British links to Toulouse terrorist

Sharia4UK is a group closely associated with the banned extremist groups
al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and Muslims against Crusades, formerly headed by
the preachers Omar Bakri Mohammed and Anjem Choudary.

In a French video a British man can be seen speaking in English in front of a
banner proclaiming “Islam pour la France” at a rally for the “defence of
Islam.”

In another section of the film, a French man can be heard translating the
speeches into English.

Sources told the Daily Telegraph that French investigators had not alerted
them to concerns about the brothers or potential links between the French
group and extremists in the UK.

Scotland Yard referred inquiries to French investigators.

Mr Choudary said he did not know the two men. He said he had been invited to
the demonstration in Paris but had not been able to attend because he was
banned from France.

He said that some of his students had attended but added that Forsane Alizza
was not affiliated with him but with a group he had given talks for in
Belgium.

Mr Choudary said Merah’s attack was “not verifiable” and added: “I’m not going
to judge this individual” but he said that “shooting someone in the head, it
is completely unacceptable.”

Forsane Alizza (FA) is led by a young French Muslim called Mohamed Achamlane,
and has between 30 and 100 official members, according to the International
Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King’s College, London.

“The group appears to be part of a loosely connected European network of
extremist Islamists who share the same ideology and use similar tactics,”
according to Peter Neumann of the ICSR.

Its own website says that FA is a fundamentalist Salafi organisation with the
primary objectives of proselytising for jihad [holy war] and the
establishment of a caliphate [Muslim state] and “support[ing] the mujahideen
[holy fighters] everywhere.”

They disavow democratic systems and elections and proclaim that their
principal targets are the French military, Jewish institutions and Israel,
and perceived anti-Muslim prejudice.

Mr Neumann of the ICSR said it was not “formally structured” and probably had
many more sympathisers, with nearly 2,000 supporters on Facebook and 400
followers on Twitter.

The group has a significant YouTube presence, with at least 26 well produced
videos and a video-sharing site Dailymotion, on which FA has posted 75
videos.

Its promotional videos feature paintballing exercises and combat training,
ostensibly for the purposes of self-defence.

In January 2012, FA was banned by French Interior Ministry for inciting racial
hatred but since then, the group has re-formed on the internet, establishing
the Force de Defense Musulmane sur Internet [Online Muslim Defence Force].

Following its ban, Achamlane warned that “armed struggle is possible” should
French society become more hostile to Islam.

Mohamed, 23, shot dead three soldiers in Toulouse and Montauban last week,
then gunned down a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse
on Monday.

He died in a hail of gunfire whileleaping from a window after a 32-hour siege
at his flat ended on Thursday.

Both brothers are thought to have been members of radical Islamic groups in
Toulouse.

Mohamed claimed to be linked to al-Qaeda and traveled to Afghanistan where he
was detained in Kandahar, apparently trying to plant roadside bombs, in 2008
and sent back to France.

French officials have said there is little evidence to back up the claims but
Mohamed had been on a terrorist watch list since the incident in 2008.

Francois Fillon, the French prime minister, defended the state’s security
services, insisting French police had no grounds to detain Merah before he
went on his killing rampage.

He told French radio: “Intelligence agents had surveilled him long enough
to come to the conclusion that there was no element, no indication, that
this was a dangerous man who would one day pass from words to acts.

“Belonging to a Salafist organisation is not an offense in and of itself.
We cannot mix up religious fundamentalism with terrorism, even if we know
there are elements that unite them.”

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