Muslim cleric from UK now head of Islamic State in Somalia

What about all the people he taught in Britain? Where are they now? Does anyone in Britain know or care?

“British extremist preacher linked to Lee Rigby killers emerges as head of Islamic State in Somalia,” by Colin Freeman, Telegraph, April 29, 2016:

A British extremist preacher linked to the killers of Drummer Lee Rigby has surfaced in an Islamic State propaganda video as the head of its new franchise in Somalia.

Sheiky Abdulqadir Mumin, who preached at mosques in London, fled to Somalia after being investigated by M15 for radicalising young men with his fiery sermons.

The henna-bearded militant, who burned his British passport on arrival in Somalia, has now re-emerged in a video shot in northern Somalia in which he leads a faction pledging allegiance to Isil’s Iraqi leader, Abubakr al-Baghdadi.

In the 15-minute broadcast, he presides over a group of heavily-armed fighters as they raise the black Islamic State flag and perform military drills in a remote mountain area.

Mumin’s presence in Somalia is likely alarm British security chiefs, given his alleged record as a recruiter of young Muslim radicals for the cause of violent jihad in Somalia and elsewhere.

The cleric was a visiting speaker at a mosque in London around the time it was attended by Michael Adebolajo, one of the two men jailed for the meat-cleaver murder of Drummer Lee Rigby at Woolwich Arsenal in 2013.

Mohammed Emwazi, the militant better known as Jihadi John, is understood to have occasionally attended the same mosque.

Somali-born Mumin, who arrived in Britain around ten years ago, is also believed to have done “outreach” work on the streets of south-east London, reaching out to troubled youngsters like Adebolajo.

He is understood to have tried to recruit at local “mafrishes” – meeting places where members of the area’s Somali community would gather to chew the narcotic qhat leaf.

Both Adebolajo and Emwazi made failed attempts to join extremist groups in Somalia, where Mumin retained strong contacts with radical groups.

In 2010, Mumin also took part in a press conference alongside the ex-Guantanamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg for the charity CagePrisoners, which was launching a report criticising Western anti-terror tactics in East Africa.

CagePrisoners’s research director, Asim Qureshi, was criticised last year after describing Emwazi as “a beautiful young man” who had been radicalised because of mistreatment by the security services.

In similar fashion, Mumin left Britain for good a few months after his appearance with CagePrisoners, complaining of harrassment by M15….