Woolwich murderers convicted by British
court

The two had denied the murder, with
Adebolajo saying it was in response to
Western wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two Muslim converts have been
convicted of murdering a British soldier
in broad daylight on a London street,
hacking him to death in a
gruesome killing that horrified the
nation.

A jury at London's Old Bailey criminal
court decided that Michael Adebolajo,
29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, were
guilty of murdering soldier Lee Rigby on
May 22 in Woolwich, southeast London.
The two British citizens had denied
murder, with Adebolajo saying the
killing part of a war for Allah in response
to Western wars in nations such as Iraq
and Afghanistan.

The brother of Adebolajo has told Al
Jazeera Investigations Unit that the
Woolwich attack was "inevitable" and its
justification is "obvious".
Jeremiah Adebolajo, 26, said that after
the initial shock of seeing his brother on
television in May, he recognised the
motivation behind the attack.

He said: "Is it justified for a Muslim to
attack a member of an army that is
occupying Muslim lands? This is
something for the scholars and I think
it’s obvious to most people.

"The events to me were inevitable. There
was eventually going to be another
attack which mentioned foreign policy as
its justification."

Accepting that the public’s perception of
Michael Adebolajo will render his
brother a violent man, he argued that the
same questions should be asked of
Britain’s armed forces: "I would say, was
Lee Rigby a violent individual? Are other
British soldiers, who go to Afghanistan
and Iraq and kill, violent individuals?"
But according to some mainstream
imams, Adebolajo’s actions have
breached a key Islamic principle that
Muslims must adhere to whilst living in
Britain, the Covenant of Security: a
promise not to attack people in your host
country.

Rochdale Imam Irfan Chishti told Al
Jazeera the murder of Lee Rigby clearly
breaks this rule.
"There isn’t any justification for him,
personally, to take up arms. He might
say that, ‘Well, this is a specific solider
who’s killed a specific Muslim and I’m
taking a vengeance’, adding, "he is a
British citizen that has an oath to live
peaceably in this land and to live in
accordance with the rules and the law of
this land."

War without borders

Jeremiah Adebolajo explained that his
brother’s actions were a direct blowback
from the West’s "war on terror" mantra.
He explained what some might term a
new ‘war without borders’, likening
Adebolajo’s actions to American drone
strikes on Muslim countries; an act of
war.

"The point he’s trying to make is the fact
that the geographical location of the
battlefield, since this war on terror, has
basically disappeared", said Jeremiah,
adding, "When we have people driving
on roads in Afghanistan and targeted by
drones, we have to ask ourselves the
question, are these people soldiers? Is
this a battlefield?"

Former commander of the British Forces
in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp
robustly defended the West’s war on
terror, claiming that it is a necessity in
order to prevent similar attacks to
Woolwich.

He said: "We have to go out and we have
to find them wherever they are and
attack them before they carry out attacks
against us."

Adebolajo not radicalised

Following conversion to Islam in his late
teens, Michael Adebolajo met radical
preachers Omar Bakri Muhammad and
Anjem Choudary and joined marches
organised by the offshoots of the
disbanded radical group, al Muhajiroun.
Often attending the group’s rallies and
even serving a 51 day prison sentence in
2006 for assaulting a police officer at a
demo, his brother denies Michael
Adebolajo was radicalised.
He told al Jazeera: "It’s a very tidy
narrative to assume that we have this
young Christian boy who was radicalised
by these bogeymen like figures, Anjem
Choudary, Omar Bakri Muhammad, and
while he went on this conveyor belt, as it
were, of radicalisation and then the
events of Woolwich happened. It’s just
not true."

Complicity in torture

Jeremiah Adebolajo claims that his
brother’s arrest in Kenya in 2010 for
attempting to cross the border into
Somalia to join armed Islamist group al
Shabaab triggered an on-going campaign
of harassment by Britain’s security
services to recruit him as an informant.
He alleges that his brother was
mistreated whilst in Kenyan police
custody and that the British security
services were aware of it.

He said: "They were complicit in allowing
him to be interrogated with the means of
interrogation that the Kenyans chose.
Questions are to be asked about why
they allowed the Kenyans to torture a
British citizen."

The Kenyan police denied torturing
Adebolajo and the Home and Foreign
Offices refused to comment.
Jeremiah alleges the security services
were "putting a lot of pressure" on him
and were "really disrupting his life" right
up to "a few months before" the
Woolwich attack.

He predicted a similar attack will happen
again, stating: "I suggest that it won’t be
the last, simply because of the tactics of
the British secret service and foreign
policy... for every violent action, is a
violent reaction."

Source

http://m.aljazeera.com/se/2013121714198213364