LONDON, 23 July 2005 — Militants will continue to attack Britain until the government pulls its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the country’s most outspoken Islamic clerics said yesterday .
Speaking 15 days after bombers killed over 50 people in London and a day after a series of failed attacks on the city’s transport network, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed said the British capital should expect more violence.
“What happened yesterday confirmed that as long as the cause and the root problem is still there ... we will see the same effect we saw on July 7,” Bakri said.
“If the cause is still there the effect will happen again and again,” he said, adding he had no information about future attacks or contacts with people planning to carry out attacks.
Bakri, who has been vilified in Britain since 2001 when he praised the Sept. 11 hijackers, said he did not believe the bombings and attempted attacks on London were carried out by British Muslims.
In an interview, Bakri described Osama Bin Laden, leader of the radical network Al-Qaeda, as “a sincere man who fights against evil forces”.
Bakri said he would like Britain to become an Islamic state but feared he would be deported before his dream was realized.
“I would like to see the Islamic flag fly, not only over number 10 Downing Street, but over the whole world,” he said.
A hate figure for the British tabloid press, the bearded and bespectacled Bakri said Islam contained “a message of peace for those who want to live with the Muslims in peace”.
“But Islam is a message of war for those who declare war against Muslims,” he said.
Bakri has Syrian and Lebanese citizenship and says he thinks the British government might deport him to one of those two countries in the wake of this month’s bombings.
“But I think that would be political suicide for the British government if they started to deport and imprison all extremists and radicals,” he said. “Because if, God forbid, something happened again, they would have nobody left to blame.”
