An Islamist website based in Australia is co-hosting an international forum this weekend.
It is described by a London research centre as an “online conference of global terrorists”.
The forum, to be streamed live on the Australian-registered website Authentic Tawheed, will feature a line-up of speakers known for their militant teachings and links with al-Qa’ida and other terrorist groups.
They include British-based cleric Abdullah el-Faisal, who was previously a translator for British al-Qa’ida leader Abu Qatada, and who was deported from Britain in 2007 after being convicted of inciting racial hatred and urging his followers to kill non-Muslims.
The forum will “examine the current war against Islam and Muslims, and ask for how much longer can the kuffar (non-believers) fight against the deen (religion) of Islam, and the necessary steps needed for victory”. A starting time of midnight tonight in Sydney is advertised.
The keynote speech, titled Conquest of Washington, will be delivered by militant sheik Omar Bakri Mohammad, who British authorities accuse of mentoring several men convicted of terrorism-related offences. He fled Britain for Lebanon after the London 7/7 bombings and is barred from returning.
The London think tank the Centre for Social Cohesion says authorities in Australia and elsewhere should move to prevent such events.
“Convicted terrorists and Islamist hate preachers are regularly using internet chat forums and websites registered to the US and Australia to circumvent anti-terrorism measures,” says the centre’s director, Douglas Murray.
“Anti-terrorism measures are used to convict hate preachers and stop incitement to terrorism by proscribing organisations, as well as barring individuals from entering the UK. However, these same hate preachers can use websites registered outside the UK with impunity.
“Chatrooms are increasingly being used . . . to disseminate a violent Islamist ideology from virtually any country. Governments worldwide need to develop policies to combat this threat.”
The Authentic Tawheed (tawheed is an Islamic concept referring to the oneness of God) site was registered last month through an internet service provider in Brisbane. It has links to downloadable books and sermons by a range of militant clerics, including the US-born, Yemen-based Anwar al-Awlaki, who is accused by the US government of inspiring the Fort Hood military base shooting in Texas last November and the botched Christmas Day airline bombing in Detroit a month later.
It also has a link to a US-registered site, RevolutionMuslim.com, which contains a page endorsing suicide attacks.
The former head of international counter-terrorism for the British police Special Branch, Nick O’Brien, who now heads terrorism studies at Charles Sturt University, says Australian authorities should monitor the forum.
“There is a balance between the right of freedom of speech and encouraging people to commit acts of terrorism or violence,” he said.