Omar Bakri Is Back

HE’S back. And he might well have been on his way back to London had the Royal Navy allowed him to board one its warships and leave Lebanon.

As it is, Omar Bakri, the “mad mullah”, the “Tottenham Taliban”, the onetime driver of a green Ford Galaxy, the founder of the radical Islamic group Al-Muhajiroon and a “dole scrounger” is only back on the front page of the Sun.

Ever since Bakri left these shores for a better life in Lebanon the papers have been scanning the parks and streets of Britain for a bearded loon shouting at pigeons and cursing infidels to be the new face and beard of fanatical Islam. But they have had no luck.

But now Bakri is back. The Sun, which claims that its campaign led to Bakri leaving Britain, and then being banned from ever returning by then Home Secretary Charles Clarke, leads with a shot of their favourite mad mullah.

And it sees Bakri’s letter to the British embassy in Lebanon. In it, Bakri asks to be allowed back into the country. It’s not that he’s afraid of being a martyr or anything like that, it’s just that wants to see his children, the six little Bakris he “deserted”.

“What concerns me know is my safety,” he tells the Sun. “My family are very concerned…I’d be happy with a month’s visa but when I turned up this morning they told me I couldn’t because I’m not a British citizen any more.”

Not to worry. The front page of the Express is offering Bakri a way out. “GO TO HELL,” it advises. Problem is, as the paper says, his native Syria wants to put him in trial for trying to overthrow its government in the 1970s.

It seems that Bakri’s best option is to stay and fight. As he once said: “Dead terrorists are calling you, my Muslim brothers…Where is your weapon? Come on to the jihad.”

And as soon as he has found his NHS prescription glasses and rent book, he’ll be right in the thick of it…

Posted: 21st, July 2006 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink