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City outrage over pro-Osama poster
Sep 8 2004
By Staff Reporter, Evening Mail
Stickers "promoting terrorism" by praising Osama bin Laden and the September 11 hijackers have been plastered in Birmingham streets, it was revealed today.
The stickers, which show bin Laden and US President George Bush and the doomed twin towers of the World Trade Center, have left a church group outraged and embarrassed the leader of the city's central Mosque.
They exhort people to: "Remember remember 11 September."
They have been put up in Alum Rock Road, apparently by the extremist Al-Muhajiroun organisation.
Today the inter-faith Saltley Gate Peace Group called on the city council to remove the stickers immediately and for a police investigation.
The group, which is based at Saltley Methodist Church, said it feared that as the 9/11 anniversary approaches this weekend the stickers would result in "vandal-ising the image of communities and promoting terrorism amongst a very young and vulnerable population of Muslim youth."
The group also claimed that Al-Muhajiroun members had distributed leaflets praising bin Laden outside Birmingham Central Mosque, despite being banned from the premises.
"The local police officer on site viewed the material afterwards and claimed that the leaflets could be potentially explosive if they got into the wrong hands, causing friction between communities," the church statement said.
It condemned Al Muhajiroun as a "terror-supporting organisation" and criticised the city council for failing to remove similar stickers which first appeared 12 months ago.
Today Dr Mohammed Naseem, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, was quick in his condemnation of the stickers and leaflets.
He said: "When you have friends like this who needs enemies? Whatever they recommend is not permitted in Islam.
"They boast that they can never be touched and the Government is protecting them.
"I would ask people to ignore these posters and stickers and what they are saying, which is un-Islamic.
"They have a small following of misguided young people who have little knowledge of Islam."
Dr Naseem added: "This kind of polarisation between Muslims and non-Muslims is un-Islamic and is not how the Prophet behaved."
A spokesman for the council said: "The ones we didn't remove from last year were those left on private property, but we removed all the others. We will also take these new ones down."
No-one was immediately available for comment from West Midlands Police.
