Radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who faces the prospect of treason charges in his adopted home country of Britain, said Tuesday that he nevertheless intends to return to London from a holiday in Lebanon, if the British government lets him.
Speaking a day after his deputy revealed that he had left Britain a month after the London bombings of July 7, Omar Bakri said he had gone abroad of his own free will to see relatives. "I am going to return back in four weeks unless the government says we are not welcome, because my family is in the United Kingdom," the Syrian-born cleric, who has a Lebanese passport, told BBC radio.
"I left by my own passport. I do not think I will have any problem returning back to the UK, but I do not want the government to use the presence of Omar Bakri to change the rules."
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott tacitly welcomed Bakri's absence, saying in London: "He has not committed an offence under the existing legislation. I just say: 'Enjoy your holiday. Make it a long one'."
He refused to confirm whether Bakri would be allowed back into Britain. "These are matters to consider when it happens," he said.
Bakri, the founder and spiritual leader of the now defunct Al-Muhajiroun organisation, is one of Britain's best known - many would say notorious - radical Muslim clerics.
He sparked outrage last week when he said he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning a bomb attack on a train in Britain. He also supported Muslims who attack British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Press reports said Monday he could face charges under an antiquated law of treason if prosecutors and police can agree this week that they can successfully prosecute hard-line Islamists as traitors in the courts.
Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday pledged a crackdown on hard-line Islamists in the wake of the July 7 suicide bombings on subway trains and a bus in which 56 people died and an attempted copycat attack two weeks later.
One of the measures he proposed was a ban on Al-Muhajiroun's successor group, The Saviour Sect.
Bakri, who had been investigated by police in the past over his allegedly inflammatory language but never charged, is currently in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Speaking to BBC Five Live radio on Tuesday, Bakri said he believed Blair's government was using him to put pressure on Britain's 1.6 million strong Muslim community.
"I wish for the British people to think about Islam," he said. "I wish as well that this government will go back to its own sense, not changing its values because they do not know who committed the bombings in London."
Bakri - who came to Britain in 1985 as an asylum-seeker from Saudi Arabia - denied he had called the apparent suicide bombers who carried out the July 7 attacks the "fantastic four", as claimed by an undercover reporter in a Sunday Times report over the weekend.
"I never, ever spoke about the bombings in London. 'Fantastic Four' is a film, nothing to do with the bombings. I never, ever talked about the bombings except to condemn the killing of innocent people."
Asked whether he would tip off the police if he knew a Muslim was planning to commit a crime, the cleric replied that his faith did not allow him to do so.
"I will never report to the police any Muslim because Islam forbids me," he said, adding however that he would "definitely" stop a would-be terrorist "even if it cost me my life. That is my duty as a Muslim". he said.
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