Young Muslims in the UK Courted by Community Groups with Extremist Agendas

August 25, 2006

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/world/europe/29recruit.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin

On August 25, 2006 The New York Times reported, "There are Muslims who worry about the true ambitions of the [East London Youth Forum], one in a constellation of... groups that operate around mosques and universities in Britain. These groups have drawn heightened attention after the arrests and charges this month in what the police say was a plot by Muslims, all of them British citizens, to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners... Organizations like the youth forum endear themselves to communities by arranging soccer and cricket tournaments, career fairs, tutoring programs and fund-raisers for Muslim causes abroad. They also offer social sounding boards on issues ranging from a recent rise in knife crime in parts of London to British foreign policy in the Middle East... 'It gives them social legitimacy and a foothold in the community,” [Shiraz Maher, 25, who was a Hizb ut-Tahrir member in Leeds for two years until he left the group in early 2005] said. 'In some respects, they do a lot of good by helping to get people off drugs and things, but they radicalize them in other ways.' Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, along with successor groups to Al Muhajiroun, a London-based group that was ostensibly disbanded in Britain in 2004, and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, are engaged in some of the most aggressive activities to recruit followers, according to British terrorism experts... After the London bombings of July 7, 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to outlaw Al Muhajiroun and Hizb ut-Tahrir, as part of a crackdown on groups that he said had spread intolerance and hate."