Muslim leaders decry oppression in West during meeting in Londo

LONDON-- Militant Muslim leaders condemned the United States and what they called the oppression of Muslims in the West at a gathering that brought together some clerics accused by Washington of supporting terrorism or having links to al-Qaida.

One speaker Friday at the London meeting was Egyptian activist Yasser el-Sirri, who is facing extradition to the United States for allegedly sending terror money to Afghanistan.

In a speech, el-Sirri complained about the treatment of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and held in Cuba, saying President Bush should be tried for war crimes.

Another participant was Abu Hamza al-Masri, a cleric whose funds were frozen by the U.S. Treasury for his alleged membership in the Islamic Army of Aden. The organization is linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and claimed responsibility for the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, during which 17 American sailors were killed.

Al-Masri called the U.S. Treasury spiteful: "They are trying to shut me up. I am one of the people who speaks openly."

Absent from the speaker list was Abu Qutadah, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent who preached a violent brand of Islam in London until his disappearance in February. But conference leaders said he was safe and had sent an e-mail message saying victory was close at hands for Muslims.

Abu Qutadah, who uses several aliases, has been linked to Islamic militants in Jordan and Spain, and U.S. intelligence officials believe some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were recruited at Abu Qutadah's prayer circle. Zacarias Moussouai -- the only person indicted in the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks -- was radicalized there, his brother has said.

Friday's gathering was organized by a range of Muslim groups, including Al-Muhajiroun, a militant group that recruits on university campuses and encourages members to join armed struggles abroad. The group aspires to turn Britain into an Islamic state.

"We are talking about the oppression of Muslims in the West," said Anjem Choudary, a member of Al-Muhajiroun who was chairing the conference. The group had planned to air a video showing clips of Osama bin Laden, but was unable to because of technical difficulties.

The speeches were fiery and grandiose but the turnout was not. About 250 people, including families, and mostly Muslims attended the meeting.

Leaders from Britain's mainstream Muslim community said they did not attend and that the radical anti-American opinions of the speakers did not represent the views of the majority of the country's 1.5 million Muslims.

"No mainstream Muslim organization will touch Al-Muhajiroun with a barge pole," said Inayat Bungalawala of the Muslim Council of Britain. "Some of these people have made really outrageous statements. It is relentless anti-Western rhetoric that is alienating most Muslims."

Banners stretched around the conference room at the Quaker center urged the United Nations and NATO to "keep out of Muslim land." Another called on people to "Support the mujahideen (holy warriors) in Chechnya."

Al-Masri is one of Britain's most fiery clerics. British citizenship, obtained in 1985, protects him from extradition to Yemen, where he is wanted in connection with several bombings.

El-Sirri was sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt in 1994 for his alleged involvement with a terrorist group blamed for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.

He was arrested in October last year and charged with conspiring to assassinate Afghan northern alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massood. Massood was mortally wounded in Afghanistan by two suicide bombers posing as journalists on Sept. 9.

British prosecutors accused el-Sirri of using his organization, the Islamic Observation Center, to give fake press credentials for the two men who detonated a bomb hidden in their camera while they pretended to interview Massood. Charges against him were dropped, however, when a London judge ruled he was an unwitting accomplice.

He is now facing extradition to the United States, where prosecutors allege he sent money to Afghanistan to fund terrorism. Lawyers for el-Sirri say the money was for humanitarian work.