A preacher who once gave speeches in London, and who used to roam around the mosques of Britain till a few years ago, is today considered to be the new leader of ISIS, one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world. The name is Abdul Kadir Mumin, whose long orange beard has become his identity, now running a global network from the hills and caves of Somalia. And has also managed to escape from many American attacks.
The founder and first leader of ISIS was Abu al-Bakar Baghdadi. Somalia’s army and American forces have been searching for Mumin for the last several months. Last week, after a captured ISIS jihadist revealed his location, American jets fired missiles at heavily fortified caves in the hills of Puntland. After the attack, soldiers found several burnt bodies but not Mumin’s body.
Who is Abdul Qadir Mumin?
Born in Puntland in the 1950s, Mumin first escaped Somalia’s civil war and reached Europe. After a few years, he became a preacher at Greenwich Mosque in London. According to British security agencies, in those days, he used to roam in Mafarish i.e. East African youth cafes in London and recruit youth for extremism. During this time, he also came in contact with two notorious British terrorists, Jihadi John (Mohammed Emwazi), who beheaded Western hostages in an ISIS video, and Michael Adebolajo, who murdered British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013. Both of them had later unsuccessfully tried to go to Somalia and join militant organizations.
Become a terrorist after escaping from Sweden and Britain
Mumin first settled in Sweden, then returned to the UK in the early 2000s and became a preacher at Leicester’s Quba Mosque. But here too people got upset due to his radical ideology. As the pressure increased, he again fled to Somalia in 2010, where he first joined Al-Shabaab and gave allegiance to Al-Qaeda. Then in 2015, he released an audio message of leaving the same organization and joining ISIS.
New base of ISIS built in the hills of Somalia
After the defeat of ISIS in Syria-Iraq, many of its leaders and fighters went into hiding in East Africa. Taking advantage of the political instability, Mumin set up a new base in the Cal Miskaad hills of Puntland. When he joined ISIS, he had only 30 fighters. By the end of 2024 this number will increase to 1,200. American intelligence agencies claim that this East-Africa branch of Mumin has now become the global operation center of ISIS. According to reports, Mumin’s unit funded several attacks around the world. These also include two suicide blasts outside Kabul Airport in 2021, in which 169 Afghan and 13 American soldiers were killed.
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