We never knew his name but we knew his nickname, Abu Hamza. Mustafa Kamel Mustafa is being prosecuted in New York as one of the most dangerous inciters of violence. There, his true personality came out. His trial exposed various phases of his life and traits, being a bar employee to a collaborator with the British intelligence, to an extremist leader. He lost his two arms and one eye, not in a jihadi mission as he liked to boast, but in a road building project in Pakistan.
From Pakistan, he went to Britain and posed himself as an imam at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque only to become the main instigator for violence and hatred. He became a famed TV star specializing in distorting the image of Islam and Muslims. With his hand hooks and eye patch, it was fair to say he was entitled to be a villain in children’s stories.
In the courtroom, some of the charges he is facing include abducting people in Yemen and establishing a terrorist camp in the US. It’s not surprising that an extremist group’s leader comes from a place that contradicts with religion. Many of these leaders learned religion in jail where they served their time for charges including drug dealing and theft. While some of those in jail learn their lessons, others repent for a while before turning to the other extreme. Those are usually people with bold personalities and additional skills.
According to the leaked information, Abu Hamza Al-Masri worked as a consultant to the British intelligence. We, obviously, are not sure if the relationship exceeded working as a consultant on extremist groups or being a collaborator, too. Could he have been an agent setting up innocent and wicked people? Or was he a terrorist who deceived the intelligence? It’s difficult to know.
Security forces are known to penetrate these secret groups either by recruiting extremists from within or by planting members to leak information. Security forces use such tactics as a weapon to win over these groups. However, recruiting extremists is a two-edged sword as it can sometimes increase the problem. Even if intelligence succeeded in catching a few members, the main problem in fighting terrorism lies in fighting the ideology and not individuals.
Some real extremists, who became celebrities during the Internet revolution in the 90s and beyond, turned out to be nothing but spies. They were clever traps set up for affiliates of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups. Indeed, they helped in nabbing a number of terrorists and gaining important information about their secret groupings and activities. However, the bad part in using this method of spying is that it can enlarge the range of extremism when the once a solution for the security forces becomes a real problem for the society. While some of those collaborators are famous celebrities, they promote terrorism on the way of trying to catch extremists. Setting up extremist websites and uploading instigating videos and ideas on the Internet can help expose terrorist activities, but also invite others to that deviant ideology.
I was always skeptical, when it came to senior instigators, whether they were real extremists or planted collaborators. Those who went too far in incitements, such as Abu Hamza, were suspicious to me.
Now, the man wants us to pity him as he denies most of his speeches and acts. How much did this mysterious preacher hurt the Muslim community among which he lived in Britain? How many young people he led to extremism elevating the level of confrontation between the two cultures?
It’s not bizarre when these people shift from one camp to another. Al-Qaeda’s deceased leader Osama Bin Laden, himself, was pushed to work in the jihadi activities in Afghanistan, specializing in delivering money to those involved in the war against the Soviet Union. However, he turned on his people and became a terrorist.
Here, we wish to confirm that there is no solution to extremism but to adopt an intellectual discourse. Military or judicial options haven’t proved very effective.
Extremism and terrorism will continue, no matter how security methods succeed at the moment. Muslims need preachers who show true picture of Islam and direct the society toward moderation.
Email: [email protected]
