Omar Bakri Muhammad
Omar Bakri Muhammmad (born 1958 in Syria) is a Muslim cleric, and, allegedly, a spokesman for Al-Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden.
He joined the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man and partcipated in their revolt against the Syrian Ba'ath Party and the government of Hafez al-Assad. For his part in the revolt, he was exiled to Beirut, Lebanon. In Beirut, he joined the local branch of Hizb Al-Tahrir.
In 1983, he moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he established Al-Muhajirun as a front organization for the Hizb Al-Tahrir in Saudi Arabia.
Bakri moved to Great Britain in 1993 and applied for citizenship in March of 1996. He founded the Al-Khilafa publishing house in London and serves as a judge in the Shari'a, or Islamic Law, Court of the United Kingdom. Bakri claims to be the spokesman for Al-Qaeda and has sought recruits for various Islamic terrorist groups including: Hamas and Hezbollah
Bakri teaches regularly at several sites in and around London, including a mosque in the town of Slough.
- In Slough, Sheik Omar spent much of his time Thursday night regaling his young followers with the erotic delights of paradise–sweet kisses and the pleasures of bathing with scores of women–while he also preached the virtues of death in Islamic struggle as a ticket to paradise.(NYT)
Quotes
"We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity" (NYT April 18,2004)
"All Muslims of the West will be obliged become his (Osama bin Laden) sword. It is foolish to fight people who want death—that is what they are looking for." (NYT April 26, 2004)
"Our Muslim brothers from abroad will come one day and conquer here and then we will live under Islam in dignity." (NYT April 26, 2004)