Faisal Gazi unpacks the early days of Anwar al-Awlaki’s radicalism:
A Washington Post report examined tax records from as early as 1998, which showed that Awlaki served as vice president of a charity (CSSW) founded by his then patron Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a Yemeni politician who is named as an associate of Al-Qaeda. The CSSW has been described a “front organization to funnel money to terrorists”. The FBI also know that he was paid a visit in 2000 by an associate of Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the blind sheikh, who was convicted in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The report also states that in 1999, Awlaki was investigdated by the FBI “when it learnt that he may have been visited by a “procurement agent” for bin Laden”.
Gazi sets out to prove that claims that al-Awlaki only recently left the moderate path are dissembling falsehoods meant to hide either embarrassing naivete, crass pandering, or secret support for radicalism.
He is chasing some Muslim politicians and prominent Islamic activists and groups in the UK who embraced al-Awlaki until recently such as Osama Saeed of the Scottish National Party and Azad Ali, the president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, as well as the East London Mosque and the Islamic Forum Europe and of course, Moazzam Begg’s Cage Prisoners.