Tablighi Jamaat to set up Al Qaeda school

An Islamic group accused of having links to al Qaeda wants to open a school near the 2012 Olympic village.

Tablighi Jamaat wants the school for 500 boys to form part of an 18-acre complex which would include Britain's biggest mosque for 19,000 worshippers.

The group, which already runs a school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has always denied being linked to terror groups.

But the FBI has described it as "a recruiting ground" for al Qaeda.

Shoebomber Richard Reid and 7/7 bombers Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were members.

The proposal for the West Ham site has yet to be submitted to Newham Council for planning approval.
**Pay attention class I will only be blowing up the one time.

At its institute in Dewsbury, teenage boys devote six mornings a week to Islamic history, theology, law, Qur'an recitation and Arabic. Afternoons are set aside for the national curriculum.

A 2005 Ofsted report praised the institute's "secure Islamic environment" but criticised the "unsatisfactory" teaching of secular subjects.

Tablighi members say students, who will be charged up to £3,000 a year, will be taught the national curriculum at the east London site and that staff will be recruited locally.

About 40 per cent of places will be reserved for boarders.

Abdul Rashid Bhatti, a Tablighi member, said: "Tablighi Jamaat has been the subject of many investigations but nobody has proved anything.
**We are not radicals, we are not extremists, we are not political - just slavers from the religion of peace...

"We are not radicals, we are not extremists, we are not political. If anyone came here with radical views, they moved on because nothing we do resonated with them."

Tablighi does not have a registration scheme and there is no leadership or hierarchy.

This open door policy makes the group vulnerable as no one, not even the most senior members, can vouch for someone's involvement with Tablighi or the extent of his participation.

Tags:Cool Britannia
New Labour
Tablighi Jamaat
Moslems
Jihadists

Al Qaeda

.