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| Europe | |
| French authorities arrest ‘Godfather of Belgian Jihad’ for sending fighters to Syria | |
| 2018-04-06 | |
[ALMASDARNEWS] The French authorities nabbedYouse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! an infamous holy man on March 27th for allegedly funneling jihadists into Syria, La Figaro reported on April 4th. The holy man, Bassam Ayachi, a 72 year old French-Syrian citizen, was arrested on charges of aiding a terrorist group during his time in Syria. Ayachi initially traveled to Syria alongside his son, ’Abdel-Rahman,
’Abdel-Rahman was later killed while fighting with Liwaa Suqour al-Sham against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in Idlib. According to the UAE’s The National publication, "he (Ayachi) has been named ’The Godfather of Belgian Jihad’ for his time founding the Belgium Islamic Centre in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek ‐ a heartland of extremism in western Europe. It rose to international prominence after it emerged that several of the jihadists involved in the Gay Paree attacks of 2015 had been radicalised there. He served as the centre’s imam for two decades, during which time he is believed to have facilitated the travel of dozens of radicalised Belgian recruits to Syria and Afghanistan." The National would add that Ayachi was named in some 40 criminal cases in Belgium; however, he was never convicted of any crime. | |
| Posted by:Fred |