Iraq style kidnapping comes to England (Thanks to Religion of Pieces):
Eight people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act in Birmingham in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap a member of the armed forces.
A number of addresses in the city have been sealed off after morning raids.
The operation, believed to have taken six months, involved police and security service MI5.
Senior security sources said a terror plot not aimed at mass casualties would mark "a different approach to terrorism in the UK".
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford said sources close to the investigation said the aim of the alleged plot was to kidnap a serving member of the armed forces, perhaps while they were on home leave.
Baswant Kant, who lives in Stratford Road, near the junction with Poplar Road, said about 55 police officers "turned up in white vans" in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
"They went into shops and restaurants along the road - a lot of people got arrested," he said.
Saqib Hussain, of Sparkhill, told BBC News he had visited the raided book shop many times and "had never seen any suspicions of terrorist activity".
Mohamed Barber told BBC News his cousin was one of the men arrested in Alum Rock.
"We can vouch for him he is innocent. He doesn't even have time to go to Friday prayers - that's how busy he is," he added.
Abdul Ghaffoor, a regular shopper at the general store, said he had never heard politics being discussed in the shop.
Public co-operation
Leaders at the Alum Rock Islamic Centre, the main mosque in the area, said the community was shocked at events, but urged calm and appealed to people to co-operate with the police investigation.
Ayub Pervaz, the mosque's president, said: "Our view is very clear. If people have broken the law they should be brought to justice.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Why do I say that?
Think about it, what is missing here?
Where is the usual anger from the Muslim community that the British police would have the audacity to invade the homes of decent Muslims and arrest them? Where are the claims of Islamophobia, and the veiled threats of these events causing further extremism in Muslim youth?
Remember, just days ago British police agreed to reveal ongoing investigations to Muslim community leaders before going in for the arrest.
I have a feeling the British police have been setup on this one.
Just you watch.
5 comments:
Earlier reports stated that the group intended to kidnap and behead a Muslim British soldier.
Wonder what message that was intended to convey. And to whom.
If this is true about "Muslim British soldier" it begs the question would the muslim community still be cooperating if they would have been a run of the meal infidel?
If Religion of Pieces shows up at this thread, I wonder what his opinion is on this. Was it a Muslim British soldier. Does he think something is off on this story? Does he have any additional info that I didn't post here?
The AP is still specifying that it was a British Muslim soldier. I went back and re-read the post from 1/24. Yeah, right, community outreach works so well with all those BWI jihadis, let's try it with the Muslims.
Pastorius, I agree with you, but what specifically do you think it was? Perhaps a sop to encourage more "communication"? I wouldn't put it past them to throw these guys to the cops as a bone to ensure they'll be warned about anything going down in the future. They may also have got wind of it and decided it was not in their interest to let this plot play out, but then why not just shut it down themselves?
Capture a Muslim soldier in the Brit armed forces and publicly behead him. To send a message not to fight for the infidel, yada yada? Thing is, they want Islamists infiltrating the police and armed forces. Why, when they have now turned the police into their very own Early Warning System, would they want a plan to succeed that would discourage enlistment? Set up the sting or set up the doofus amateur plot, whatever, then cooperate fully with the take-down and come out smelling like Good Citizens?
RRA,
Thanks for tipping me off to the fact that it was a British Muslim soldier they were after. That explains the fact that the Muslim Council of Britain is not issuing their usual release of rage and veiled threats.
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