http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/londonnews/articles/10329634?
source=Evening%20Standard
Terror on the dole
By David Cohen, Evening Standard
20 April 2004
Four young British Muslims in their twenties - a social worker, an
IT specialist, a security guard and a financial adviser - occupy a
table at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Luton. Perched on their
plastic chairs, wolfing down their dinner, they seem just ordinary
young men. Yet out of their mouths pour heated words of revolution.
"As far as I'm concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the
better," says Abdul Haq, the social worker. "I know it's going to
happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey,
like Madrid - I pray for it, I look forward to the day."
"Pass the brown sauce, brother," says Abu Malaahim, the IT
specialist, devouring his chicken and chips.
"I agree with you, brother," says Abu Yusuf, the earnest-looking
financial adviser sitting opposite. "I would like to see the
Mujahideen coming into London and killing thousands, whether with
nuclear weapons or germ warfare. And if they need a safehouse, they
can stay in mine - and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb],
I'll tell them where to get it."
His friend, Abu Musa, the security guard, smiles radiantly. "It will
be a day of joy for me," he adds, speaking with a slight lisp.
As they talk, a man with a bushy beard, dressed in a jacket
emblazoned with the word "Jihad", stands and watches over them,
handing around cups of steaming hot coffee. His real name is Ishtiaq
Alamgir, but he goes by his adopted name, Sayful Islam,
meaning "Sword of Islam". He is the 24-year-old leader of the Luton
branch of al-Muhajiroun, an extremist Muslim group with about 800
members countrywide, who regard Osama bin Laden as their hero.
Until recently, nobody took the fanatical beliefs of al-Muhajiroun
too seriously, believing that a British-based group so brazenly "out
there" could not be involved in something as "underground" as
terrorism. The group is led by the exiled Saudi, Sheikh Omar Bakri
Mohammad, from his base in north London. Yesterday, in a magazine
article, Bakri warned that several radical groups are poised to
strike in London.
For all its inflammatory rhetoric, al-Muhajiroun has never been
linked to actual violence. Yet, with the discovery last month of
half-a-tonne of ammonium nitrate fertiliser - the same explosive
ingredient used in the Bali and Turkey terror attacks - and with the
arrest of eight young British Muslims in London and the South-East,
including six in Luton, extremist groups such as al-Muhajiroun are
under the spotlight like never before.
Detectives fear that the "enemy within", the homegrown extremists
leading apparently normal lives in suburbia, now pose the greatest
threat to security in Britain. Sayful and his friends fit
this "homegrown" profile: three were born here, two came as young
children from Pakistan; all were educated in local Luton schools;
and they grew up in families of full employment - one of their
fathers is a retired local businessman, two are engineers, and two
worked in the local Vauxhall car plant.
The question is: how worried should we be? Is al-Muhajiroun nothing
more than a repository for disaffected Muslim youths who have
adopted an extreme interpretation of Islam - perhaps to cock a snook
at the white establishment - but who are essentially posturing? Or
does the group also perform a more sinister function, sucking in
alienated young men and brainwashing the more impressionable into
becoming future suicide bombers?
Although none of the arrested Muslims - aged 17 to 32 - appear to be
current al-Muhajiroun members, rumours have circulated of informal
links to the group. Moreover, parents of the arrested men have
spoken anxiously of the "radicalising influence" of al-Muhajiroun
militants who " corrupt" their children at mosques.
Nowhere has this public confrontation between radicals and moderates
been more apparent than in Luton, which has the highest density of
Muslims in the South-East - 28,000 out of a total population of
140,000 - and has long been regarded as a hotbed of extremism.
Sayful Islam, for one, is particularly proud of his contribution to
Luton's hardline reputation. His exploits include covering the town
with " Magnificent 19" posters glorifying the 11 September suicide
bombers. "When I joined al-Muhajiroun four years ago, there were
five local members," he says. "Now there are more than 50 and
hundreds more support us."
The strange thing is that four years ago, Sayful Islam was a jeans-
clad student completing his degree in business economics at
Middlesex University in Hendon, north London.
The son of a British Rail engineer who came to this country from
Pakistan, Sayful grew up in a moderate, middle-class Muslim family
in Luton. At the local Denbigh High School, he is remembered as one
of the smartest kids, and was selected to attend a science
masterclass at Cambridge University. He would go on to marry, have
two children and find work as an accountant for the Inland Revenue
in Luton. He was thoroughly uninterested in politics.
THEN he met Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad at a local event. Within two
years, he had swapped his decently paid job as an accountant for an
unpaid one as a political agitator. What turned him into an
extremist? And how far is he prepared to go to achieve his aims?
Prior to seeing the group at the fastfood restaurant, Sayful meets
me at his semi-detached rented home in Bury Park, Luton's Muslim
neighbourhood. He no longer works, even though he is able-bodied, he
admits, preferring instead to claim housing benefit and jobseeker's
allowance. He smiles sheepishly and says the irony is not lost on
him that the British state is supporting him financially, even as he
plots to "overthrow it".
"I made a decision that I wanted to follow what Islam really said,"
Sayful begins, sitting on his sofa in his thowb (a traditional robe)
and bare feet. "I went to listen to all the local imams, but I found
their portrayal of Islam was too secularised. When I heard Sheikh
Omar [the leader] of al-Muhajiroun speak, it was pure Islam, with no
compromise. I found that appealing.
"At the same time," continues Sayful, "wars were happening in
Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Afghanistan. People were being oppressed
simply because they were Muslim. Although I had never experienced
racism in the UK, it opened the eyes of a lot of Muslims, including
mine."
But it was the events of 11 September that crystallised Sayful's
worldview. "When I watched those planes go into the Twin Towers, I
felt elated," he says. "That magnificent action split the world into
two camps: you were either with Islam and al Qaeda, or with the
enemy. I decided to quit my job and commit myself full-time to al-
Muhajiroun." Now he does not consider himself British. "I am a
Muslim living in Britain, and I give my allegiance only to Allah."
According to Sayful, the aim of al-Muhajiroun ("the immigrants") is
nothing less than Khilafah - "the worldwide domination of Islam".
The way to achieve this, he says, is by Jihad, led by Bin Laden. "I
support him 100 per cent."
Does that support extend to violent acts of terrorism in the UK?
"Yes," he replies, unequivocally. "When a bomb attack happens here,
I won't be against it, even if it kills my own children. Islam is
clear: Muslims living in lands that are occupied have the right to
attack their invaders.
"Britain became a legitimate target when it sent troops to Iraq. But
it is against Islam for me to engage personally in acts of terrorism
in the UK because I live here. According to Islam, I have a covenant
of security with the UK, as long as they allow us Muslims to live
here in peace."
HE USES the phrase "covenant of security" constantly. He attempts to
explain. "If we want to engage in terrorism, we would have to leave
the country," he says. "It is against Islam to do otherwise." Such a
course of action, he says, he is not prepared to undertake. This is
why, Sayful claims, it is consistent, and not cowardly, for him to
espouse the rhetoric of terrorism, the "martyrdom-operations", while
simultaneouslylimiting himself to nonviolentactions such as
leafletting outside Luton town hall.
He denies any link between al-Muhajiroun and the Muslims arrested in
the recent police raids. But, as I later discover at the fastfood
restaurant, not everyone attaching themselves, however loosely, to
al-Muhajiroun draws the same line. Two members of the group - Abu
Yusuf, the financial adviser, and Abu Musa, the security guard -
scorn al-Muhajiroun as "too moderate".
"I am freelance," says Abu Yusuf, fixing me with his piercing brown
eyes. What does that mean? I ask.
"The difference between us and those two," interjects Abu Malaahim,
pointing to Musa and Yusuf, "is that us lot do a verbal thing, [but]
those brothers actually want to do a physical thing."
Referring to the latest truce offered by Bin Laden, and Britain's
scathing rejection of it, Abu Malaahim adds: "He tried to make a
peace deal. When terrorism happens, you will only have yourselves to
blame."
How far are you prepared to go? I ask.
"You want to know how far I will go," says Abu Musa, his high-
pitched lisp rising an octave. "When Allah said in the Koran 'kill
and be killed', that's what I want. I want a martyr operation, where
I kill my enemy."
Are you saying, I probe, that you are looking to kill people
yourself ? "Yes," Abu Musa says, "to kill and to be killed." He
emphasises each word.
What's stopped you doing it? "As you know from watching the news,"
intones Abu Yusuf, "there are brothers who do leave the country and
do it." He is referring to the four Muslims from Luton who died
fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the two British
Muslims, said to have had ties to al-Muhajiroun, who last April left
to become suicide bombers in Israel. "In-shallah [ Godwilling],
there will be a time to go."
It is hard to know whether Musa and Yusuf are deadly serious or just
pumped full of misguided, youthful bravado. Though I see coldness -
even ruthlessness - in their eyes, I sense no malice. Both young men
agree, perhaps foolishly, to be quoted using their real names,
though they decline photographs - thus illustrating their
uncertainty of which way to jump.
Muhammad Sulaiman, president of the Islamic Cultural Society, the
largest of the 14 mosques in Luton, dismisses al-Muhajiroun
as "verbal diarrhoea".
"They are an extreme Right-wing group - the Muslim version of the
BNP," he says disdainfully. "They think Muslims should dominate,
just like the BNP thinks whites should dominate. They use Islam as a
vehicle to promote their distorted beliefs, particularly to
unemployed young bloods who are vulnerable."
ALTHOUGH unemployment in Luton is just six per cent, the rate among
Muslim youths is estimated at 25 per cent. "They are no more
representative of our Muslim community than the BNP are of the white
community."
Sulaiman insists that Sayful Islam and his crew are not welcome at
the mosque. He cannot prevent them praying there, but he will never
give them a platform. "I've told Sayful to bugger off and ejected
him many times," he says brusquely. "Even Sayful's father, who I
know well, thinks his son has been brainwashed."
But Sayful and his friends laugh at the idea that they are local
pariahs. "The mosques say one thing to the public, and something
else to us. Let's just say that the face you see and the face we see
are two different faces," says Abdul Haq. "Believe me," adds
Musa, "behind closed doors, there are no moderate Muslims."
They also mock the idea that they are attracted to al-Muhajiroun
because they have suffered alienation from white society. "Do we
look like scum?" they ask. "Do we look illiterate?"
As they call for the bill, Abu Malaahim flicks open his 3G mobile
phone and, with a satisfied grin, displays the image, downloaded
from the internet, of an American Humvee burning in Iraq.
Abu Yusuf says: "That's nothing. I downloaded the picture of the
four burnt Americans hanging from the bridge." It's oneupmanship, al-
Muhajiroun style.
Sayful, the only married one in the group, prepares to go home to
his wife and children. Before he departs, he says he has a message
to deliver.
"I want to warn that the police raids - if repeated - could create a
bad situation.
"Islam is not like Christianity, where they turn the other cheek. If
they raid our homes, it could lead to the covenant of security being
broken.
"Islam allows us to retaliate. That would include" - he tugs
his "Jihad" coat tight against the night air - "by violent means."
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