The art of Jihad in Islam

[El-Basha]

[2 B]

The art of Jihad in Islam….Australia
Benbrika jailed for 15 years

[/B]

http://www.theage.com.au/national/be...7y.html?page=2

The leader of a Melbourne-based terrorist cell has "been sentenced to 15 years' jail after failing to renounce violent jihad, a court has heard.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, of Dallas, was today sentenced to a non-parole period of 12 years in the Supreme Court. He has already served 1184 days in custody.

Justice Bernard Bongiorno said Benbrika and six of his followers had shown no remorse for their involvement in a terrorist group that had been bent on destroying "kuffar''- Arabic for "unbelievers'' - in Australia.

The Supreme Court heard Benbrika, a former aviation engineer, had shown no contrition after becoming the first Australian to be convicted of leading a terrorist group last September, following the country's biggest-ever terrorism trial that lasted seven months and cost tens of millions of dollars.

"It can only be hoped that the length of the sentences themselves will have the effect of deterring him from persisting in espousing the cause of violent jihad, thus itself effecting his rehabilitation and also protecting the public,'' Justice Bongiorno said.

The father-of-seven faced a maximum 25 years' prison for directing the terrorist group that the jury heard had discussed attacking Melbourne's Crown Casino and bombing the MCG.

Benbrika was also convicted of possessing a compact disc connected to the preparation of a terrorist act.

Justice Bongiorno said although the word jihad had many meanings in Islam, Benbrika used the term only to mean a violent attack by his group to advance the Islamic cause.

He said Benbrika had admired Osama Bin Laden and believed that killing people and destroying buildings was justified as it would pressure the Australian Government to withdraw troops from Iraq and pull out of the American alliance.

The court heard Benbrika had told one of his followers, Abdullah Merhi, not just to kill a few people but to ``do a big thing''.

Merhi had responded "like Spain,'' in reference to the 2004 terrorist train bombings in Madrid,

The seven men were convicted last September after a seven-month trial involving more than 482 conversations secretly taped by police. Another four men were acquitted and the jury could not reach a verdict about a 12th man, Shane Kent, 33, of Meadow Heights. A 13th man, Izzydeen Atik, pleaded guilty before the trial began and gave evidence against the others. He alleged Benbrika had told him of possible terrorist targets including Crown Casino in Melbourne on the weekend of the Australian formula one grand prix and the MCG during the AFL grand final in 2005.

The Seven Men were car thieves.... to fund their religious classe

Several of the men were involved in stripping stolen cars and selling the parts to raise money for the group. The men's activities, which included religious classes in which terrorists were lionised as martyrs, were monitored in a police operation between July 2004 and November 2005, when most of them were arrested

....) CRZ:)