Author: Nabanita Sircar
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: October 1, 2001
A large number of young British
Muslims have already left for Pakistan to go into Afghanistan allegedly
to join the "holy war" after the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Security officials are alarmed by the number of volunteers in the UK queuing
up to go to Afghanistan.
Some of the youth are reported to
have even gone to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda training camps in Yemen and
the Balkans. Community leaders in the UK are worried and have expressed
their helplessness in trying to stop the youngsters. They have told security
agencies that they are unable to "deal with the growing problem."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
has already asked Scotland Yard to trace 500 Britons suspected of having
been trained in camps linked to Osama bin Laden. Some of them are known
to have, in the past, gone to fight in Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan.
Officials here said they are not
afraid of those who have already been to fight because they either returned
or died, but it is the rest of them who are possibly just waiting to strike.
"They pose the real danger," an official said. The FBI has also conveyed
its fears that many among these 500 could have returned home and become
sleepers, a silent army with the potential to cause immense damage.
Britain is feared to be one of the
most popular recruitment grounds for the Al Qaeda because of the presence
of militant leaders in the country. The Special Branch is likely to question
some mullahs to identify the recruits sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Pakistan High Commission will
be expected to help. The mullahs, meanwhile, have reportedly accepted that
many youngsters have gone to Pakistan, but maintain that they have gone
home to their family and not for terrorism.
A man in Birmingham has told the
Times that his brother flew to Pakistan after being brainwashed at a meeting
of Islamic extremists. He regretted his brother did not even know how to
handle a gun but was nevertheless, persuaded to go with other young men.
The family, which remained anonymous, fears they will never see him again.
The growth of youth gatherings at
mosques and community centres around the United Kingdom is worrying officials.
The extremist preachers are unafraid of authorities. Sheikh Omar Bakri,
leader of the Al-Muhajiroun has issued a fatwa against all those who are
fighting against the Taliban at his prayer meeting last Friday.
Parents of these young men are privately
requesting community leaders to help stop their children from going to
Pakistan and Kabul. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament
in the UK, told reporters, "It is a problem for our community because we
are getting reports from mosques all over the country about young men wanting
to fight. This is an urgent challenge for the Muslim community and we can
only resolve it by holding meetings to say, 'Please stay where you are.'"
