A Muslim convicted of trying to smuggle blueprints for home-made rockets into Britain was sentenced to three and a half years yesterday. Yassin Nassari smiled as the sentence came down, undoubtedly expecting a much harsher sentence from the judge.

Yassin Nassari was stopped by police with his wife and five-month-old son at Luton airport after an easyJet flight from Amsterdam.

The 28-year-old from Ealing had a laptop containing bomb recipes while his wife Bouchra El-Hor had a letter offering their baby as a “martyr”.

Nassari, head of the Islamic Society at the University of Westminster, was convicted last week of possessing a document likely to be useful to terrorists.

Judge Gerald Gordon said at the Old Bailey that he accepted Nassari did not plan to make use of the extremist material.

But he added: “I have come to the conclusion that sadly, like a number of other young Muslims, you have somehow been indoctrinated into beliefs which support the use of terrorism by others.”

Oddly the Judge accepted as fact that Nassari did not plan to make use of the extremist material, even though his wife had a letter offering their baby as a martyr!

In a completely unrelated story the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said yesterday the war against terrorists is driven by an “irrational” fear that the Bush administration has inculcated in the American public. The chance of being killed in a terrorist attack, he said, is 1 in 80,000 over a lifetime.

Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the national board went on to say “The popular discourse in America today remains mired in stereotypical denouncements about Islam. As a result Muslims and their faith remained misunderstood, feared and shunned.”

Truly a religion of peace if I ever saw one.

Hat tip LittleGreenFootballs for the story.

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Terrorism