Abu Qatada is Osama bin Laden’s ambassador to Europe. A radical Islamic cleric, Qatada flew into Britain with a forged United Arab Emirates passport from his native Jordan in 1993 and claimed asylum for himself, his wife and his three children. Since that day, Qatada has provided “religious” and “spiritual” advice to Islamic extremist organizations around the world.

The only reason Britain’s MI5 thinks that Qatada has not yet been incorporated into al Qaeda’s command structure is to maintain his freedom to preach in Britain without prosecution.

The British Home Office said that he has used his base at the Four Feathers Social Club on Baker Street in central London to deliver a number of influential fatwas (religious edicts) supporting the killing of unbelievers. Videos of his sermons were even found in the flat of Mohammed Atta, one of the ringleaders of the September 11 hijackers. According to the Telegraph, “The groups who asked for his guidance are thought to include al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad in Egypt, the gia and gspc in Algeria and other groups in Iraq, Indonesia, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.”

On top of this, he is wanted in Jordan for plotting a series of bomb attacks in Amman in 1998 and for providing finances and advice to terrorists planning another attack on Amman on Millennium night.

Qatada was arrested in October 2002 to await a court decision regarding whether or not he would be deported back to Jordan. Last month, however, the Court of Appeal blocked Qatada’s deportation, where he has been convicted in absentia, on grounds that such a deportation would violate his human rights. The rationale is that the Jordanians would consider using torture techniques to get more information out of Qatada.

During this trial, the judge also ruled that Qatada had to be released on bail because he has never actually committed an act of terror on British soil (apparently preaching jihad and driving others to do so does not count) and because he could not be deported. This same judge admitted that Qatada was “a truly dangerous individual” and “indeed at the center of terrorist activities associated with al Qaeda.”

So on June 17, Qatada was freed from Long Lartin Prison. He is now under house arrest in West London, where he must wear an electronic tag and spend at least 22 hours a day at home. Britain’s taxpayers are funding tens of thousands of pounds annually to pay for a police force to defend Qatada’s home from vigilante attacks and £12,000 annually to support Qatada and his family. This is despite the fact that Qatada was once found to have £170,000 in his possession when he was stopped by police.

He is also banned from meeting with Osama bin Laden.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is appealing the decision that it is unsafe to deport Qatada to Jordan to the House of Lords. But even if the House of Lords reverses the decision, Qatada could still take his case to the European Court on the grounds that deportation would breach his right to a fair trial under the European Convention on Human Rights.

This whole situation is making a mockery of Britain’s promise to crack down on terrorist suspects. Here the British government has a man in custody who serves as Osama bin Laden’s European propaganda minister, but it lacks the resolve to even deport such an unrepentant terrormonger—who arrived in the country illegally—to his native country.

In the third chapter of Isaiah, God prophesied that He would take away the wise judges and the mighty leaders from His people if they rejected His law. This has certainly come to pass. The mindset that has placed this high-level jihadi hate propagandist under no more than house arrest is completely incompatible with British national survival.

For more information of Britain’s failure to protect itself from terrorist ideology, read “The Sickness in Britain’s Heart” by Joel Hilliker.