Meet Moazzam Begg: Al-Qaeda and Taliban supporter, and latest Guardian contributor

Moazzam Begg

For some reason, the Guardian never publishes essays by prominent liberal Muslims such as Irshad ManjiHasan Afzal, or Khaled Abu Toameh.

However, when it comes to radical, terror-supporting Muslims, the world’s leading liberal voice is typically happy to oblige.

Recently, they published an essay by former Guantánamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg, of the group Cagedprisoners (“Why is Canada acting like a Guantanamo Bay camp guard“), Oct. 13th, on Canada’s decision to refuse him entry into the country.

Begg was apparently refused entry on the grounds that his name is on a U.S. no-fly list and because he has admitted to being a former member of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In his CiF column, Begg, in characterizing the injustice of being detained by Canadian officials, likened himself to Nelson Mandela and implied he was just another victim of Western Islamophobia. 

However, evidence regarding Begg’s history of active support for terrorism is overwhelming.

Begg is widely believed by American intelligence officials to have been a member of Al-Qaida, and attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and England “so he could assist in waging jihad against enemies of Islam.”

Begg assisted several prominent terrorists and discussed potential terrorist acts with them; recruited young operatives for global jihad; and provided financial support for terrorist training camps.

Moazzam Begg is also ideologically associated with the Taliban and had a longstanding relationship with al Qaeda cleric Anwar al Awlaki, the senior recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for al-Qaeda who was recently killed by U.S. forces.  Al Awlaki’s sermons are alleged to have helped motivate at least three terrorist attacks inside the United States.

Begg’s group, Cagedprisoners, lobbied to free al Awlaki from Yemeni custody after he was detained in 2006, broadcast a live message from al Awlaki during a fundraising event and reproduced Awlaki’s propaganda on its website.

Cagedprisoners’ goal seemed to be to spread Awlaki’s terrorist message in the UK — which Awlaki has repeatedly targeted as a recruiting ground.

In fact, Moazzam Begg confirmed, in his own autobiography, that he is a jihadist.

Despite Begg’s claims, in his CiF essay and elsewhere, that his confessions (regarding his links to jihadists) were made while tortured, the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation failed to substantiate Begg’s claims of torture, and found that his confession at Gitmo was voluntarily given

Following the death of Osama bin Laden, Begg’s site, Cagedprisoners, posted this sick parody titled “BREAKING NEWS: BARACK OBAMA IS DEAD”, which included this:

American War Criminal Barack Obama has been killed by Pakistani security forces in the UK, Prime Minister Hasan Abdullah of Pakistan has said.

Obama was shot dead at a compound near Camberley, in a ground operation based on Pakistani intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August.

Mr Abdullah said Pakistan forces took possession of the body after “a firefight”.

Obama is believed to have ordered almost 200 attacks in North and South Waziristan between 2009 and 2011 in which almost 2000 people were killed, when he served as Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. Obama is also believed to have ordered the continued bombardment of Afghanistan during the same period in which thousands of others were killed.

The satire, supposed to be read as an exercise in moral equivalence between Obama and Bin Laden, included the following image.  (FYI, this photo is the censored version):

The Guardian’s definition of what passes for liberalism seems to include even those advocating the most extreme religious intolerance, racism, and terrorism – with one small caveat.

Such “activists” must, of course, also possess the requisite hostility to the U.S., Israel, and the West.

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