Thaindian News

Stockholm, Dec 19 (ANI): The outlawed Islamist group al-Muhajiroun is openly recruiting near the home of the suicide bomber Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly who blew himself up on a Stockholm street early this month.

Al-Abdaly had reportedly spent much of the last decade in Luton, known as a hotbed of terrorism, where he studied for a degree and continued living there with his wife and three young children.

The Telegraph quoted moderate Muslims in Luton, where Al-Abdaly lived for almost 10 years, claim the authorities are to blame for turning a blind eye to the activities of hard-core jihadi sympathisers.

Residents in the mainly Muslim Bury Park area claim Al-Abdaly attended these meetings and complain that the government ban has not stopped the group or led to any police action against it.

The Luton Islamic Centre, where Abdulwahab prayed and which forced him out when he attempted to preach about his radical views, admits it did not inform the police.

“We try to work with the extremists, rather than force them underground,” a spokesman said.

Al-Muhajiroun’s members are followers of the radical cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is being held in jail in Lebanon on terrorism charges, and are led locally by Ishtiaq Alamgir or Sword of Islam, a former inland revenue accountant.

Earlier this year, Alamgir helped to organise a protest at a homecoming parade in Luton for troops who had served in Afghanistan. The demonstration ended in violence and arrests.

However, Bakri’s supporters still regularly set up a stall on the high street near Abdulwahab’s family home to try to recruit more young Muslims to their cause, the paper said.

The group, whose members keep changing their names to hide their identity, has been reportedly holding rallies in community halls where, until his recent arrest, it was addressed by Bakri over an internet link. (ANI)