Community centre to host pro-al-Qaeda preacher

On 7th April 2009, Quilliam issued the following Alert:

On the weekend of 11-12 April the Brady Arts Centre, a community centre in East London that is funded and run by Tower Hamlets council, will host a video-conference by Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent pro-jihadist preacher currently living in Yemen.

According to online adverts posted on extreme Islamist websites, the event, titled ‘Virtues of the Sahabah [the Companions of the Prophet Mohammed]’, will be a two-day “weekend course” featuring Anwar al-Awlaki as the “main lecturer” as well as the UK-based Wahhabi speakers Murtaza Khan and Uthman Lateef.

Anwar al-Awlaki, who is often Yemeni origin but who was born in the US and has spent at least a decade there, is one of the most prominent pro-jihadist English-language speakers currently active anywhere in the world.

Until 2002, he was active in the US as a radical preacher until his activities came under increasing scrutiny from the government and the media following the 9-11 attacks. He left the US in 2002 and was briefly based in London before travelling to Yemen where he now lives.

While in Yemen, he has also reportedly lectured in Yemen’s private al-Iman university which is run by Abdul Maajid Zindani, a US-designated terrorist who is a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen.

Awlaki’s pro-jihadist statements:

During the last few years, al-Awlaki has repeatedly issued highly extreme statements that are supportive of al-Qaeda’s global jihad. For example, he has openly called on all Muslims to carry out jihad against the rulers of Muslim-majority countries and for this jihad to be like ‘total war’:

“What I mean by Jihad here is not just picking up a gun and fighting. Jihad is broader than that. What is meant by Jihad in this context is a total effort by the ummah to fight and defeat its enemy ... It is what Clausewitz would refer to as "total war" but with the Islamic rules of engagement. It is a battle in the battlefield and a battle for the hearts and minds of the people.

In December 2008, he issued a statement praising Al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadist group, writing that:

“We are following your recent news and it fills our hearts with immense joy. We would like to congratulate you for your victories and achievements. Al-Shabab not only have succeeded in expanding the areas that fall under their rule but they have succeeded in implementing the sharia and giving us a living example of how we as Muslims should proceed to change our situation. The ballot has failed us but the bullet has not.”

Al-Awlaki has also written a text called ‘44 ways of supporting jihad’ – which tells Muslims around the world that they are obliged to support al-Qaeda’s jihad by conducting attacks if they are able or else by raising funds (among other things). It is available online here.