Saturday, May 4, 2013

Birmingham, UK "has become a byword for Islamic extremist terror"

 

Birmingham "has become a byword for Islamic extremist terror"

4 May 2013 07:30

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-has-become-byword-islamic-3408471

 

 

Special report by Amardeep Bassey

 

Birmingham now has the dubious honour of being labelled the western world's

" Terror Central" for Islamic extremists.

 

It's a reputation founded on being home to an alleged Saudi financier of the

9/11 attacks, the birthplace of Britain's first suicide bomber and the

centre of the country's first Al Qaida terror plot.

 

And it's not just a numbers game, despite the fact that Birmingham is home

to Britain's largest Muslim community, estimated to be more than

300,000-strong.

 

Last week saw the culmination of several inter-connected terror trials and

convictions of nearly 20 young Muslim men from the city , who had planned to

carry out a bombing campaign in the country of their birth.

 

It led a prosecution barrister in their trial to make a throw-away remark

that "Brummie" is the most common accent in Belmarsh Prison, where most

terror suspects are held.

 

But why is it that Britain's second city is seen as such fertile ground for

Islamic extremism, enticing young men like Rashid Rauf from the backstreets

of Alum Rock to the upper echelons of Al Qaida in the badlands of Pakistan?

 

 

There are no official figures but experts suggest that there have been more

than 30 terrorist-related convictions in the city since 1998, from Moinul

Abedin, described as the planner of the country's first Al Qaida inspired

bombing plot in 2000, to the seven Birmingham men who conspired to kidnap

and publicly behead British squaddies.

 

Most of the players involved have been second-generation Kashmiris, a

reflection of the fact that Birmingham is home to the world's largest ex-pat

Kashmiri community.

 

The disputed and divided northern Indian territory is no stranger to

violence and political upheaval, which has claimed thousands of lives in the

picturesque Himalayan region since the late 1980s.

 

After the Russians left Afghanistan in 1989, Afghan and Pakistani

mujahideen, together with global groups like Al Qaida, trained their guns on

India in an effort to turn Kashmir into an Islamic state.

 

Rafaello Pantucci, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute

thinktank, says familial and clan connections between some Birmingham

Kashmiris and the motherland facilitated easy access to jihadi ideology and

practical terror training.

 

He said: "The ongoing troubles in Kashmir made it easier for a young Muslim

from Birmingham to travel out there and join a training camp and then become

indoctrinated into the worldwide Islamic state anti-West ideology espoused

by groups like Al Qaida.

 

"So in a way some of the Kashmiri separatist groups have acted as a stepping

stone to more sinister and dangerous groups like Al Qaida."

 

He added: "Firebrand Kashmiri militant leaders made trips to Birmingham in

the 1990s and made incendiary speeches urging Birmingham's Kashmiri

community to help in the fight against India.

 

"These charismatic people would have left a mark on the city's young

Muslims."

 

Other experts and commentators suggest the catalyst to jihadi activity is

much closer to home.

 

Local historian and community activist Jahan Mahmood said: "Birmingham's

Muslim communities have been hijacked a by a select few, and as we saw from

the recent cases these men took advantage of their own community by

defrauding them.''

 

Birmingham's first Muslim MP Khalid Mahmood, of Perry Barr , blames a lack

of leadership and direction within the city's Muslim community itself.

 

He said: "The city's mosques have not done enough to educate the younger

generations about the true peaceful nature of Islam and instead have let

them be misdirected by terrorist recruiters and their like.

 

"The entire Muslim community in the city must shoulder some blame for almost

turning a blind eye to the activities of a small minority of its youth who

have chosen to go down the path of blind hatred based on a skewed version of

Islam."

 

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