Jihadist recruiter Butt renounces radicalism-CBS
Source: Reuters
NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - A British Muslim whose public praise of Muslim militants earned him notoriety in Britain said in an interview with the CBS program 60 Minutes he has renounced his views and now opposes violence. Hassan Butt first gained notoriety in Britain for telling the BBC in 2002 that Britons would fight the West in Afghanistan and would return to launch attacks in the United Kingdom. Since then he has regularly appeared in British media as the voice of radical Islam. British media have regularly called for him to be prosecuted. Butt admits in the interview to be broadcast on Sunday to actively recruiting young Britons to join extremist organizations and raising funds for jihad. But he now says the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings of three subways and a bus in London have led him to question and ultimately abandon his commitment to radicalism. Hassan said he turned away from violence because no religious leaders were able to convince him it was sanctioned by Islam. "I've come to realize that killing ... in the name of Islam is completely and utterly prohibited," he said in a summary of the interview provided by CBS. "There's a big disease and a cancer in the Muslim world ... and it needs to be dealt with." A CBS spokesman said the interview was conducted in London earlier this month. Hassan said he recruited between 50 and 70 Britons who were sent to extremist training camps in Pakistan. One tactic to find recruits was to focus on young men who were being forced into arranged marriages, Hassan said. The conflict with their parents' traditions often provided an opening for radical Islamic preachers to gain a hold over them. A lax attitude toward radical Muslim leaders inside Britain by the British government prior to the 2005 bombings made recruitment easier, Hassan said. Hassan also says he helped with fund-raising for extremist groups and often relied on Muslim professionals in Britain who he said knowingly gave funds to support jihad. Muslim drug dealers were also given dispensations to sell drugs to non-Muslims and absolved of sins if they turned over 20 percent of their profits, he said.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
