BRITAIN: The formal process will begin in London this week of "examining the potential for charging" three prominent Islamic clerics for existing offences including solicitation to murder and incitement to treason, the attorney general's office confirmed yesterday.
The director of public prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, will meet senior Scotland Yard officers to discuss the cases of Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder of al-Muhajiroun, who has said he would support hostage-taking at British schools if carried out by terrorists with a just cause; Abu Izzadeen, spokesman for al-Ghurabaa - "the Strangers" - who said the suicide bombers in London were "completely praiseworthy"; and Abu Uzair of the Saviour Sect, one of the successor organisations to al-Muhajiroun, who has claimed that the "banner has been risen for jihad inside the UK".
Meanwhile, a British al-Qaeda suspect was arrested on his arrival back in the UK last night after being deported from Zambia. Haroon Rashid Aswat had been linked by media reports to the London attacks, but that speculation has cooled markedly in recent days. However, one radical Muslim group, which the prime minister Tony Blair intends to ban, is not involved in violence or terrorism, according to an unpublished government report prepared for Mr Blair.
Two of Labour's four Muslim MPs yesterday said that they oppose banning Hizb ut-Tahrir, as announced on Friday by the prime minister as part of a package of measures to tackle extremism after the bombing attacks on London last month.
As the political debate hots up, there were also significant developments in the investigation into the attacks. One of the suspects for the July 21st attempted bombings will appear in court this morning. Yassin Omar (24) was charged over the weekend with conspiracy to mass murder at Warren Street tube station, and other offences.
Last year a paper, called Young Muslims and Extremism, was prepared for Mr Blair on the orders of the home and foreign secretaries. It says: "Most of the structured organisations, eg Hizb ut-Tahrir, will not directly advocate violence. Indeed membership or sympathy with such an organisation does not in any way pre-suppose a move towards terrorism." The documents adds that youngsters attracted to terrorism may shy away from such groups because they do not espouse violence: "Those with very extremist or even terrorist tendencies may also be put off by these extremist organisations as they may view their activities as 'pointless pontification and debate'. They may demand more direct action and less talk and hence may not become involved with them." The document does say membership of groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir "may indicate ... the possibility of a few of its members being open to gradual consideration of far more extremist doctrine". It remains possible that intelligence has emerged in the past year to support the ban.
Mr Blair also announced the banning of al-Muhajiroun, whose founder Omar Bakri Mohammed used to lead Hizb ut-Tahrir until he was ousted for being too extreme.
Even moderate Muslims who dislike Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has been accused of anti-semitism and is banned in several western and Arab countries, oppose the plan to proscribe it in the UK.
Shahid Malik, MP for Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said that he thought banning Hizb-ut-Tahrir could be a mistake: "By banning them their ideas are still there, but unanswered. British Muslims must intellectually confront these ideas." Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting in south London, has himself been targeted by the group's activists. Mr Khan, a civil rights lawyers, said: "I dislike immensely Hizb ut-Tahrir and despise some of their activists, but nothing I've seen or experienced amounts to them inciting violence." - (Guardian Service)