Osamas name flows in our blood: Ex-rapper

This is from the days when I lived the life of an unbeliever, said Denis Mamadou Cuspert,as he clenched his fists and looked at the tattoos. Allah will erase them from me one day.

Cuspert,once a popular rapper in Germany,is now one of the best-known singers of nasheeds,or Islamic devotional music,in German. Security officials say he is an influential figure who incites violence through inflammatory videos and fiery speeches that praise terrorists and attack the West.

German authorities say people like him inspired the shootings of two American airmen at the Frankfurt airport in March. The 21-year-old man accused of the killings,Arid Uka,whose trial began in Frankfurt on Wednesday,said he opened fire after seeing a video that claimed to show Muslim women being raped by men in US military uniforms. Uka said he was listening on his iPod to nasheeds calling for opposition against occupation forces and the West as he travelled to the airport just before the shootings. It made me really angry, Uka told the judge.

German terrorism investigators see Cuspert,35,as a threat who provokes young people angered by what they see as a Western campaign against Islam.

In an interview at a mosque here,Cuspert denied any direct connection to Uka,though he said he supported his actions. The brother hasnt killed civilians, he said. He has killed soldiers who had been on their way to kill Muslims.

Cuspert gives speeches all over Germany,and young people are drawn to elements of his personal story,including his membership in Berlin street gangs he said he used to be a real bad boy and the notion that he finally found the right way.

Cuspert says that Shariah,the legal code of Islam based on the Quran,permits self-defence. My duty is to use my voice for telling people the truth,and the truth is,jihad is a duty, he said.

At the end of June,Cuspert recorded a nasheed that praised al-Qaedas late leader,Osama bin Laden. Your name flows in our blood, he sings.

I have sworn allegiance to Mullah Muhammad Omar,emir of the Taliban, he said in the interview,smiling. He is one of the greatest men.

In his speeches,Cuspert has said that his biggest wish right now is the death of President Barack Obama,an enemy of Islam.

Authorities say they have not had enough evidence to arrest him for his speeches,but they are trying to put him behind bars for offences they say he committed during his former life as a rapper. On August 18,Cuspert was tried here on charges of possessing illegal weapons. German security officials said they sought to jail Cuspert and stop his video propaganda for jihad. The trial judge convicted and fined Cuspert,but spared him a prison sentence.

Before he took his new name,Abou Maleeq,Cuspert had another life. He was born and reared in Berlin by his German mother. His father,from Ghana,left the family when Cuspert was a baby.

When conflicts increased at home with his stepfather,a former American Army soldier and disciplinarian,Cuspert was sent to a home for difficult children. After five years,he returned home. I grew up with racism, he said. Though my mother is German,teachers back then would call me Negro and treat Muslim kids bad.

His argument with American foreign policy grew in 1990 in the months leading up to the first Persian Gulf war,and he joined demonstrations in Berlin. We marched,shouted and burned the American flag, he said,smiling.

In 1995,he found a new outlet for his anger: as rapper Deso Dogg. He said,My songs were about the time in prison,racism,war.

His music career soared. He went on tour with rappers like DMX and worked on the soundtrack for a German film. But after surviving a car accident,he started questioning his lifestyle and turned to Islam for answers. In 2010,he ended his career as a rapper and turned his focus to fighting the US and the West.

The message on his cellphones voice mail system makes no secret about his ultimate aim in life. The martyrdom is the most beautiful, he says in his recording. Allah is the greatest.