London School of Economics Employs Member Of Hizb-ut-Tahrir As Professor

From the Jerusalem Post:

A senior member of a radical Islamist organization accused of grooming one of the suicide bombers that targeted a Tel Aviv bar in 2003 is currently teaching at a prestigious London university.

Reza Pankhurst, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir - a hard-line Islamist group the government has talked about banning - is a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. An assistant lecturer in LSE's government department, he teaches a course titled "States, Nations and Empires."

He is also alleged to have played a key role in the radicalization of Omar Sharif, the British suicide bomber who targeted Mike's Place inTel Aviv. Sharif allegedly met Pankhurst as a student at Kings' College London in 1994 after he began attending meetings organized by the radical group.

According to Zaheer Khan, a university friend at the time, Sharif began regularly attending Hizb ut-Tahrir meetings around three months into his studies.

Speaking to the New Statesman magazine in April 2006, Khan said, "Sharif acquired a mentor: Reza Pankhurst, one of the Hizb ut-Tahrir members released from a three-year prison sentence in Egypt in February this year."

Khan also remembered attending talks by Pankhurst, saying that although he wasn't the leader, he had "a big hand to play" in organizing on campus.