Somali Islamists held UK meeting to raise funds (Guardian)

Somali Islamists held UK meeting to raise funds

Courts group targeted by US air strikes had meeting with Foreign Office officials

Jeevan Vasagar
Saturday January 13, 2007
The Guardian

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.

-snip-

The Foreign Office meeting underlines the strikingly different approaches taken
by the US - which describes the Islamists as "extremists to the core" and targeted
Somalia with an air strike this week - and Britain, which accepts that there were
moderate elements within the UIC.

-snip-

The Foreign Office confirmed yesterday that a UIC delegation had met British officials
on November 20.

A spokeswoman said: "They asked for the meeting. HMG appreciated that at the time
the UIC was a reality on the ground and in dialogue with the (Somali) government.
It was reasonable to meet them."

-snip-