Word: extremists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first Reid did not align himself with extremist groups. On leaving prison in 1994, he gravitated to the Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Center, a rundown Victorian house in the heart of black London. The Brixton mosque has a reputation for homeyness. Each morning children stream into the mosque's schools, brought by mothers in head scarves or veils. The mosque doesn't ask many questions about a believer's past. When you come to Islam, says the mosque's chairman, Abdul Haqq Baker, you make a fresh start. Each Friday 400 to 500 worshippers attend prayers, the majority...
Finsbury Park is at the heart of the extremist Islamic culture that French authorities call "Londonistan." So are the prayer meetings held by Abu Qatada, a fiery Palestinian cleric originally from Jordan. Britain's Muslims aren't necessarily more radicalized than those in communities elsewhere in Europe, but extremists among them may have greater liberty to operate. The British have no system of national identity cards. And the police have traditionally adopted a policy of "watchful tolerance" of extremists, aimed at keeping them aboveground. From afar, that policy can look lax. Watchful tolerance makes sense only if someone is actually...
...mosque in Finsbury Park epitomizes the British attitude. It is the sort of place where you can buy stomach-turning videos (lots of throat slitting) made by Islamic extremist groups. The sermons of Abu Hamza al-Masri, the mosque's one-eyed, steel-clawed imam, continually stress the importance of jihad. Baker says the mosque is dominated by adherents of Takfir wal Hijra, the neo-fascist Islamic ideology influential among European operatives of al-Qaeda. However extreme its message, Finsbury Park is undeniably popular. At midday prayers on a recent Friday, Abu Hamza preached to a congregation of about...
...jihad was Reid's chosen path. He took the name Abdel Rahim and on his trips back to Brixton harangued listeners. "We warned him where the extremist ideas he was adopting had led people," says Baker. "But he found our beliefs too passive, too slow." Reid told his parents he was going overseas. Robin says his son sent him a letter from Iran, but if Reid visited there at all, it was probably on his way to a madrasah, an Islamic school, in Pakistan. In 1999 and 2000, Reid appears to have spent much of his time in Pakistan...
...Muslim extremist activity in Milan was highlighted when U.S. authorities identified the city's Islamic Cultural Institute as the main "station house" for bin Laden's network in Europe. This group is believed to be supplying operatives with false documents, lodging, money and communications. Milan prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso said last week's guilty verdicts were the first since the attacks in the U.S. that "recognized the existence on European territory of a cell that had strong links with a base in Afghanistan." The Milan cell has not, however, been caught with potential weapons, such as the toxins found in Rome...