Title: 'Islamic fundamentalists
float front companies to secure funds for militant activities'
Author: PTI
Publication: The Times
of India
Date: January 17, 2000
Islamic fundamentalists
living in Britain have established a network of front companies and bogus
societies to work undetected for Muslim militants operating in Kashmir
and other places abroad, Sunday Telegraph said.
An investigation by the
newspaper has found that extremists across the country are using 12 different
companies to raise funds and volunteers. According to the paper,
the businesses, which exist in name only, allow the activists access to
facilities and financial help that they would otherwise be denied.
Andrew Dismore, Labour
MP from Hendon, is likely to ask the department of trade and industry to
investigate the "blatant abuse" of company law for political purposes.
"This is an extremely worrying development and I intend to table questions
in the House of Commons as a matter of urgency," Mr Dismore told the daily.
One of the companies
is based on a council-run business estate in north London and it has the
use of conference facilities, 24-hour security and reception facilities.
The daily probe revealed
that the companies, based in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Crawley and
Leicester, operate on behalf of an organisation called Al-Muhajiroun, which
means the voice, the eyes and the ears of Muslims. The society urges
its supporters to "formulate a fifth column for the spread of Islam".
It has strong links with Islamic militants in Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan,
many of which are regarded as terrorist organisations by security sources
in the West.
One of the companies,
called 'Info-2000 Software', is based on Haringey Council's Lee Valley
techno-park in north London. The company was set up in March 1998
and has never traded. Its London offices act as a base for Sheikh
Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian-born founder of Al-Muhajiroun. Sheikh
Mohammed and his followers gain access to the company's offices every day
by signing themselves as company visitors at the central reception of the
business park.
They can use the office's
six computers, scanner, fax machine and phone lines to drum up support
for Islamic organisations abroad, the daily revealed. According to
the reports, the office contains thousands of Islamic leaflets and the
walls are plastered with propaganda posters.
The existence of the
company will seriously embarrass council officials, who closed a Muslim
college in 1995 on the same industrial park after they discovered that
it was linked to Sheikh Mohammed, who has admitted that the company does
not trade and that it is effectively acting as a front for him and his
supporters. He has also confirmed that it is one of a number of companies
that operate along similar lines in other parts of the country.
"Info-2000 Software is
one of the 11 companies we use to help us with our work. They are
registered organisations, but they do not operate as companies. We
have no choice but to hide behind these organisations because the establishment
is trying to hound us out of existence. Ibis is not something we
would have done by choice," Sheikh Mohammad said.
Al-Muhajiroun, according
to the newspaper report, has also established a series of agents to allow
it to organise large fund-raising events at key venues across the country.
There are more than 30 of these organisations, most of which have misleading
names such as the 'Society of Muslim Parents', 'Society of Muslim Doctors'
and 'Society of Muslim Teachers'.
A spokeswoman for Haringey
Council said there would be an official investigation into the Sunday Telegraph's
revelations. "We will be looking into the matter ourselves," she
said.
