Mosque 'has 20-year history of extremist recruitment'

A London mosque was named today as having a 20-year history as a recruiting ground for extremists.

The Queen's Road mosque in Walthamstow was frequented by the leader of the airline gang that was convicted on Monday of attempting to blow up seven transatlantic flights.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali used the mosque, which is controlled by the ultra-orthodox Tablighi Jamaat sect, to meet associates.

Two decades ago, the same mosque was hosting talks by followers of Omar Bakri Mohammed, one of the first Islamic clerics in Britain to preach jihad.

Bakri Mohammed, who now lives in Lebanon, set up the al-Muhajiroun which he used to radicalise young men. His followers included two Britons responsible for a suicide bomb attack on Tel Aviv in 2003.

The revelation about the mosque is more evidence placing Walthamstow at the centre of the airline bomb plot.

Ali, who will be sentenced next week, tried to recruit school friends and the bomb factory was at a flat in Forest Road.

However, a Waltham Forest councillor said the teaching provided by the Queen's Road mosque was not part of the problem.

Afzal Akram said: "None of the mosques have been used to preach extremism."