Muslim cleric barred from returning to Britain

BRITAIN yesterday barred radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri from returning to the country that was his home for the past 20 years, saying his presence was no longer “conducive to the public good.”

The decision came as the country’s top legal official defended plans to deport another radical Muslim cleric and nine other foreigners suspected of posing a threat to national security.

Jordan said it would ask Britain next week to extradite one of those detained, cleric Omar Mahmoud Othman Abu Omar, also known as Abu Qatada.

Spanish officials have described him as Osama bin Laden’s “spiritual ambassador in Europe.”

Bakri, 45, left Britain on Saturday, one day after Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed tough new anti-terrorism measures including the deportation of extremist Islamic clerics.

Bakri was arrested in Lebanon on Thursday, five days after he flew to there on holiday.

He was released yesterday after Lebanese authorities said it appeared the cleric “has not committed any crime and there are no criminal records against him”, Lebanon’s prosecutor general, Judge Said Mirza, told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear where Bakri was headed after his release in Beirut.

Bakri, who has dual Syrian and Lebanese citizenship, had come under increasing pressure from the British government for his hard-line rhetoric after last month’s transit bombings.

He had insisted that he planned to return to north London, where his wife and children live.

A close associate of Bakri said the cleric will not appeal the decision. Anjem Choudary told The Associated Press: “No. A Muslim is not allowed to put himself in a position to be arrested and imprisoned and prevented from preaching.”

Home Secretary Charles Clarke had written to Bakri to inform him he would not be allowed back into Britain. The cleric has 14 days to appeal.