Hani al-Sibai

Hani Mohammed Yusuf al-Siba'i (هاني محمد يوسف السباعي) (born 1 March 1961 in Qaylubiyah, Egypt) is an Egyptian Islamic scholar who was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and now lives in London as a political refugee. Efforts to deport him have failed.[1][2] He is a supporter of al-Qaeda and is used as a scholarly reference by the movement. The leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, listed him as one of four scholars that Muslims worldwide should follow, alongside Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada and Dr. Tariq Abdelhaleem.

Hani al-Sibai
Born1961 (age 61–62)
Other names 
  • Arabic: هاني السباعي
  • Hani Mohammed Yusuf al-Siba'i
  • هاني محمد يوسف السباعي
  • Hani al-Said al-Siba'i Yusuf
  • هاني السيد السباعي يوسف
Known forConvicted of terrorism in absentia

Biography

Al-Siba'i fought as part of the mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War according to his own autobiography.[3]

Al-Siba'i arrived in Britain in 1994 claiming that he had been tortured by the Egyptian police because he represented Islamist clients. His claim for asylum was rejected in 1998 and he was later arrested on terrorism charges but the charges were dropped.[4]

He sought and was granted refugee status in the United Kingdom prior to his 1998 arrest in connection with Operation Challenge. He was accused of membership in the terrorist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad.[5][6]

It was his defence of Islamists, that got him into trouble with the Egyptian government. Egyptian prosecutors were able to prove in court that he was one of the fourteen members of the shura of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Egyptian authorities convicted him in absentia in the 1999 case of the returnees from Albania and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment.

Al-Siba'i has appeared on Arab TV stations including al-Jazeera where, on the day after the July 7 bombings in London, he expressed his support for the September 11 attacks.[4]

In September 2005, he was one of seven Egyptians whose names were added to the UN 1267 Committee's list of banned individuals.[7] A few days later he was added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals maintained by the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, as a supporter of al-Qaeda or an allied group.[8]

In 2009 and 2010, al-Seba'i was, along with others subject to Treasury Control Orders, a participant in HM Treasury v Ahmed. Their joint victory in the Supreme Court forced the government of Gordon Brown to create the Terrorist Asset-Freezing (Temporary Provisions) Act 2010. The court deemed the TCOs, which had been issued as the result of a UN directive, to be ultra vires, because the executive could not delegate powers to the UN (later to be returned in the directive) which it had not been granted by Parliament.

In 2013, an organiser of Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia) cited al-Siba'i as one of five influential thinkers from whom the terrorists in Tunisia obtain their encouragement:[9] "Sheikh Hani Sabahi is also respected in our movement. We have a steady contact with him and he is very sympathetic to our experience."[10]

In March 2015, Hani al-Seba'i was cut off from a live television interview with Lebanese reporter Rima Karaki, after he told her to "shut up" and said "It's beneath me to be interviewed by you. You are a woman who . . ."[11][12] The interview went viral shortly after being released causing public outrage over his sexist remark.[13] The video was viewed by more than five million viewers on YouTube within a week.[13][14]

He receives financial benefits from the British Government.[15]

Abdullah al Muhaysini, Hani al-Sibai, Abu Qatada, and Abdurazak al Mahdi were all featured in a Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria video.[16]

Hani al-Siba'i cited Justin McCarthy's work while engaging in Armenian Genocide denial.[17] Hani al-Sibai claimed America committed atrocities and genocide against Native Americans and said Trump resembles all American Presidents in character.[18]

Al-Siba'i claimed that antagonism against Muslim, Ottoman Turks is the reason for serving Turkey during Christmas in England, and also claimed that pariahs and drug dealers made up most of the Turkish population in Europe in his defense of Islamism and attacks on Atatürk's secularism.[19]

Brexit's impact was commented on by al-Sibai who welcomed the potential dissolution of the EU despite what he described as "right-wingers" and "racists" leading Brexit.[20]

Tariq Abdelhaleem declared liberals and secularists as "infidels" and called for them to be killed, in his hopes of accelerate a violent clash between Islamists and secularists and liberals. His work was published by jihadist fugitive Hani al-Siba'i who is wanted in Egypt.[21] Hani al-Sibai wrote an article defending Tariq Abdul Haleem from criticism.[22] Tariq Abdul Haleem issued a joint statement with Hani al-Siba’i on ISIS in 2014.[23]

Abdul Razzaq al-Mahdi, Nabil Al-Awadi, Tariq Abdelhaleem, and Hani al-Siba'i who are linked to Al-Qaeda, in addition to others like Adnan al-Aroor, Abd Al-Aziz Al-Fawzan, Mohamad al-Arefe, Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh and others were included on a death list by ISIS.[24]

References
  1. Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah, 22 February 2008. Appendix A.
  2. telegraph.co.uk: "Cleric said to be behind Tunisian beach massacre is living on benefits in Britain", 6 July 2015
  3. السباعي, هاني (25 March 2009). "سيرة الشيخ الدكتور هاني السباعي" [Biography of Sheikh Dr. Hani Al-Sebaei]. المكتبة الإسلامية الشاملة (in Arabic). لندن: موقع المقريزي. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017.
  4. telegraph.co.uk: "The five alleged terrorists whose assets were frozen", The Telegraph, 27 January 2010.
  5. Mohammed Al Shafey (10 December 2005). "Inside Britain's Gitmo". Asharq Alawsat. Archived from the original on 10 December 2005. Retrieved 6 October 2010. Hani al Sibai, an Egyptian, who spent 9 months behind bars in the high-security jail after being arrested during Operation Challenge in 1998, where the Metropolitan Police detained a number of Muslim figures affiliated with Islamic Jihad, told Asharq al Awsat that he spent 28 days on hunger strike in protest of the ill-treatment to which he was subjected.
  6. "Operation Challenge". makingsenseofjihad.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2010. The fundamentalist leaders in the capital, London, have forgotten their basic differences and have temporarily united in the demonstration scheduled outside 10 Downing Street -- the British prime minister's office -- for Friday 12 March, in protest against the continued detention of five fundamentalists (believed to be members of the armed Jihad organization) in the Belmarsh jail in southeast London, following the 28 September 1998 raids carried out by Scotland Yard in conjunction with British intelligence as part of Operation Challenge. These are Sayyid Ahmad 'Abd-al-Maqsud, Ibrahim 'Aydarus, Hani al-Siba'i, Sayyid 'Ajami Mu'awwad, and Usamah Hasan.
  7. "The list of individuals belonging to or associated with the Taliban". 30 April 2007. Archived from the original on 30 April 2007. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  8. US Treasury banned entity list
  9. "Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia's Long Game: Dawa, Hisba, and Jihad" (PDF). icct.nl. May 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  10. "Salafism in Tunisia: An Interview with a Member of Ansar al-Sharia". jadaliyya.com. 11 April 2013.
  11. "Lebanese TV presenter cuts short interview with Islamist scholar". TheGuardian.com. 9 March 2015.
  12. "Lebanese TV Host Rima Karaki Cuts Short London-Based Islamist's Interview following Insolent Remarks". MEMRI - The Middle East Media Research Institute. 1 March 2015.
  13. Gani, Aisha (9 March 2015). "Lebanese TV presenter cuts short interview with Islamist scholar". the Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  14. Entertainment.ie. "Watch: This Lebanese TV host cut off an interview after sexist comments and it's going viral". entertainment.ie. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  15. Ward, Victoria (6 July 2015). "Cleric said to be behind Tunisian beach massacre is living on benefits in Britain". The Telegraph.
  16. Zelin, Aaron Y. (15 August 2016). "New video message from Ḥizb al-Islāmī al-Turkistānī in Bilād al-Shām: "Congratulations of the Shaykhs on the Occasion of Ramaḍān"". Jihadology.net.
  17. "London Islamist Hani Sibai: 'The Armenian Genocide by the Ottomans… The Big Lie'". MEMRI - The Middle East Media Research Institute. 27 April 2009.
  18. "#5756 - London-Based Islamist Preacher Hani Al-Sibai: U.S. Presidents "Were All Trump," America Founded on the Skulls of the Indigenous People". MEMRI - The Middle East Media Research Institute. 11 November 2016.
  19. "Egyptian Liberal Sayid Al-Qimni, London Islamist Hani Al-Sibai Debate Secularism, Fundamentalism in Arab World". MEMRI - The Middle East Media Research Institute. 23 July 2007.
  20. "London-Based Islamist Cleric Hani Al-Sibai on Brexit: Why Shed Tears over the EU?! We Have Prayed Daily for Their Dispersal". MEMRI. 23 June 2016.
  21. سعد, احمد (27 December 2012). "الجهادى "طارق عبد الحليم" يفتح النار على الجميع: أحل دماء العلمانيين والليبراليين.. ووصفهم بالكفرة.. الإنتاج الإعلامى ثغر احتلته الفئة الباغية..الإخوان انهزاميون.. السلفيون مغفلون". بوابة فيتو.
  22. السباعي, هاني (15 April 2011). "المتسلفون الجدد!! يهاجمون الشيخ طارق عبد الحليم لأنه ليس شيخاً فضائيا!". موقع الشيخ الدكتور طارق عبد الحليم.
  23. السيد, أحمد (25 July 2016). "الدكتور طارق عبد الحليم في حواره لـ"صوت الأمة": تنظيم "داعش" يتبع منهج الخوارج.. قتلاهم كلاب أهل النار.. الإخوان يعبدون صنم جماعتهم.. محمد حسان رأس النفاق في مصر.. وأشك في إسلام "علي جمعة"". صوت الأمة.
  24. "ISIS Launches Campaign Calling To Kill Prominent Islamic Clerics Such As Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, Saudi Mufti 'Abd Al-'Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, Former Egyptian Chief Mufti 'Ali Gum'a". MEMRI. 14 February 2017.
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