YouTube Hosts Death Threats

The coming Olympics in 2012 have aroused many passions and there were many talks around it. The one that made the news today is in no direct connection to it but rather to its location: Newham, where Europe's largest mosque is set to be built.

Councilor Alan Craig is a member of the Christian Peoples Alliance and an enemy to the "megamosque" project, as he has led a local campaign against its building. Plans for the 18-acre-complex have not yet been submitted to the Local Council but it is said to include a school for 500 boys and a capacity of 12000 people.

Mr. Craig, a 61-year-old businessman has contacted the police in fear of his family's safety and demanded that the video, a two-minute clip showing pictures of him and his wife and daughters on the musical background of Elvis Presley's "You Were Always On My Mind", be taken down. There is a link directly to the video from the mosque's official web site and a spokesman promised that it will be removed if anything "inappropriate" were to be found. Craig said that "targeting me is one thing. But to use my wife and children is outrageous. This video obituary is either a threat or a very sick joke. Some people will look at this as an open invitation to take me out because I am opposing the mosque. That is not the way to operate in a democracy."

The opening words of the video are "To God we will all return" and it ends with "The mosque will be built in time for the 2012 Olympic Games". And with the part in between being what it is, a most disturbing message was accurately sent. This and the reply that abdullah1425 (the one that posted the clip) posted on another site that "Jihad starts from the moment your mother gave birth to you", gave the Councilor quite a scare as links to the Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat, a "recruiting ground" for al Qaeda as the FBI expressed themselves were on the YouTube video page also.