The actions are in clear violation of British laws. But there has been little government action in Britain, despite the very public knowledge of these activities. For instance, Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of the fundamentalist group Al-Muhajiroun, declared at a press conference that young British Muslims are being sent for training to terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. That boast came after reports in a British newspaper that a military training camp was held in a London mosque from December 24 to 26 last year.
The camp, which was advertised on the Net, offered "military training, self-development skills, martial arts, map reading etc." Women were offered training on "their role in the field of jehad".
Bakri Mohammed indicated that British Muslim youths were taking the lead on several fronts of this 'jehad'. And his call to violence is unequivocal. In a tape-recording of his speech in a mosque, Bakri Mohammed can be heard calling for the creation of a pan-Islamic army to "liberate" India. "Kill the kafir," he exhorts. "You can't kill them if you don't fight them. But when they fight us we will fight them. And we will become permitted then to kill them wherever we meet them."
There's also clear evidence that groups in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are raising money directly in Britain for the 'jehad'. An advertisement in the Pakistani newspaper Jang, published also in London, was a straight call to fund a jehad, requesting donations to be sent to the Rawalpindi address of the Jamaat-e-Islami chief.
The appeal may have raised money, but it also raised questions, with a new law specifically targeting the raising of money within Britain to fund acts of violence abroad. "The advertisement is clear proof that the Jamaat-e-Islami is promoting cross-border terrorism in the Indian state of Kashmir," Anwar Khan of the Jammu Kashmir Peace Committee told Outlook. Khan sent complaints to the British Home Office and to Scotland Yard. "I personally met several people, including people in the British intelligence agency MI5," Khan said. He sees "a clear case for legal action here." But it hasn't been coming.
