It looks like Londonistan has acted (decisively) to remove a militant Islamic cleric. Abu Qatada claimed asylum in the UK after arriving using fraudulent documents in 1993 (as do many other in-land asylum seekers). He was granted status ... but apparently began preaching against his new 'homeland' from the moment he arrived.
The Telegraph's 'profile' on Qatada paints a chilling portrait:
Among those he influenced were Mohammed Atta, one of the ring-leaders of the September 11 hijackers, who had a number of Qatada’s videos in his Hamburg flat.
...he advised Rachid Ramda who is in jail in France for financing the bombing of the Paris Metro in 1995 and Djamel Beghal an Algerian in jail in France for plotting to blow up the American embassy in Paris.
...
In March 1995, Qatada issued an influential fatwa [religious ruling] which justified the killing of the wives and children of apostates in Algeria. In September 1998 he told his followers it was legitimate to break Western laws, steal and cheat "kaffirs" [non-believers] and take their women for sex or sale.
The following year he used his base at the Four Feathers Social Club in Baker Street, central London to issue a fatwa supporting killing Jews and Americans, whom he said were "no better than Jews."
In one sermon, apparently delivered in Britain, Qatada said Allah "looked well" on killing a non-believer for the sake if Islam and told a questioner that suicide bombings were acceptable if they were for the benefit of Islam.
Notwithstanding the above, civil libertarians take issue with the UK's planned deportation of Qatada.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said "paper promises" that there would be no ill-treatment were insufficient.
"Dodgy little 'assurances’ from regimes that practise torture convince few outside government," she added.
Of course, Amnesty International made it's obligatory pitch against the removal of Mr. Qatada to Jordan:
Tim Hancock, of Amnesty International UK, said it was of "profound concern" that Siac [Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) which received assurances from Jordan about Qatada's treatment] had discounted evidence showing the risk of torture if Qatada was returned to Jordan. This included material documenting the "routine infliction of torture on 'security suspects’ in Jordan...a practice which continues with impunity".
Mr. Qatada's legal team, is of course, planning an appeal of the decision.
The removal of Qatada should be of interest to Canada, and specifically to Stockwell Day's Ministry - Canada's legislation on detaining foreign nationals on 'security certificates' was recently struck down (albeit stayed for one year) by the Supreme Court of Canada. However, my feeling is that the repugnance of secret trials by the SCOC should not be read as a blanket prohibition against the removal of foreign nationals from Canada (only that while they're here, certain enshrined rights must be preserved).
It's ironic that Mr. Qatada is trying (with his many court applications/appeals) so hard to remain within a country and society which he so obviously despises.
Telegraph link here and here. Guardian link here. A somewhat benign profile on BBC here. A transcript of Qatada and a CBC interviewer on the CBC site here.
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