UK: British Police Arrest and Charge Four Muslim Men in Birmingham for Planning Terror Operations

By Gil Ronen – “British police arrested four Muslim men in Birmingham Tuesday for allegedly planning terror operations. They have since been charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts contrary to section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006, a police spokesman said.

The four were remanded in custody by a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court.

The defendants are Khobaib Hussain, Ishaaq Hussain and Shahid Kasam Khan, all aged 19, and Naweed Mahmood Ali, 24. They are accused of fundraising for terrorist purposes and of undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan.

They were arrested at their homes in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham by officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit on Tuesday. According to Sky News, West Midlands Police said the arrests were pre-planned and were made by unarmed officers as part of a major ongoing investigation.

‘These charges are in connection with Operation Pitsford, a major counter terrorism investigation that has already seen eight people charged and appear in court,’ the police spokesman said.” Source – Arutz Sheva.

Europe: A hotbed of Islamic terrorism – “In the days after 9/11, shocked American intelligence authorities quickly surmised that Islamic terrorist networks in Europe — particularly Britain — need to be tackled head on. The fingerprints of Europe were all over the attacks on the Twin Towers: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only terrorist to be convicted for 9/11, was a Frenchman radicalised in a British university. Ten years on, Europe — home to 15 million Muslims — remains a continent on the edge. If Britain is widely considered to be the epicenter of European Islamic terrorism, it is because of its large Pakistani-origin population — more than a million and growing, including 431,000 born in Pakistan… ‘Islamist terrorist groups are changing in composition and leadership. Terrorist groups are becoming multi-national, command and control from outside the EU is decreasing and more lone actors with EU citizenship are involved in terrorist activities,’ said Europol in its 2011 ‘Terrorism Situation and Trend’ report. In 2010, there was a 50% rise in arrests in Europe for offences linked to Islamist terrorism, and there was a massive increase in the proportion of those arrested for planning attacks in the EU.” Read more.