Omar Bakri Muhammad

Omar Bakri Muhammad (عمر بکری محمد; born Omar Bakri Fostock; 1958) is a Syrian Islamist militant leader born in Aleppo.

In 1979, Bakri left Lebanon and moved to Cairo, Egypt, where he studied at Al-Azhar University for six months.

He left Al-Azhar before he could get a degree due to disagreements with his teachers.

Throughout his life, Bakri said that he joined many Islamic movements including Muslim Students, Ebad ul-Rahman, al-Ikhwan (al-Tali'ah section), and Hizb ut Tahrir.

According to an interview with "Jamestown Special Correspondent" Mahan Abedin, Omar Bakri joined Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT) in Beirut and maintained contacts with it in Cairo, and started an HT cell in Saudi Arabia.

Bakri said that he studied at the university of Umm al-Qura in Mecca and the Islamic University of Madinah.

He did not participate in their 1982 Hama revolt against the Syrian Ba'ath Party and the government of Hafez al-Assad.

In 1984, the Saudi Arabian government arrested Bakri in Jeddah, but released him on bail.

Bakri moved to the United Kingdom on 14 January 1986.

Later, he travelled to the United States to study English; he returned to the United Kingdom to assume the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir and become their spiritual leader.

He defended the Muslim faith in public debates against Christian apologists, such as Jay Smith.

In the UK, Bakri worked for ten years helping to build up Hizb ut-Tahrir.

According to ex-Hizb ut-Tahrir associate Maajid Nawaz, Bakri encouraged its members to engage in vigilantism against non-Muslims and Muslim women: "We were encouraged by Omar Bakri to operate like street gangs and we did, prowling London, fighting Indian Sikhs in the west and African Christians in the east. We intimidated Muslim women until they wore the hijab and we thought we were invincible."

In 1996, Bakri split with Hizb ut-Tahrir over disagreements on policy, style and methods.

He has been described as "closely linked to al-Qaeda" —having released prepared statements from Osama bin Laden after the 1998 United States embassy bombings —but also as the "Tottenham Ayatollah", "little more than a loudmouth", and "a figure of fun".

After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Bakri praised the attackers as "magnificent."

He began to support the theology and philosophy of Al Qaeda.

Bakri said that he had become a Salafi Muslim.

Media outlets and British Muslims criticised him for his open support for various international jihadist organisations.

On 13 September 2001, Bakri told the Daily Mail, "When I first heard about [the September 11, 2001 attacks], there was some initial delight about such an attack. I received a phone call and said, 'Oh, wow, the United States has come under attack.' It was exciting."

He declared that Al-Muhajiroun was an independent organisation and continued as its Amir until 2003.

He was instrumental in developing Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom before leaving the group and heading to another Islamist organisation, Al-Muhajiroun, until its disbandment in 2004.

For several years, Bakri was one of the highest-profile Islamists based in London and was frequently quoted and interviewed in the UK media.

In December 2004 he vowed that Muslims would give the West "a 9/11, day after day after day", if Western governments did not change their policies.

In November 2004 Bakri disbanded Al-Muhajiroun, saying that "all Muslims should unite together against a hostile West".

In 2005, following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, The Sunday Times reported that "a dozen members" of his group Al-Muhajiroun "have taken part in suicide bombings or have become close to Al-Qaeda and its support network".

Shortly after, Bakri left the UK, where he had sheltered for 20 years, for Lebanon.

While there, he was informed by the Home Office that he would not be allowed back into the UK.

According to The Times, Bakri was left alone by British law prior to July 2005 despite actions such as an issuing a fatwa "containing a death threat against President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan" because:

"Bakri, who acts as [al-Muhajiroun's] spiritual leader, insisted that his followers obey a 'covenant of security' which, while encouraging terror abroad, forbade them from carrying out attacks in Britain."

But "the authorities may have been lulled into a false sense of security", because the covenant was not permanent.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said on 12 November 2010 that Bakri was among 54 people sentenced by a military court to life in prison with hard labour after being accused of acts of terrorism.

After the decision, Bakri told reporters, he would "not spend one day in prison", and said, "I will not hand myself in to any court. I do not believe in the law in Britain as in Lebanon."

On 14 November 2010, he was arrested by the Lebanese police and was transferred to Beirut.

In October 2014, Bakri was sentenced to six years in prison with hard labour by a Lebanese court.

He was released from prison on 29 March 2023.

Bakri was born into a wealthy family in the city of Aleppo, Syria, his father was Syrian, while his mother was Turkish.

According to Jon Ronson, Bakri claimed that his family had "chauffeurs and servants and palaces in Syria, Turkey and Lebanon".

From the age of five, he was enrolled in the al-Kutaab Islamic boarding schools (a primary school, known as a madrassa, that teaches children how to recite and keep Quran by heart) where he studied the Qur'anic Sciences, Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet of Islam and his Companions), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), and Seerah (The detailed biography of the Prophet of Islam), etc.

Bakri joined the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man.