Embrace of Islam
While he was incarcerated, he met "Khelif," an Islamist who had fled France to evade trial. Upon his return to France in 1989 he was sentenced to 7 years in prison. While in jail, Khelif attempted to recruit Algerians to man militant organisations in Algeria. After his release, Kelkal regularly attended the Bilal Mosque in Vaulx-en-Velin; the mosque was headed by imam Mohamed Minta, a sympathiser of the Foi et Pratique ("Faith and practice") fundamentalist organisation. In 1993, Kelkal went to Mostaganem, in Algeria, to visit his family. There, he was probably recruited by one of the radical branches of the GIA, headed by Djamel Zitouni, whose aim was to "punish France."
Read more about this topic: Khaled Kelkal
Famous quotes containing the words embrace and/or islam:
“We must select the Illusion which appeals to our temperament and embrace it with passion, if we want to be happy.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)