Update: Omar Bakri Muhammad, bin Laden's man in London

By Dan Verton

November 18, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Recommended

(5)

Digg

Twitter

Share/Email

Computerworld - Born in 1958 in Syria, Islamist Sheikh Omar bin Bakri Muhammad was recruited as a young man by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement and participated in its revolt against then-Syrian President Hafez Assad. As a result, he was expelled from Syria and moved to Beirut, Lebanon.
In Beirut, Bakri joined Sheikh Khalil Al-Mat and the local branch of Hizb Al-Tahrir. In 1983, he took the alias of Omar Fustuk and settled in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he established Al-Muhajirun as a front for the Hizb Al-Tahrir in the Arabian Peninsula.
Al-Muhajirun now has offices in Britain, France, Germany, Pakistan and the U.S.
Bakri became a legal resident of Britain in 1993, and in March 1996 he applied for citizenship.
Between 1994 and 1998, Bakri gave speeches at Islamist rallies in London's Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium. He also founded the Al-Khilafa publishing house in London and serves as a judge in the Shari'a, or Islamic Law, Court of the U.K. Bakri also claims to be the spokesman of the International Islamic Front, the political wing of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, led by Osama bin Laden. Bakri has also stated that he has actively sought recruits for other groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and various liberation movements in Afghanistan and elsewhere (see story).


Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, founder of the London-based group Jama'at Al-Muhajirun Credit: The Associated Press

Prior to last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an FBI memo written by agent Kenneth Williams and e-mailed to the FBI's Washington headquarters on July 10, 2001, noted a connection between Middle Eastern men in Phoenix-area flight schools and Bakri's London-based Al-Muhajirun.
Bakri refers to Al-Muhajirun as "the mouth, eyes and ears" of bin Laden.

In 1998, Bakri was one of several individuals to receive a letter faxed from Afghanistan from bin Laden that outlined four objectives for a jihad against the U.S., including the hijacking of airliners. Also included in the fax was a statement urging Muslims to "force the closure of their companies and banks."
The sheikh has also been involved with issuing a fatwa -- an Islamic call to action -- that cited airports as one of several legitimate attack targets in the U.S., as well as another fatwa that called for the assassination of Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

Read more about cybercrime and hacking in Computerworld's Cybercrime and Hacking Knowledge Center.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

Cybercrime/Hacking

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

White Papers & Webcasts

The Tangled Web: Silent Threats & Invisible Enemies
Download Now

Data in Action: Making the Planet Smarter
Register Now

Email Archiving: A Business-Critical Application
Get this paper now!

Hosted Security Services: Why it make budget and security sense in today's economy
Watch Now

Gene Kim's Practical Steps to Achieve and Maintain NERC Compliance
Learn seven steps operators can take to meet IT configuration requirements set forth in the NERC-CIP standards.

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Not Just Words: Enforce Your Email and Web Acceptable Usage Policies
Get this paper now!

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

The New World of eCrime: Targeted Brand Attacks and How to Combat Them
Download This Whitepaper Now!

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.

All White Papers | All Webcasts