Deportation Fears

What a truly extraordinary world we live in. There are those dainty-minded groups who abhor the very thought of holding violent psychopaths responsible for the vicious and bloody chaos they help to create, and object to any steps taken to remove them from the society they infect and threaten.

And, there are the very fiery-tongued, jihad-committed radical Islamist clerics whom society wishes to rid itself of, who invoke on their own behalf, the unspeakable spectre of justice meted out to them, that would run counter to their human rights.

This is the kind of lunatic choreography of values and imperatives we see playing out among the uber-concerned 'human-rights' groups critical of Western initiatives to cleanse themselves of the malignant presence of terror-inspiring jihadists in their midst, portraying those governments as heartlessly inhumane, in attempting to send the incendiary provokers of death back to where they came from.

One such instance comes to the fore in the case of the radical Jordanian cleric Abu Qatada. Whom the British government identifies as having "long established" links with extreme jihadists around the world. Inclusive of armed Islamist groups in Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, not to mention al-Qaeda.

In 1994, Abu Qatada sought and was granted refugee status in Britain. His jihadist preaching to British Muslims since that time has brought charges against him sufficient to see him imprisoned time and again, resisting deportation orders. What upsets Amnesty International is that this man has been convicted on terrorism charges in his native Jordan and for that reason they feel he will be subject to torture and imprisonment.

Well, so be it. Abu Qatada was considered to be, at one time, Osama bin Laden's representative in Europe. He fears, through deportation, that Jordan will enact an inhumane punishment protocol for his benefit. How does that balance against his mighty efforts to entice conscripts within the British Muslim population to join in bloody jihad against Western interests?

The British Home Office finally won an appeal against a court ruling that had prevented the deportation. "I'm delighted with the Lords' decision today... My top priority is to protect public safety and ensure national security and I have signed Abu Qatada's deportation order which will be served on him today", said the British Home Secretary, commenting on the ruling by Britain's Law Lords.

"I am keen to deport this dangerous individual as soon as I can." To which Mr. Qatada's lawyer responds in irate condemnation, that her client would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, slamming the British backflip on its "willingness to confront the ugly issue of the use of torture".

How's that for a trade-off; protect from imagined torture one who foments against the British state, urging bloody jihad against an innocent population.

In Amman, an official confirmed that there would be a move to retrial on the cleric's return to Jordan. He is known to have funded a terrorist network, dismantled in 1999. "By law, he will be put on trial again once he arrives in Jordan because he was sentenced in absentia in 1998 and 2000 for 15 years of hard labour for terrorist activities."

The country's Minister of Justice claimed: "If he is deported, he will get a fair trial in line with Jordanian legislation". If human rights groups equate torture with hard labour, it seems a small price to pay for ridding the world, however temporarily, from the threats to public safety of this man's dedication to jihad.