The Home Office today excluded Omar Bakri Mohammed from the UK only a week after he fled to Lebanon. The reaction from Anjem Chowdry, a close friend and former member of al Muhajiroun a radical Islamic movement, described Bakri's exclusion as "outrageous". Bakri was brought in for questioning by Lebanese authorities this week as he was about to appear on a television interview. It is not clear what the reasons behind his detention was. Meanwhile police in Australia have been talking to the family of a former soldier. It is believed that Mathew Stewart is the man who appeared in a 'terror video' released earlier this week and shown on al Arabiya TV. Mathew Stewart, a private in the army's 2RAR regiment until being discharged on psychological grounds, has been high on a government priority watch-list since he crossed the Iranian border into Afghanistan on August 4, 2001, a month before the attacks on the US on September 11. He had reportedly converted to Islam. But whereas his mother, Vicki, said the man was not her son, a close friend, Adam Miechel, said, "It looks like kim, it sounds like him as well". Authorities remain open minded as to te identity of the individual. In the video, the masked man, wearing combat gear and holding an automatic rifle, says: "The honourable sons of Islam will not just let you kill our families in Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir and the Balkans, Indonesia, the Caucasus and elsewhere. It is time for us to be equals. As you kill us, you'll be killed. As you bomb us, you will be bombed." [The Australian]
[09:40 GMT 12/08/2005]
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