Abu Hamza Al-Masri
(1958 - )
Mustafa Kamel, known as Abu Hamza Al-Masri
[Abu Hamza the Egyptian], was born in
Alexandria, Egypt. He currently resides
in North London, where he heads an organization
called Ansar Al-Shari'a ("Supporters
of Shari'a"). Abu Hamza is also the
imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque in North
London. During the 1990s, Abu Hamza and
his Supporters of Shari'a were considered
the propagandists of the Algerian GIA
(Groupe Islamic Arme) in Europe. Currently,
both Yemen and Egypt are demanding his
extradition.
Abu
Hamza's Activities: A Partial Timeline
Late 1970s: In a rare interview in Yemen
with the Al-Ayyam daily in August 1999,
Abu Hamza admitted that in the late 1970s
he had worked at a nightclub. "What
you are talking about is the late 1970s,
before I became committed to Islam…
during my period of Jahilliyyah (Koranic
term for the period of 'ignorance' that
prevailed before the emergence of Islam)"...
"You have to ask the [Muslim caliph]
Omar Ibn Al-Khattab how many of his daughters
he had killed (in the pre-Islamic period
female infanticide was a common practice)
and how much wine he had drunk and how
much he had fornicated before Islam…
Such questions can even be asked of Omar
Ibn Al-Khattab …."[1]
1980s: Abu Hamza came to London to pursue
his studies and then gained employment
as a civil engineer at Sandhurst. He received
British citizenship after marrying a British
woman, whom he later divorced.
Abu Hamza was introduced to radical Islam
through the religious studies he diligently
pursued following encounters with Arab
Mujahideen from the battlefields of Afghanistan
who had come to London for medical treatment.
In an interview with the Christian Science
Monitor, he spoke of the changes he experienced:
"When you see how happy they are,
how anxious to just have a new limb so
they can run again and fight again, not
thinking of retiring, their main ambition
is to get killed in the cause of Allah…
you see another dimension in the verses
of the Koran."[2]
Early 1990s: Following his 'enlightenment,'
Abu Hamza moved to Afghanistan with his
family in 1990. He worked as a civil engineer
and fought with the Mujahideen against
the Soviet supported regime of Najibullah
until he lost both hands and one eye in
a landmine explosion.
During the war in Afghanistan, he met
Zein Al-'Abidin "Abu Hassan"
Al-Mihdar, who later established the Aden-Abyan
Islamic Army. According to several reports,
Abu Hamza lived as a refugee in Yemen
after the war for a short period of time,
but in the Al-Ayyam interview, he claimed,
"I was never in Yemen."[3]
Living
in London
In 1994, Abu Hamza established his organization
"Supporters of Shari'a." In
the Al-Ayyam interview, he explained what
led him to attack the West: "I never
lived off their money. I paid a lot of
taxes to the infidels while I worked as
an engineer. I take back from them the
booty they plundered from the Muslim lands,
in accordance with my needs. This is money
that originally belonged to Muslims. What
they invest of this money in Muslims here
[in Britain] is leftovers and crumbs of
bread in comparison with the meat and
honey that they eat in our land."
Abu Hamza claimed that the British authorities
were conspiring against him: "Many
times, they tried to entrap me, and they
are still trying. They bring people to
testify against me, but I have nothing
to hide. What I say is what I do. I am
a cripple and I use their country in order
to spread good, exactly like [the British
authorities] use it to spread corruption."
Despite the "plots" against
him, Abu Hamza's activity went practically
undisturbed in London. He was arrested
in March 1999 for questioning, but was
released on bail a few days later.
Focus
on Yemen
Abu Hamza views Yemen as the best place
from which to begin the world Islamic
revolution. Through his friendship with
Abu Hassan Al-Mihdar, Abu Hamza evidently
concluded that Yemen was the most suitable
Arab country for his activity. Abu Hamza
placed the London mosque and community
he headed at the disposal of the Aden-Abyan
Islamic Army. The Yemeni authorities claimed
that in September 1998, a man named Amin,
who had come from Yemen, gave a talk at
the mosque, and distributed recruiting
leaflets for the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army.[4]
The Yemeni authorities claim that a month
later, Abu Hamza was involved in an attempt
to assassinate Yemeni President Ali Abdallah
Saleh. In an announcement early in 1999,
the Yemeni president accused the Supporters
of Shari'a organization of involvement
in "planning and financing sabotage
and bombings in Yemen." He specifically
mentioned an incident on October 13, 1998,
in which a bomb hidden under a donkey's
saddle exploded, wounding a soldier and
an officer who were escorting the president.
The Supporters of Shari'a website boasted
of the attack in November 1998, under
the headline, "Yemeni Mujahideen
send a donkey to kill a donkey officer."
The article noted, "The [Yemeni]
government claims they have caught someone
in connection with the killing,"
adding, "We doubt very much that
they caught anyone; the Mujahideen's donkey
was too clever for them."[5]
The Yemeni authorities also accused Abu
Hamza of involvement in the kidnapping
of 16 foreign tourists, by his friend
Abu Hassan Al-Mihdar and the Aden-Abyan
Islamic Army on December 21, 1998. According
to the Yemeni authorities, the kidnapping
was connected to the arrest of five Britons
and a French Algerian whom Abu Hamza had
sent to train in Yemen. Among the arrested
were Abu Hamza's son Muhammad Mustafa
Kamel and his stepson Muhsin Ghalin. An
hour after the kidnapping, Al-Mihdar used
his satellite phone to call Abu Hamza
in London, telling him that he had kidnapped
several "infidels." Three British
citizens and one Australian citizen were
killed during the operation to free the
hostages. After his arrest, Al-Mihdar
was executed by the Yemeni authorities.
But the death of his friend Al-Mihdar
did not slow Abu Hamza down. At a London
press conference in January 2000, he called
for all foreign citizens to leave Yemen.
He also called for the Yemeni regime to
be overthrown and even signed a document
on behalf of the Supporters of Shari'a,
to that effect.[6] Two months later, he
sent a letter to the London Arabic-language
daily Al-Hayat, on behalf of Abu Muhsin,
the new commander of the Aden-Abyan Islamic
Army, in which he warned the American
and British ambassadors to leave Yemen
and said that if they stayed "the
strike will be painful for the enemies
of Islam."[7]
The
'Domino Effect' Will Begin in Yemen
Although it is clear that Abu Hamza
is focusing on Yemen, his message is directed
to all Islamic countries. Thus, for example,
after the death of Jordan's King Hussein,
Abu Hamza published a picture of the late
king on the Supporters of Shari'a website
under the heading, "Another One Bites
the Dust." The king was depicted
with horns on his head and surrounded
by animated flames, apparently roasting
in Hell.[8]
Abu Hamza was also active on behalf of
Muslims in Chechnya. At a November 1999
conference to support the struggle, he
incited his listeners to attack a group
of Russian journalists covering the event.
At the same conference, Abu Hamza expressed
support for a chain of attacks in Moscow
in August and September of 1999.[9]
Nevertheless, Abu Hamza sees Yemen as
the cradle of the revolution, and is convinced
that the "Islamic invasion"
must set out from there, following the
path of the Prophet Muhammad, to the entire
Islamic world. Abu Hamza said, "Yemen
is the [most] suitable country for training
Mujahideen after Afghanistan," because
the two countries are similar in nature.
Yemen is the only country in the Arabian
Peninsula that has not yet "surrendered"
to what he terms the "United Snakes
of America," but it is nevertheless
on the verge of doing so. The remedy is
for Muslims in Yemen to "explode
in the faces of the snakes… this
will hopefully trigger a domino effect
in the [Arabian] peninsula."[10]
In the Al-Ayyam interview, he explains
his focus on Yemen. (Editor Hisham Basharaheel
promised Abu Hamza that his words would
be published unedited, and was later tried
by the Yemeni authorities for doing so.)
Abu Hamza denied in the interview that
while appearing on Al-Jazeera television,
he called upon his supporters to murder
foreigners in Yemen: "The word I
used was not 'foreigners.' Some of the
foreigners there [in Yemen] are Muslims.
I speak of infidels. Infidels are innocent
according to Islamic norms [if they do
one of the following]: They become Muslims,
or they pay jizya [a poll tax paid by
non-Muslims living under Islamic rule],
or they enter into an agreement that guarantees
their safety in a country that implements
the Shari'a. Otherwise, their blood and
wealth are not to be protected."
Abu Hamza claimed that his fatwa calling
to revolution in Yemen is a "general"
fatwa: "Before Yemen, I was involved
in Algeria and Egypt, but I have found
it difficult to promote reform from within
many of these countries because they need
[Islamic] invasions coming from outside
once again. They do not contain the elements
of reform [from within] due to their corrupt
anti-Islam policies… I meant that
the [invasion] should start from Yemen,
and we are its servants…"
Abu Hamza explained to the interviewer
that he thinks the revolution, to begin
in Yemen, will be a revolution in the
way of the Prophet Muhammad: "The
invasion will start from Yemen and move
outwards. As the Prophet [Muhammad] said:
'It comes out of Aden.' I did not say
it comes out of London; I said that it
comes out of Aden. If the army starts
[out] from Aden, people should join wherever
they can…"
Towards the end of the interview, Abu
Hamza discussed the future of Yemen: "If
Yemen [continues] in its secular path,
it will suffer from disintegration, corrosion,
destruction, and inner strife with no
winner, because everyone becomes entrenched
in his own opinion. However, when we restore
matters to Allah's and the Prophet's hands,
even if some are killed along the way,
it will be regarded [just] as a mistake
and it will be forgiven. And all tongues
should be stilled, because when Allah
and his Prophet speak all tongues should
be stilled."
"We have no ambitions to govern.
What use is it to the people if the president
is replaced… the regime should be
changed. What we want is for Yemen to
become Islamic…"[11]
Involvement
in Terrorist Activity
From his headquarters in London, Abu
Hamza sends funds and volunteers to fundamentalist
Muslim terror organizations across the
world. While his sons and other supporters
were under arrest in Yemen on suspicion
of terror activity, Abu Hamza began a
campaign to recruit and train British
Muslims. According to the Christian Science
Monitor, in December 1998 the Supporters
of Shari'a website published an announcement
for an "Islamic camp." This
event, the fourth in number, was held
in the mosque during December 24-26, 1998.
The advertisement said that the camp would
offer "military training for brothers,
self-development skills, martial arts,
map reading, etc." Abu Hamza said
that the camp, which was attended by 30
young men, would "distract them from
television and [from] the obscenity of
Christmas."[12] The advertisement
on the website was decorated with a picture
of a hand grenade.
The Daily Telegraph reported that two
young Britons who regularly attended Abu
Hamza's mosque were killed by a shell
in Kabul. The two had told their parents
that they were going to study at a Madrasah
in Pakistan.[13]
In an address to 500 supporters at the
Second Conference of the Islamic Revival
Movements in London in February 1999,
Abu Hamza revealed a plan to blow up military
and civilian aircraft, so as to challenge
the "Western monopoly of the skies."
Abu Hamza told the participants in the
conference – which was, ironically,
held in a Quakers' meeting house –
about experiments with a new weapon, flying
mines connected to balloons, currently
being carried out in Afghanistan. "I
don't know when this [invention] will
get to America and Britain," he said.[14]
At least one report indicates that Abu
Hamza was, at the very least, aware of
plans to attack the U.S. Two days after
the September 11 attacks, the Italian
daily La Repubblica reported that the
Italian secret service (S.I.S.D.E.) had
discovered a plot to attack U.S. President
George W. Bush during the G-8 summit in
Genoa. The S.I.S.D.E. document speaks
of a meeting at the Finsbury Park mosque
on June 29, 2001, attended by Abu Hamza;
a man known as Mustafa Melki, who has
links to Abu Doha, a key Al-Qaida figure
recently arrested in London; and a certain
Omar. During the meeting, "Abu Hamza
proposed an ambitious but unlikely plot
which involved attacks carried out by
planes," but the document dismissed
the plan as potentially "unsuccessful"
because of its complexity. The Italian
document concluded: "The belief that
Osama bin Laden is plotting an attack
is spreading among the radical Islamic
groups."[15]
On
Violence to Advance Islam
Abu Hamza advocates violence aimed at
toppling the "secular" regimes
in Islamic countries and promoting Islam
in the world. In February 1999, during
a conference commemorating the 75th anniversary
of the "destruction of the Ottoman
Islamic Caliphate by Kemal Attaturk,"
Abu Hamza gave a talk to 400 supporters,
and announced that "Islam needs the
sword… Whoever has the sword –
will have the earth."[16]
Nevertheless, Supporters of Shari'a political
advisor Muhammad Youssef claimed "We
do not believe in armed struggle to end
man-made law. We're talking about fundraising
to help fight against occupying forces
in the Middle East and elsewhere."
He then contradicted himself, saying that
Muslims had to fight back against the
West "and the battle front isn't
just in the Balkans or in the Middle East…
We believe in the establishment of a strong
fifth column."[17]
In July 2001, Abu Hamza sought to rebut
claims that he had abandoned violent means
in advancing the cause. Such claims had
been raised in an article in the London
based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper
by Abd Al-Hakim Diyab, an Egyptian living
in London, who called upon the Egyptian
authorities "to avoid putting all
London fundamentalists in one basket."
Diyab presented Abu Hamza as an example
of an Islamist who had relinquished violence,
citing Abu Hamza's call in 1997 not to
obey the fatwa issued by another London
fundamentalist, the Palestinian-Jordanian
Abu Qatada who had called upon Muslims
to kill the wives and children of Egyptian
police and army officers as part of the
struggle in Arab countries.
In his rebuttal in the same paper, Abu
Hamza stated that he did not recognize
the term 'violence.' "The term 'violence'
has become a media weapon against Islam
and it now serves interested regimes against
anyone who defends his faith, himself,
and his honor in the face of [the attempt]
to rule him by means of legislative and
oppressive measures. From the Islamic
and realistic point of view, this term
[violence] is deceptive and incompatible
with Islamic religious law in the struggle
for the survival of Islam. The Mujahideen
do not recognize this term in any way,
because the clear goal of using [this
term] is to eliminate the 'precept of
doing good and the prohibition on doing
evil,' at a time that the regimes have
a monopoly on terrorism…"
Abu Hamza states that as a rule, Islam
teaches that those with opinions different
than one's own should be treated "gently
and with flexibility," provided that
they are willing to listen and comply,
and provided that "your tolerant
efforts do not lead to a blurring of rights
and borders." However, Abu Hamza
added that "[regarding] anyone who
blocks his ears and forces perversion,
heresy, abomination, and humiliation on
the Muslims in their own countries by
armed forces—treating him gently
is a kind of idiocy and [means the] loss
of rights and religious precepts …[So]
what can be said about [the Arab regimes]
that have enacted abominable laws, and
give license to carry them out, and use
taxes to appoint military personnel to
protect [the abomination] instead of [protecting]
Jerusalem and its people!!… This
is the mark of Cain, which is unprecedented
in the history of Egypt."
Abu Hamza then replied to Diyab's claim
that his position has changed, writing:
"My position is clear as the sun,
praised be Allah, and it has not changed
and will not change… I do not recognize
the term 'violence' and will not agree
to abandon the Jihad or to sign a truce
with the regimes of the tyrants. As Allah
said: 'Fight them so that there will be
no internal strife (fitna) and so that
their religion will be Allah's religion…
The Muslim nation to which I belong cannot
come to terms with anyone who does not
come to terms with Allah and does not
have mercy on or respect for the people.'"
Abu Hamza also refuted Abu Diyab's claim
that he was about to complete a book in
which he renounced violence: "If
I have written to this end, even a single
line, before the establishment of the
just Islamic state ruled by Islamic religious
law… they would say that I was crazy,
stupid, or a traitor, God forbid, because
[it would be an expression] of weakness…
In addition, this would be similar to
building bridges for the criminals."
At the end of his letter, Abu Hamza wishes
to reiterate his denial of the claim that
"it is possible to be reconciled
with the Egyptian regime and with Egypt's
ruler in their present form and legal
status. Physical exile far from my homeland
is much easier for me and for many like
me than the exile of our souls, the slaughter
of our faith and our values, and the amputation
of our tongues as the price of returning
to our homeland…"[18]
On
the Causes of the War Against America
Abu Hamza, who fought in Afghanistan
against the Soviets in support of the
U.S., explained in an interview with the
Christian Science Monitor why the U.S.
had become a Jihad target: "It was
when the Americans took the knife out
of the Russians and stabbed it in our
back…In the meantime, [the Americans]
were bombarding Iraq and occupying the
[Arabian] Peninsula, and then with the
witch-hunt against the Mujahideen, everything
cleared up: it was a full-scale war."
"The Americans wanted to fight the
Russians with Muslim blood, and they could
only justify that [to the Muslims] by
triggering the word Jihad. Unfortunately
for everyone except the Muslims, when
the button of Jihad is pushed, it does
not come back that easy. It keeps going
on and on until the Muslim empire swallows
every existing empire."[19]
Abu
Hamza on the September 11 Attacks on America
In response to the attacks, Abu Hamza
said: "I do not condone what happened
and I won't condemn it because I don't
know yet who has done it. If somebody
has done this just for earthly gain and
political advancement then obviously it
is a cheap cause. But if it was done because
people are desperate and their lives have
been threatened, then that is a respectable
cause… Then those people who carried
out the attacks would be martyrs. Martyrdom
is the highest form of Jihad. If you do
things for the cause of Allah, losing
your life for it is the highest form of
faith. This is in the Koran. America thinks
it comes first, but Muslims believe a
believer comes first. When you damage
a people, and they have no home and no
hope, and their babies and children are
killed, then they retaliate. America took
decisions to give arms to certain people
and take arms away from others. What happened
yesterday would be self-defense."
Abu Hamza added that he had sympathy
for the victims of the tragedy but also
for bin Laden, who is "the victim
of an American witch-hunt" but whom
he believed "[not] capable of doing
a thing like this. But he has probably
got millions of sympathizers."[20]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Yotam Feldner is MEMRI's Director of
Media Analysis
[1] Al-Ayyam (Yemen), August 8, 1999.
[2] Christian Science Monitor, September
27, 2001.
[3] Al-Ayyam (Yemen), August 8, 1999.
[4] www.al-bab.com/yemen/hamza/hamza1.htm.
[5] Ibid. The organization’s website
disappeared after the September 11 attacks
on the U.S.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Online Journalism Review, November
15, 1999.
[10] www.a-bab.com/yemen/hamza/hamza1/htm.
[11] Al-Ayyam (Yemen), August 11, 1999.
[12] Christian Science Monitor, January
13, 1999.
[13] The Daily Telegraph, October 5,
2001.
[14] AFP (Agence France-Presse), February
28, 1999.
[15] http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010910/abroad.html.
[16] Middle East Times, Issue 13, 1999.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), July
21, 2001.
[19] Christian Science Monitor, September
27, 2001.
[20] The Radical, September 13, 2001.
Sources: MEMRI |