EXTREMIST Islamic organisations have been active across the UK and intend to continue recruiting in universities and mosques.

Radical groups including al Muhajiroun and Hizb-ut-Tahir are among the most highprofile extremist Islamic organisations in Britain.

Hizb-ut-Tahir has condemned the London bombings last week, but leaders of al Muhajiroun have not.

The Herald understands that al Muhajiroun has been active in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.

It was set up in the UK in 1996 by Sheik Omar Bakri, a Syrian who held meetings in London with Abu Hamza al Masri, the founder of Supporters of Shariah, who is in custody facing extradition to the US on terrorism charges.

In April 2004, he warned that a well-organised Londonbased al Qaeda Europe was "on the verge of launching a big operation" in the UK. Last December he said that if Western governments did not change their policies, Muslim terrorists would give them "a 9/11 day after day after day".

In Dundee, a handful of individuals are known to have had links with al Muharijoun.

Norien Sajeel dropped out of a course at Dundee University after hearing a talk by Sheikh Omar Bakri. Dundonian Irfan Rasool, as the 18-year-old Scottish spokesman for al Muhajiroun, declared he and dozens of other Scottish muslims were prepared to launch suicide attacks on the British military.

The city was also home to Shamsul Bahri Hussein, a Malaysian who read applied mechanics at Dundee University, and who, in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, was one of eight suspects.

Dundee was also home to James McLintock, a Muslim convert who allegedly fought as a jihadi in Afghanistan in the 1980s against the Soviets and later in Bosnia in 1994.

One former member of al Muhajiroun, calling himself Omar, told The Herald he gave talks in Dundee, Edinburgh and in Pollokshields, Glasgow.

Insisting that his organisation did not condone violence, Omar said he would be back in Scotland to recruit again.

"If the (London) bombers were Muslim then the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and what is happening with the state of Israel are the causes.

Attacks will happen again unless this addressed, " he said.

Professor Paul Wilkinson, director of St Andrews University's Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said that al Muharijoun moved bases within the UK and used different labels.