December 18, 2007
A shocking sing-along children's DVD which glorifies suicide bombing is being investigated by anti-terrorist police after being found on sale in one of Britain's terrorist hotbeds.
The disc - part of an Egyptian-made series - is on sale in West Yorkshire, where three of the July 7 bombers lived, and is aimed at youngsters from the local Muslim community.
Introduced by a cute cartoon chicken, it contains three songs in Arabic which are illustrated with a video story. But any impression of its being an innocent music DVD is immediately dispelled by a song with English subtitles about two children who lose their mother when she blows herself up in a suicide bomb attack.
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Appealing to children: The cartoon image appears at the beginning of the DVD
The song, sung as if told by the bomber's daughter, ends with the young Arabic girl vowing to follow in her mother's footsteps.
It is believed to have been inspired by Palestinian Reem-al-Reyashi, a 22-year-old mother of two who killed four Israelis when she blew herself up at a Gaza Strip checkpoint on January 14, 2004.
In the DVD an Arab woman is seen playing with her two children. She then makes a bomb out of sticks of dynamite in the bedroom as her young daughter enters. The woman leaves home with dynamite tucked into her dress and blows herself up after being challenged by soldiers leaving her children and husband to learn of her death on TV.
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Seemingly innocent: But the film develops an alarming theme
To the sounds of haunting music there are graveyard scenes, along with pictures of the dead bomber looking serene and dressed in white.
Her daughter finds a stick of dynamite in her mother's wardrobe. The girl, aged about five or six, turns to the camera with the subtitles: "My love will not be by words. I will follow my mother's steps."
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The second song, entitled Tear, has a catchy chorus of children chanting a song set to images of women and children crying and flames from explosions.
Over scenes of men fighting and throwing grenades, a young Arab girl sings: "Daddy return to us, We want you beside us, Fear occupied our hearts, And there is no one with us, Oh Allah! You are our Saviour..."
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In the third song, Flowers, a group of orphaned children chant a five-minute tribute to Islam and sing about the plight of the Palestinian people.
A copy of the DVD was bought in Bradford. It has been passed to counter-terrorism police who said they were investigating to see if any offences had been committed.
The DVD box lists the distributor as the Abrar Book Shop in Hyde Park, Leeds. The shop – less than half a mile from the flat where the 7/7 bombers assembled their explosives – was shut yesterday.
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Disturbing: A child holds a stick of dynamite in the sing-along DVD for would-be suicide bombers
Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, who was given the DVD by a local resident, said: "My worry is how many people have had access to this kind of material and how many children may have already been influenced by it.
"It's outrageous that this kind of material is so readily available in parts of West Yorkshire and it beggars belief that somebody is prepared to proudly proclaim that they distribute this material.
The MP contacted police and was told that the disc had been sold at a mosque in the city. "I thought it was sick and totally and utterly unacceptable," he said. "It seems to be directed at children and I find it quite disturbing."
He added: "It strikes me as being incitement to terrorism. I hope that the people that distribute the material will be arrested and charged."
Mr Davies said he would be writing to the Home Secretary asking what support the Government was giving to the police to locate and eliminate this kind of material.
The head of West Yorkshire's counter terrorism unit, Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson, said: "The DVD has been initially reviewed and officers are carrying out further inquiries regarding its content to establish whether or not any offences have been committed."
Yorkshire Muslim peer and shadow communities secretary Sayeeda Warsi said the authorities should not be afraid to come down with the full force of the law on extremists.
"I find it deeply disturbing if this kind of material is available and aimed at children so young," she said.
"As well as winning over the hearts and minds of our own communities in order to deal with perverted terrorist organisations, we should always stamp down on anything that is nothing short of criminal, using the full force of the law."
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