Saturday, July 28, 2007
‘I’m off to join soldiers of Islam’
LAHORE: A British schoolboy, who was jailed on Thursday for two years, left his parents a farewell letter telling them that he was going to fight as a soldier of Islam and would meet them again in the “garden of paradise”, said a report published in The Times on Friday.
Mohammed Irfan Raja ran away from his home in Ilford, East London, in February last year hoping to join four Bradford University students determined to train as terrorists in Pakistan to fight British soldiers and die as martyrs, said the newspaper. “Raja, who was then 17, urged his parents in the letter not to blame each other for failing to stop him but his resolve was weakened by a tearful telephone conversation in which his parents begged him to come home. He was arrested on his return after three days away and the rest of the members in the would-be terrorist cell were rounded up.”
Four others – Aitzaz Zafar, 20, Usman Malik, 21, Akbar Butt, 20, and Awaab Iqbal, also 20, who had amassed a small library glorifying Islamic terrorism to persuade others to fight the holy war – were sentenced to serve between twenty-seven months and three years. All had been found guilty this week of possessing articles that could be used for terrorism.
Judge Peter Beaumont, the Recorder of London, said that they should be punished for being prepared to train in Pakistan and then fight in Afghanistan against British soldiers. He told them: “Each of you is British. You were born here, your families live here, you went to school and university here. You hold British passports. You live under the protection of its laws, which give you freedom of speech and religious observance. Yet each of you was prepared to break its laws. Why? Because in my judgment you were intoxicated by the extremist nature of the material that each of you collected, shared and discussed – the songs, the images and language of violent jihad. “So carried away by that material were you that each of you crossed the line. That is exactly what the people that peddle this material want to achieve and exactly what you did.”
Iqbal, Zafar and Malik had been at the centre of a radical Islamic group at Bradford University. Police later found downloaded material said to be intended to encourage terrorism or martyrdom. Raja, now 19, had been introduced to the group by another 17-year-old student. Andrew Edis, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Irfan Raja was not as firm in his purpose as he hoped he would be, and as the people in Bradford hoped he would be. He had hidden his purpose from his family, who were beside themselves with worry and fear when they found out what he had done. They are orthodox Muslims and do not subscribe to this extremist or radical strain of thought.” daily times monitor
Mohammed Irfan Raja ran away from his home in Ilford, East London, in February last year hoping to join four Bradford University students determined to train as terrorists in Pakistan to fight British soldiers and die as martyrs, said the newspaper. “Raja, who was then 17, urged his parents in the letter not to blame each other for failing to stop him but his resolve was weakened by a tearful telephone conversation in which his parents begged him to come home. He was arrested on his return after three days away and the rest of the members in the would-be terrorist cell were rounded up.”
Four others – Aitzaz Zafar, 20, Usman Malik, 21, Akbar Butt, 20, and Awaab Iqbal, also 20, who had amassed a small library glorifying Islamic terrorism to persuade others to fight the holy war – were sentenced to serve between twenty-seven months and three years. All had been found guilty this week of possessing articles that could be used for terrorism.
Judge Peter Beaumont, the Recorder of London, said that they should be punished for being prepared to train in Pakistan and then fight in Afghanistan against British soldiers. He told them: “Each of you is British. You were born here, your families live here, you went to school and university here. You hold British passports. You live under the protection of its laws, which give you freedom of speech and religious observance. Yet each of you was prepared to break its laws. Why? Because in my judgment you were intoxicated by the extremist nature of the material that each of you collected, shared and discussed – the songs, the images and language of violent jihad. “So carried away by that material were you that each of you crossed the line. That is exactly what the people that peddle this material want to achieve and exactly what you did.”
Iqbal, Zafar and Malik had been at the centre of a radical Islamic group at Bradford University. Police later found downloaded material said to be intended to encourage terrorism or martyrdom. Raja, now 19, had been introduced to the group by another 17-year-old student. Andrew Edis, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Irfan Raja was not as firm in his purpose as he hoped he would be, and as the people in Bradford hoped he would be. He had hidden his purpose from his family, who were beside themselves with worry and fear when they found out what he had done. They are orthodox Muslims and do not subscribe to this extremist or radical strain of thought.” daily times monitor
No comments:
Post a Comment