According to a community leader in London, representatives of the Union of Islamic Courts, the Islamist group accused by the US of sheltering al-Qaida, visited the Finsbury Park mosque in London in November.
Somalia's Islamist movement, whose leadership is accused by the US of sheltering some of al-Qaida's most wanted operatives, sent a delegation on a fundraising trip to Britain last year, the Guardian has learned. Led by an Islamist minister, the Union of Islamic Courts delegation received pledges of funding from members of Britain's Somali diaspora at a meeting at a north London school in November.
According to one community leader, the Somali delegation also met sympathisers at the Finsbury Park mosque, which became notorious as a recruiting ground for radical Islam under its former imam Abu Hamza. Abdiwali Mohamud, a Somali community worker in Camden, said: "They were trying to influence people in a Muslim way, saying are you with us or with the unbelievers?"
Excerpted
http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,,1989407,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
TV investigation finds hate DVDs at mosque
LONDON, Jan. 12 -- DVDs on sale at a large London mosque promote hatred of Jews and accuse western doctors of spreading AIDS in Africa, a TV investigation reported. "Undercover Mosques" is to be shown Monday on "Dispatches," a series on Britain's Channel 4. Reporters spent a year on the investigation.
Channel 4 will report that the London Central Mosque sells DVDs showing speeches by two extremist clerics, Sheikh Feiz and Sheikh Khalid Yasin. The clerics predict that Jews will be exterminated on the Day of Judgment, advocate a subordinate role for women and say Christian missionaries spread AIDS by putting the virus in vaccines for tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever.
Hafiz Waheed, manager of the shop at the London Central Mosque, told the European Jewish Press there were only 10 copies of the DVDs among hundreds of other titles, and they appear to have sold out. He said his staff is going through the stock to remove any DVDs that preach hate.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20070112-112745-3159r
Insurgents Killed in Afghan Fighting Reportedly Are Sent Back to Pakistan
Saturday, January 13, 2007
KABUL, Jan. 12 -- The bodies of two dozen Islamic insurgents killed in a clash with NATO and Afghan army forces near the border with Pakistan were sent back Friday to Pakistan, where Taliban leaders asked that they be given funerals as "martyrs," according to news reports here.
The reports appeared to bolster Afghan and U.S. assertions, repeatedly denied by Pakistani officials, that Pakistan's tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan have provided a haven for Islamic militia groups seeking to destabilize the Western-backed government of Afghanistan.
Excerpted
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested a cadre of the banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) with bomb-making materials and cartridges at Karatia Bazar in Sadar upazila yesterday. The arrestee was identified as Arman, 25, son of Liakat Khan of Hilara Adabari village under Mirzapur upazila.
On confessional statements of two arrested JMB cadres--Hassan alias Hridoy and Shoyeb alias Zahir--a special team of Rab-12, led by company commander Major Kazi Anis Morshed, raided the rented house of JMB cadre Selim Miah alias Babu at the Bazar yesterday morning and arrested Arman from there.
Hassan and Shoyeb were arrested with a huge amount of explosives and bomb making materials in Badda area of the capital early Wednesday.
The bomb making materials and other items seized from Tangail include 500 grams of zinc oxide, 100 grams of carbon powder, 800 grams of lead nitrate, eight plastic boxes, some masks, 16 plastic circuit boards, three cartridges, 11 negatives of films, 53 audio cassettes and one mobile phone set.
The JMB cadre Selim Miah alias Babu, who rented the house at Karatia Bazar, however managed to escape arrest, Rab sources said. Rab filed two separate cases against the arrested JMB cadre Arman with Tangail Sadar Police Station. Abdur Rashid, officer-in-charge (OC) of Tangail Sadar Police Station, said they will produce the arrested JMB cadre Arman in the court today, seeking remand.
http://thedailystar.net/2007/01/13/d70113012015.htm