.

Germany: Memoirs of a German Jihadi

Links to the memoirs were posted online on German-language Jihadi forums.

————

It is a document from the heart of the jihad: Eric Breininger, a German homegrown terrorist recently killed in Pakistan, worked on his memoirs until just days before his death. On Wednesday, the document was posted on the Internet.

“So much is written and said about me, with my given name Eric Breininger. The Internet and the media are full of it, but most of it is made up and lies.”

So begin the memoirs of Eric Breininger, the German jihadist who was killed by Pakistani soldiers in the border region of Waziristan at the end of April. His autobiography was posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

Right from the first pages, it seems as though Breininger, who went by the name Abdul Gaffar Almani, knew that death was near. “Even as this work is being composed, I am not sure that it will ever be completed, as we find ourselves at war.” The appendix, written by a comrade, makes it clear that Breininger worked on his memoirs until just a few days prior to his death.

Breininger called his memoirs “My Path to Jenna,” using the Arabic word for “paradise.” And it is an impressive document, offering a detailed look into militant jihadism. It is an account of the day-to-day life of radical Islamists fighting in the Hindu Kush and an intimate look at the thoughts of a radical who is certain he is in the right.

Breininger was an associate of the so-called Sauerland Cell, a group of German radicals who plotted to bomb US targets in Germany in 2007. Confessions from that group have provided an excellent source for insights into German jihadists fighting in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Breininger’s autobiography sheds even more light on their activities and thoughts.

A Sweeping Document

The authenticity of the document has not yet been verified, but there are many indications that it is genuine. It was posted on a well-known Jihadist website and the appendix includes a photo allegedly of Breininger’s corpse. Furthermore, the document includes details that could only be known by Breininger and which are partially confirmed by other sources.

Still, there is room for doubt. The text is relatively clean and well-written and includes numerous footnotes — a departure from the somewhat sloppy style of the propaganda videos Breininger made for the Islamic Jihad Union. German security officials are currently evaluating the text. One possible explanation for the more professional style is that it could have been narrated by Breininger but taken down by a second party. Nevertheless, it is seen as likely that the text originates with the German jihadist — thus making it a document of great interest for German intelligence.

It is a sweeping document that Breininger has left behind. It starts with his first existential questions as a teenager and his initial meetings with a devout Muslim, who eventually convinced him to convert. It provides a look at his rapid radicalization, his path to the battlefield and his residence in the house occupied by a suicide bomber brigade. It includes scenes from his participation in battles against the “kuffar,” the infidels.

“I had only been in Islam for four months,” he wrote of the final weeks of his life in Germany in the summer of 2007. “Still, I knew my duty. I wanted to join the jihad…. We followed the events which were unfolding in the regions of jihad and watched films of mujahedeen battling the crusaders…. Hate of the kuffar grew in me,” he writes.

(…)

Just how rambling and radical Breininger is, despite his efforts in the book to appear thoughtful, becomes apparent in the last passage of his memoirs. The children present in the group’s camp would, he writes, “with Allah’s permission,” become “a very special group of terrorists that appear in no database or list created by the enemies of Allah. They would speak the language of the enemy, they would know their customs and traditions and because of their appearance could easily disguise themselves and thus easily infiltrate the countries of the kuffar … where they could carry out one operation after another against the enemies of Allah and sow terror in their hearts.”

It marks the end of a long path from a German youth trying to find his way — one who went to parties, drank alcohol and had a girlfriend. Breininger writes at the beginning of his autobiography, “I lived exactly the kind of life that every young person in the West wants to live. But I couldn’t see any meaning.”

Despite being full of pseudo-religious passages penned primarily for propaganda purposes, Breininger’s memoirs are important for the insight they provide into a world that would otherwise be difficult to understand. But one question remains unanswered: Why the jihad represents an answer to the search for meaning in life. Breininger’s death, his comrades write in the appendix, came after being fired on by soldiers. He was hit by several bullets, they write.

The day after the battle, the mujahedeen retrieved his body and laid him to rest.

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Source: Spiegel (English)