Posted on 07/17/2005 3:09:37 PM PDT by Jean S
LEEDS, England (AP) - Nineeteen-year-old Fazel, a British-born Muslim who is angry about his "immoral" surroundings, seems ripe for the picking by the recruiters of Islamic extremism. "I would go if they approached me," he says.
"I want to get away from here. I don't have a job. I want to learn everything about Islam," said Fazel, who refused to divulge his last name during an interview Saturday a mosque here. His remarks suggested he hoped to find his way to a Muslim country where he could further study the religion and develop his beliefs.
Like three of the four named suspects in the July 7 suicide bombings in London, Fazel was born in Leeds. His parents were from the Pakistan-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir. Three of the four bombers also had Pakistani parents. The fourth alleged attacker was born in Jamaica but converted to Islam while growing up in Luton, north of London.
Islamic radicals inside the British Muslim community who are searching for men to become suicide attackers or foot soldiers in the global jihad are thought to recruit disaffected young men like Fazel, sending them for religious or military training in Islamic countries.
For example, Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old member of the alleged bombing team, reportedly visited two religious schools on a trip to Pakistan. Intelligence agents there have questioned students, teachers and administrators at a school in central Lahore, and at least two other al-Qaida-linked radical Islamic centers.
Despite the young man's growing contempt for Western mores, he said he disagreed with the London bombings of four Underground trains and a bus because "Islamic scholars said it was wrong." The attackers "should have talked to more educated people."
He denounced, however, Prime Minister Tony Blair's characterization that the bombers were inspired by an "evil ideology."
"The evil programs on TV, the music, the literature, the magazines ... are all responsible for the terrorist attacks. People are becoming rebellious because they are against fornication, gambling, alcohol."
"Until they get rid of Eminem and Marilyn Manson, they can't get rid of our preachers," he said.
Fazel called himself a former kafar, who once enjoyed drinking with his friends and the company of young women.
Then, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, he read about al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden.
Images of the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsing, he said, fueled his curiosity about the faith of his ancestors.
"Allah pointed me to him (bin Laden)," said Fazel, dressed in a white shalwar kameez, the traditional loose tunic-and-trouser common to men in South Asia.
Three years later, he said, an angel spoke to him.
"I needed change. Drugs and alcohol did me no good," he said.
The young man denied that he was confused about his faith and asserted just as vehemently that he did not "give a damn about the world."
Fazel said he has not told his parents about turning to his deepest Islamic roots. Like many of his peers who also were born of immigrant Muslim parents, Fazel has found difficulty integrating into British society and expresses a sense of displacement and alienation.
Zahir Birawi, an official at the mosque where Fazel was interviewed, later said he had seen the young man a few times at prayers and assured a reporter that Fazel's views were not normal.
Birawi said it was not the duty of the mosque to change the views of those who came to worship.
"We have no classes for these things," said Birawi, but "we will make it a priority to try to answer his questions" about Islam.
Birawi said officials at the mosque would tell the police about Fazel if his views did not moderate.
While Fazel at one point declared he wanted nothing but to leave Britain, he subsequently indicated some confusion about the future.
If he did not manage to go to Afghanistan or was not recruited by extremists, Fazel said would be just happy settling down here to try to change society from the inside.
"The best thing is to marry a couple of wives and have many children because I think it's wise to increase the population of my umma (people) and raise the number of Muslim members of parliament.
"We want to have more say in Parliament."
AP-ES-07-17-05 1740EDT
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBVD0BT9BE
"The best thing is to marry a couple of wives and have many children because I think it's wise to increase the population of my umma (people) and raise the number of Muslim members of parliament.
Note that this jobless unskilled idiot has no intentions of being a productive member of society. Just have lots of wives and children and have the Brits pay for it. Either that or Jihad.
"We want to have more say in Parliament."
Taa-daa, the real reason these people are even in the west. Take over, or kill you. Actually, take over then kill you.
Give him a one way ticket to Pakistan, and make him personna non grata in the U.K. so he can't go back. These jerks have no appreciation for what they have.
Yet another unemployed Muslime loser. I hope this idiot looks to the left when crossing the street.
"Three years later, he said, an angel spoke to him."
One of the things that has happened in the last ten years in America is the facination with angel interventions and people in love with angel symbols.
Just remember there are good angels and bad angels.
Is that all we have to give up?!? DEAL.
They hate us for our ... um, crappy Hollywood values and products.
Then go back to whatever turd dump you came from ... ancestrally, that is.
I don't have a job.
Oh yeah. You're bound to stand a better chance in Yakbar or Phlegmasa or whatever Arab sewer you crawled out of.
I want to learn everything about Islam,"
THAT will help you get a job.
All you need to know about killing yourself is: make sure you get your whole head in front of the shotgun. Make a party of it. Take some of your worthless friends with you when you go.
Hi IJ, long time no see.
This is what the PC crowd has reaped in Britian.
It's hard to be TOO mad at this idiot -- most all teenagers are morons, all over the world. I'm more angry at the twisted adults who prey on teenagers with visions of inflicting hate and pain on others, and promising them they'll get laid in paradise if they sign on.
Sounds eerily familiar to the chumps who insisted that they were burning down buildings during the L.A. riots because they didn't have a job.
Right. And acting like a petulant, destructive moron is really going to get corporate America clamoring to set up shop in your neighborhood, hm?
This is one lost kid, but he points out one thing that has made the west vulnerable to the spread of Islam among his type and that's the loss of our traditional Christian morals.
And what our own PC crowd is sowing.
Why waste the money? He wants to know more about Allah IMHO the greatest service we could do for him is to send him to the source.
Good point. There's a chance this jackass will grow out of it. Unless one of these psycho recruiter types gets his hands on him, in which case it's curtains for him.
And as many of us as he can take with him.
- ThreeTracks
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