Abu Izzadeen (aka Omar Brooks) has been found guilty of incitement to terrorism abroad along with three of his associates, Abdul Rehman Saleem, also known as Abu Yahya, the convert Simon Keeler, also known as Suliman Keeler, and Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan. Brooks, Keeler and two other men, Shah Jalal Hussain and Abdul Muhid were found guilty of collecting money for terrorists in Iraq. Hussain skipped bail while the jury were deliberating and is now on the run.
This is the sort of thing that Abu Izzadeen said:
"“Allah will remove all the kufr [disbelief] from the earth, and how? With dua [prayers] or with some books? No my dear Muslim brothers with jihad for the sake of Allah...So we are terrorists, terrify the enemies of Allah.”
Brooks said anybody who sought “dignity outside of shariah [Islamic law]” would be “humiliated.”"
The guilty men will be sentenced tomorrow.
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It is worth comparing how The Sun 18 April covers the story about five men sentenced for inciting violence with the way the same event is treated on BBC’s Newsnight on 17 April.
‘Electrician called Trev is guilty of preaching hate’, is The Sun’s headline describing the professional background of the individual and the crime he is judged for.
'Arrogant' Muslim preacher jailed’ is the BBC’s headline is, while the introductory lines inform: “Muslim preacher Abu Izzadeen and five other men convicted of supporting terror during speeches at a London mosque have been jailed.
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/115975/diff/4/5
In his opening words on Newsnight on 17 April this is how Richard Watson introduced one of the accused, Abu Izzadeen ‘was shot to prominence’ for heckling the then Home Secretary John Reid during a speech in London's East End. Watson ended his remarks saying that although Brooks has finally been charged but not before he had a chance to radicalize the next generation of Muslim. One is at loss how a journalist has determined how many of the young Muslims actually heard such speeches, and what made Watson conclude it influence them and how he has concluded that these changes reached a level that he describes as radicalization. In support of his evidence he brings not established anthropologists or sociologists specializing in Muslim youth’s upbringing but a ‘freelance expert’ with unconvincing credentials.
Excerpts from The Sun, dated 8 April, (p1, 4):
“Hate preacher Trevor Brooks has been sentenced to four-and-half years behind bars for inciting acts of terror. Brooks, 33, was yesterday found guilty of terror fundraising and inciting terrorism overseas. Brooks was born in Britain to Christian Jamaican parents but converted to Islam at 17 and took the name Abu Izzadeen. He was tried under the name Omar Brooks. He is thought to have sponged £50,000 in state benefits. All were stopped after a Sun investigation. Although not known to have any clerical qualifications, he played the part of a firebrand preacher by aping now-exiled Bakri’s hate sermons.
Thus from the above story by Simon Hughes, Sun’s Chief Investigator Reporter we find that electrician Trevor Brooks’ credentials as a preacher are not considered admissible even to be appear in a tabloid which mentions him as “Wannabe cleric”. However, the BBC, never tiring of its claims of objectivity switch to a different set of priorities when covering such stories.
It is up to the readers to judge who upholds the standards of objectivity and which side is busy with cheap ‘tabloid tricks.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7354397.stm
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1058409.ece
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/115975/diff/4/5
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