Islamic supremacist group Al Muhajiroun continues to operate openly in Queens, New York—and one of their alumni, Mohammed Junaid Babar (whose mother escaped from the World Trade Center on 9/11), was secretly placed into custody in April for his participation in a plot to launch attacks in London: Al-Qaida suspect tied to U.S.-UK jihad group. (Hat tip: PDM.)

Mohammed Junaid Babar, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, was secretly taken into custody in April and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan. Babar, who is said to be cooperating with interrogators, allegedly admitted to aiding in a plot to blow up discos, restaurants and train stations in London. Babar faces 30 years to life in prison under an agreement with federal prosecutors.

The plot was foiled in late March when British authorities arrested eight suspects and seized 1,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used to make explosives, from a storage locker near central London.

WND has learned that Babar, 29, was a member of the UK-based Al-Muhajiroun, a worldwide Islamic fundamentalist group led by London cleric Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad, who maintains operatives in Pakistan and in Queens, N.Y.

A U.S.-based leader of Al-Muhajiroun who operates openly in Queens told WND on condition of anonymity: “I’ve known Junaid [Babar] for a long time. I met him about seven years ago in a local Mosque in Queens before we both became involved with Muhajiroun.”

The leader would not comment on Babar’s involvement with his group, except to say Babar was involved in “organizational operations” in Queens and later in Pakistan, where he traveled after leaving a $70,000-a-year computer job because he wanted to join the jihad in Afghanistan.

Al-Muhajiroun has long been suspected of ties to al-Qaida. One of the September 11 hijackers reportedly was involved with Al-Muhajiroun, and according to an internal FBI memo by Phoenix agent Kenneth Williams, another Al-Muhajiroun member with ties to al-Qaida trained at an Arizona flight school prior to September 11.

Al-Muhajiroun’s branch in Queens claims to be involved in “only peaceful activities.” The group holds closed-door meetings and study sessions at a mosque in Jackson Heights, Queens, led by an older spiritual cleric identified as a Sheikh Choudray.

The Queens branch youth leader, Abu Yousuf, a U.S. citizen who says he attended a “camp” in Sudan and takes computer courses at the City University of New York, speaks at universities throughout New York City at events usually sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.

At one Al-Muhajiroun event at Queensborough Community College sponsored by the MSA and attended by WND, a Muhajiroun speaker working with Yousuf said, “We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don’t lobby Congress or protest because we don’t recognize Congress! The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!”