LONDON (dpa) – Britain’s divided cities provide a fertile breeding ground for extremist views among ethnic minorities, and many young Moslems are taking up a more literal interpretation of jihad than their parents’ generation.
Moderate Moslem clerics spoke out following the arrest of British Moslem convert Richard Reid, 28, on charges of trying to blow up a Paris-Miami flight last week, some of them accusing the police of taking an overly cautious approach to radical Islam.
The head of the mosque where Reid, also known as Abdel Rahim, once worshipped has expressed fear he could be the target of radicals after he provided information to the police.
“I have been threatened that my legs will be broken, and we have been dismissed as infidels. If this mosque is bombed, it will not be by an angry non-Moslem, it will be by an extremist,” Abdul Haqq Baker said.
Baker, a 35-year-old black man, whose mosque is in Brixton, a centre of London’s black community, says he warned police four years ago of recruitment by radicals among his congregation.
“When we were saying about the extremists and the teachings we felt that they weren’t very pro-active in reacting in the early days,” Baker said. The police response had been “tentative”, he said.
He described Reid as “highly impressionable”, although an “amiable, affable individual” who had been easily used by radicals. Baker warned similar attacks could follow. “I think next time they’re going to make sure they get it right.”
Baker said Reid attended the Brixton Mosque from 1996 to 1998, saying he was seeking re-integration into society after a spell in prison.
Then it became clear Reid was coming under other influences. He had begun to wear a combat jacket over his traditional thobe and took issue with the mosque’s teaching, which rejects terrorism and the notion of global jihad.
Baker and other Moslem clerics see London as a “massive hub” for Moslem extremism, with disaffected youths from minority ethnic communities converting to Islam in search of a sense of identity that sets them apart from the dominant culture. They then run the risk of falling under the spell of radicals.
Zaki Badawi, head of a Moslem college, told the Times militant groups were running after-school classes to teach younger children a radical brand of Islam.
“Taliban-style indoctrination”, unchecked by mosques, was creating extremists and should be closed down, he said, echoing the sentiments of many moderate Moslems.
Police have been reluctant to act for fear of being accused of discrimination. During riots in Asian areas in northern English cities this summer – the worst in more than a decade – charges of racism were regularly levelled at police.
As the year drew to a close, Home Secretary David Blunkett signalled a tougher line, urging all in Britain to adopt a common set of values irrespective of their origins.
He warned the violence of the riots seen in Asian – and largely Moslem communities – during the summer would not be tolerated.
British authorities are alarmed. Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person so far charged in connection with the September 11 attacks had also attended the Brixton Mosque during the same period as Reid, and Baker believes they may have met.
Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin, was arrested before September 11 after behaving suspiciously at a flight school and is suspected of being “the 20th hijacker”.
The average age of Baker’s congregation is around 30, and he believes it is being targeted by extremist organizations, whose leaflets have been found in the area.
Badawi urged the authorities to act, calling on the Home Office to be more careful with regard to the Moslem clerics allowed into the country.
And Khalid Mahmood, a Moslem and a member of parliament for the ruling Labour Party, backed recent emergency anti-terror legislation that has been criticised by civil libertarians.
“There were people who were saying there was not need for that. This obviously proves that there is a need for it,” he told the BBC.
