Guides lauded jihad, 9/11 hijackers | The Australian
Guides lauded jihad, 9/11 hijackers | The Australian
Stephen Lunn and Richard Kerbaj | February 15, 2008CHILDREN should be raised to embrace violent jihad and Muslim wives should not discourage their husbands from becoming martyrs in the name of Allah, according to documents seized from an alleged Melbourne terror cell and cited in court yesterday.
Material taken in raids on the 12 accused terrorists also included graphic video footage of Muslim extremists beheading five hostages – among them three Americans – and shooting others, prosecutor Richard Maidment SC told the Victorian Supreme Court.
Mr Maidment said a large stockpile of documents and some CDs allegedly possessed by the group’s mastermind, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 47, and some of his 11 co-accused, included articles such as “The 19 Lions”, which glorifies the September 11 hijackers.
Training manuals on how to make ammonium-nitrate car bombs were also allegedly seized.
Mr Maidment told the court the purpose of the material was “to inspire people to … pursue violent jihad. It’s to stir them up.” He said one article allegedly obtained by the group from the internet stressed the importance of parents urging their children to become martyrs.
“Raising the children to love the jihad and its people,” the article cited by Mr Maidment said. “It is essential to raise the parents and the children to love jihad and the mujahideen and the meaning of martyrdom and sacrifice and the religion of Allah, glory be to him.”
On the second day of his opening address, Mr Maidment said several articles recovered from seized CDs supported “the notion that no wife should hold a husband back from the pursuit of jihad, the pursuit of martyrdom, if you like”.
The 15-member jury also heard for the first time the voices of some of the accused, who have pleaded not guilty to a range of terrorism charges, including being members of a terrorism organisation.
The Crown alleges the accused, led by Mr Benbrika, were part of an organisation preparing for a terrorist attack, possibly in Australia. They had allegedly talked of targeting football stadiums and train stations.
Among the first of 482 telephone intercepts and conversations recorded by secret listening devices to be played to the jury, two of the accused, Aimen Joud, 22, and Muslim convert Shane Kent, 31 – also known as Yasin – spoke twice by phone and laughed off television news reports that police had uncovered a terrorist cell in Melbourne.
“That’s funny, huh?” Mr Joud allegedly said to Mr Kent. “Yeah,” Mr Kent said. “It’s just all bull crap,” Mr Joud said.
Mr Maidment told the jury three of the accused men, Shoue Hammoud, 27, Ahmed Raad, 24 and Ezzit Raad, 25, travelled together to Eden in NSW on October 9, 2004.
“Mr Hammoud rings his wife up and asks her to pack a bag, rings her on a Friday afternoon before they are due to go and says: ‘Would you pack me a bag with some jocks and stuff in it?’ She says, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Going to Eden.’ ‘What are you going to do there?’ ‘Going terrorist training’. She says, ‘What?’ And he says, ‘Terrorist training.’ And she presses him, ‘Don’t be stupid’, sort of thing,” Mr Maidment said.
“Many a true word are spoken in jest, ladies and gentlemen.”