VOA, 8 March 2010: Nine alleged members of an al-Qaida terrorist cell are on trial in Brussels on charges of having recruited jihadists and prepared terrorist attacks. . . .

. . . The trial is notable in that it includes a woman, Belgian-Moroccan Malika El Aroud, 50, who has prior convictions in Belgium and Switzerland and has served time in jail for jihadist propaganda. Claude Moniquet, a Belgium terrorism specialist, who heads the European Intelligence and Security Center, says in many ways Aroud is central to al-Qaida operations in Europe, and a trendsetter, of sorts, for women’s participation in the terror group. “Malika opened the way, she opened the way for women [to be] active in propaganda in promoting recruiting and so on,” said Moniquet. “And she could be a kind of icon, and she is a kind of icon used by the al-Qaida propaganda to attract and recruit other women.” . . . .

Related:
Assassin’s wife: My undying affection for bin Laden (CNN, 10 Feb 09)
Malika el Aroud still loves Osama bin Laden. And she loves him even though he sent her husband, Abdessatar Dahmane, to die. On September 9, 2001, Dahmane and another man assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud, the legendary leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. It was a vital mission: Taliban support needed to be shored up in anticipation of al Qaeda’s attack on America. Dahmane, a Tunisian al Qaeda recruit was, like his wife, devoted to bin Laden. “It’s easy for me to describe the love my husband felt because I felt it myself,” she said. “Most Muslims love Osama. It was he who helped the oppressed. It was he who stood up against the biggest enemy in the world, the United States. We love him for that.” . . .