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January 15, 2008

UK: Muslim Gang Culture (Part 2 of 3)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

Britain's Muslim Gang Culture: Part Two of Three

Islamism And Gang Culture

In part one of this article I discussed the south London "Muslim Boys" gang, who used threats of murder to forcibly convert young black males to their skewed form of Islam. Though these individuals have become allied to "genuine" Muslims - mostly convicted of terrorism - inside Belmarsh Prison, for the most part they were not brought up as Muslims.

One of the few individuals allied to the gang who was raised as a Muslim is Zartash Khan. On August 10, 2005, Khan was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the attempted murder of a policeman, PC Liam Morrow. The policeman had been shot three times in the legs after he and others had been called to investigate the suspicious behavior of four men in Bromley, south London on December 20, 2004.

The Muslim Boys do not represent most Muslim gangs in Britain. For the most part, Muslim gangs are - like most gangs - comprised of young people who feel alienated and excluded from society, and operate around a very small "territory", often associated with a particular housing project. The youths generally come from families that migrated from Pakistan or Bangladesh, but there are now increasing numbers of Somali gangs in Britain. How much some of these gangs can be described as "ethnically" Muslim or "religiously' Muslim is debatable.

The international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir - founded in 1953 in Jerusalem - was first set up in Britain by Omar Bakri Mohammed. Under his leadership, young Muslims were encouraged to operate much like street-gangs. On college campuses, the group threatened and intimidated Muslim women until they wore the hijab or headscarf. On February 27, 1995 at Newham College in East London, a gang of Hizb ut-Tahrir followers, armed with hammers and knives attacked and killed Nigerian student Ayotunde Obanubi on the college steps. The gang was led by an older Hizb ut-Tahrir member from outside the college called Saeed Nur. Mr Obanubi was murdered because he was said to have "insulted" Islam.

In February 1996, Bakri took some of the more thuggish members of Hizb ut-Tahrir to form Al Muhajiroun. Bakri was expelled from Hizb ut-Tahrir, but gang-style activity has continued among the lower ranks of the parent group. In November 2006, Richard Watson reported for BBC's Newsnight on Muslim extremism. The video can be seen here. The investigation claimed that Hizb ut-Tahrir encourages new recruits to belong to small cells. To become a member, new recruits must commit crime to prove loyalty. A youth called "Jay" claimed he was told by his cell: "They said Allah says you have to go and intimidate those boys across the street and get money off them." Jay also said of the cell: "These are people willing to beat you up and sell you drugs and make sure you die."

Just over a week ago, Michael Nazir-Ali, the Pakistan-born Bishop of Rochester warned that Muslim extremism has led to alienation of Muslim youth, leading to them turning "already separate communities into "no-go" areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability. Those of a different faith or race may find it difficult to live or work there because of hostility to them and even the risk of violence."

The bishop's comments were widely reported in the media in Britain and America. They were condemned by Muslim "spokespeople". His words were seen as "stirring up racism" by Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, which was co-founded by Kemal el-Helbawy, an Islamist of the Muslim Brotherhood. Inayat Bunglawala has previously called Osama bin Laden a "freedom fighter" and claimed that the terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman was "courageous".

Bunglawala implied that the BIshop of Rochester was either wrong or lying, writing: "But where are these "no-go" areas in our country that non-Muslims are being prevented from entering? Well, unfortunately the good bishop did not think it was necessary to go to the bother of backing up his headline-grabbing assertion with any actual evidence." Bunglawala, if he was fully honest or aware, could have answered his own question by mentioning Bradford in Northern England, for a start.

In Bradford, and nearby cities of Oldham and Burnley, race riots took place in the summer of 2001, with much of the violence caused by local Muslim gangs. I will discuss those riots later, but one family in Bradford lives in constant fear of attacks by Muslim gangs, attacks that began in 2002. The head of this family, who works as a hospital nurse in Bradford, has spoken of bricks being thrown through the living room window, and of his car window being smashed. His car has been rammed and set alight, garbage was emptied onto his doorstep, and he and his family have been pushed and issued with death threats in the street. At one stage his wife was held hostage in their home for two hours. His home and car have been painted in graffiti.

The reason for such hostility is that the head of the household, whose parents came from Pakistan, had been brought up as a Muslim, but committed the "sin" of apostasy. In the late 1990s, Nissar Hussein converted to Christianity. He said: "They are trying to ethnically cleanse me out of this home. I feel I have to make a stand as an Asian Christian." Police have charged no-one for the campaigns of harassment, and instead have told him to leave the area. Bradford police thus assist in the creation of one of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's "no-go" areas.

It is certainly the aim of some Muslim extremists to create Muslim-only areas. On September 20,2006, Britain's then Home Secretary visited Leytonstone in northeast London, to address Muslim parents and urge them to report any signs of extremism from their offspring. He was heckled by Abu Izzadeen, who shouted at him: "How dare you come to a Muslim area when you have arrested so many Muslims in this area?" Leytonstone has a Muslim community but is far from being predominantly Muslim.

Izzadeen is a follower of Omar Bakri Mohammed, who used to belong to Al Muhajiroun. After Bakri disbanded Al Muhajiroun in October 2004, Izzadeen helped Bakri to lead two derivative groups. He is currently awaiting trial on terrorism charges. Bakri urged his followers to claim welfare benefits from the government they hated. His followers had no problem beating opponents in the street. Bakri's followers, such as Abdul Muhid (pictured right), have engaged in harassment of Sikhs and have fought with police. These followers have used violence and intimidation, the methods of street gangs, to gain "respect".

Ethnic Violence

Britain's gang culture is neither as violent nor as organized as American gang culture, but gang violence has been increasing. Britain's Labour government has long espoused the notion that multiculturalism is a desirable objective. In practice, it sets up communities to compete against each other, and engenders conflict. The worries about "no-go" areas have been voiced by police. Greater Manchester Police reported in 2001 that of 572 racial attacks in Oldham in the previous year, 62% were carried out by "Asians". In Oldham the term "Asians" referred to Pakistanis (6.4% of the town's population) and Bangladeshis (4.1% of the town's demographic). When riots broke out in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford in summer 2001, the conflicts were led predominantly by young Muslims operating in gangs.

Chief Superintendent Eric Hewitt said in February 2001 that: "We cannot hide from the fact that the trend of racial crime in Oldham is continuing to rise... Sometimes the motive is robbery, but often it is just violence. The attackers are gangs of Asian youths, aged between eight and 18, who have carried weapons including knives, bricks and sticks."

Initial blame for the June 2001 Oldham riots was placed on white racists who had been campaigning politically in local elections. These may have exacerbated the tension, but most of the damage was caused by 500 young Muslim males who ran amok in the town center. A BBC radio report earlier in the year had mentioned "supposed no-go areas" in the town. A local newspaper editor blamed the BBC statement, saying: "The national coverage of that has attracted some extreme elements that we really don't want here. They have decided they can make some political capital." Immediately before the riots started, newspapers reported threats and attacks by Asian (Muslim) gangs upon white residents in Oldham.

Similar situations led to rioting in the nearby town of Burnley in July 2001, where conflict between white and "Asian" gangs led to mass rioting and destruction. Police were subjected to firebomb attacks by Asian youths.

The city of Bradford also blew up with inter-ethnic violence in July 2001, where gangs of "Asian" Muslims smashed shops and businesses and threw firebombs, causing $40 million of damage. After the rioting ended, hostilities from continued. In November 2001 a gang of 60 Muslim youths tried to burn down a Bradford church and hurled stones and racial abuse at the priest.

A government-sponsored report on the riots in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford was published at the end of 2001. This concluded that the riots had been the result of segregation of communities. It also called for an "open, honest" debate on multiculturalism. It stated of the Oldham riots: "Segregation, albeit self-segregation, is an unacceptable basis for a harmonious community and it will lead to more serious problems if it is not tackled."

In Keighley in West Yorkshire in July 2002 the Member of Parliament, Ann Cryer, was condemned by Muslim groups. She had suggested in a radio interview that drug links between Pakistanis and Asians in Britain were fueling crime. She said: "It is all drug and gang related, all about who is selling drugs in which territory." One leading Muslim agreed with her. Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui said: "These issues have been known for a long time. Drug culture and gang warfare are seeping through the entire community in Britain."

Ethnic violence at that time was not confined to conflict between Muslim and white youths. Sikhs and Muslims, though classed together by British media as "Asians" have been engaged in gang warfare since the 1990s. In Slough, west of London in 1997, fighting flared up between a Sikh gang called Shere-e-Punjab (the Lions of Punjab) and Muslims from Chalvey, a suburb of Slough called the Chalvey Boys.

Shere-e-Punjab had been formed in Handsworth, Birmingham, in the 1980s, and has grown to include parts of London, Slough and Derby. When the Slough violence erupted in 1997, with reports of Sikhs terrorizing Muslims in their homes (and Chalvey Boys responding by attacking Sikh homes, stores and cars), a group was set up in the town called Aik Saath. This group lasted for eight years and acted as an intermediary between Sikh and Muslim gang members.

After 9/11, tensions between Sikh and Muslim youths returned, with much of the conflict centered around schools. On May 16, 2006 violence occurred between students of two schools in Burnham in Slough, in which one student was stabbed. A year earlier, one of these schools, Burnham Grammar School, had given a Sikh student permission to carry a ceremonial knife (kirpan) in class.

In Derby, violence between gangs of Sikh and Muslim school students took on surreal proportions. In October 2001, an argument over the events of 9/11 led to a gang of youths, apparently Muslims, breaking into Derby Moor Community School. A girl from the school had allegedly argued with Muslim girls over the American Al Qaeda attacks, and one Muslim girl had her headscarf ripped. The gang who invaded the school she attended carried axes and hammers. After smashing windows, the gang attacked students and the teachers who tried to intervene. Five children were taken to hospital. One of these, a 15-year old Sikh girl who was thought to have been involved in the earlier argument, received spinal injuries and a fractured skull. After the attack, a Muslim gang paraded outside the school, chanting "Osama bin Laden".

Tensions between Muslims and Sikhs had been exacerbated by distribution of a letter which urged Muslims to get Sikh girls drunk and convert them to Islam. The letter came from a group calling itself "Real Khilafa", which appears to have been a front group of Al Muhajiroun.

A fortnight after the school attack, a 22-year old Sikh male was ambushed by a gang of Muslims in Derby. The assailants carried hammers and crowbars. Harjit Singh Sandhu received a broken leg and cuts to his head and face. Sandhu's friend said that the injured young man had run into Muslim shops for help but received none. Previously, Muslims had tried to run Mr Sandhu down in a car which drove onto the sidewalk. A Muslim gang called the Youth Muslims Organization continued to patrol Derby's streets calling out Osama bin Laden's name.

The lessons of the Cantle report into the 2001 riots have not been learned, and communities are now even more segregated in Britain. In 2003, the Telegraph newspaper reported that Pakistani gangs in Walsall in the Midlands were threatening and assaulting young black people. The police were said to be indifferent to the attacks. Black community leader Moses Whyte called it a "secret war" and warned that "If nothing is done there will be a race riot and things will get very nasty." He said: "In the Seventies we used to help protect the Asians from what was called Paki-bashing by white skinheads. Now their children are the ones doing the bashing and they are targeting our children, young blacks. It's madness."

Eight months later Darcus Howe, a black writer and veteran racial equality campaigner, experienced Walsall's Muslim gangs at first hand. Trinidadian-born Howe produced a documentary for Channel 4 TV entitled "Who you callin' a nigger?", which was aired in August 2004. This documentary explored the fractured communities in Britain's ghettoes. In Walsall, Darcus Howe was threatened with violence by Pakistani gang members. He also highlighted how gangs of Somali youths in Plumstead and Woolwich in south London were engaging in racial violence against blacks of African/West Indies origin. Howe declared that inter-racial tensions in Britain were at their worst point in 50 years.

A Somali "community worker" physically attacked the TV crew after they had filmed Somali youths without his "permission". A 16-year old youth of West Indian origin described how he had been attending an anti-racism concert in Greenwich when he was physically attacked by a Somali gang, suffering skull injuries. He said: "When I talk about them it makes me want to be sick. I think they are vermin. They are not a civilized people. They are black but a different kind of black To me they are like dirt. We have to clean up the dirt. I can remember one punching me, I can remember a brick hitting my head. I could see blood but I didn't know where from. I felt my head. I went down, and I went unconscious. I ended up in an ambulance." Another black youth claimed: "I had a Somali woman call me a nigger. You say to yourself, 'Well you are not white. You're black; you come from Africa'."

The problems of Somalis not integrating into British society were highlighted in November 2006, when it was discovered that Somalis in southeast London were holding their own "sharia courts" called "gars". A 29-year old community worker who convened one of these courts justified it by saying: "Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It's not Islamic, it's not religious - it's just a cultural thing."

Gangs of all ethnic groups trade in illegal drugs. The situation has not been helped by the government allowing Somalis to legally import and sell the stimulant khat (Catha edulis) a narcotic plant which contains the drugs cathine and cathinone. Khat has been linked with mental disorders and can invoke hallucinations and violence. In January last year, a Somali man in north London was jailed for murdering his wife while high on khat. He said he had no memory of the incident.

Inter-ethnic gang conflict came to a head on October 22, 2005, when rioting broke out in Birmingham, described in the media as a "race riot". The violence was between Asian Muslims and black residents of Lozells district. Earlier, an illegal radio station had reported that a 14-year old girl from Jamaica had been raped by 19 men from an "Asian" gang. The radio report had claimed that the girl was an illegal immigrant whose fear of deportation prevented her from going to the police.

The rape claim had no basis in fact, and was an "urban myth" that had grave consequences. Attempts to mediate between the two communities were taking place in a church, when Asian youths began to throw stones at people attending the conciliation. The violence erupted after this, leading to cars being attacked. On October 23, while gangs of Muslim youths and black youths warned of further confrontation, a young black man was killed in the Lozells area.

The man who was killed was Isaiah Young-Sam, aged 23, who was stabbed through the heart. His friend Locksley Byfield was stabbed in his buttocks. They had been in a group of four black people who were trying to avoid the rioting. A gang of hooded Muslims in a car had pursued them. The killers had tried to flee to Pakistan, which has no extradition treaty with Britain. At Dubai the killers were taken from their flight and sent to Britain. On May 22, 2006, Waqar Ahmed (26), Azhil Khan (23) and Afzal Khan (22) were unanimously convicted of murder by a jury. Their victim worked in computer information technology and was a Christian, with no involvement with gang activity.

Multiculturalism

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's comments about the potential emergence of "no-go areas" for non-Muslims were denied by individuals such as Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain, who said: "It's irresponsible for a man of his position to make these comments. He should accept that Britain is a multicultural society in which we are free to follow our religion at the same time as being extremely proud to be British. We wouldn't allow 'no-go' areas to happen. I smell extreme intolerance when people criticise multiculturalism without proper evidence of what has gone wrong."

David Davis, the Tory shadow Home Secretary, said: "The Government's confused and counter-productive approach risks creating a number of closed societies instead of one open, cohesive one. It generates the risk of encouraging radicalisation and creating home-grown terrorism."

Evidence of the failures of multiculturalism was recognized by the Cantle report into the 2001 riots, but Britain's Labour government and biased media preferred to argue that multiculturalism was beneficial. Segregation of communities is not healthy, but multiculturalism encourages separation, rather than integration. Instead of encouraging integration of existing ethnic groups, the government has allowed uncontrolled immigration. There is no time allowed for a community to assimilate each new wave of immigrants from one culture before another wave of immigrants from yet another culture arrives. The result, apart from the obvious ghettoes, is resentment and distrust between ethnic groups. The 2001 Cantle report suggested that government-funded regeneration schemes should be managed differently as they forced groups to "compete against each other".

In September 2005 Trevor Phillips, the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, warned that Britain was "sleepwalking into segregation". Though he did not specifically mention "no-go areas", he did speak of "walls going up" around some ethnic communities. particularly those of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage.

He said then: ""As a country, we are not talking across the ethnic, religious and colour lines. There is more residential segregation, we are reaching US levels. We are not making friends across the color line. When we leave work, we leave multi-ethnic Britain behind. We are going in the wrong direction. Our worry is that this is fertile breeding ground for extremists."

The Muslim communities of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin have done little to foster integration. The common custom of arranging marriages with people from their home countries actively discourages integration with other communities. In September 2005, the Sunday Times claimed: "It is estimated that 60% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi marriages in Bradford in 2001 involved a spouse from the subcontinent. Almost a third of all children born in Bradford now have foreign mothers. In the London borough of Tower Hamlets the figure is 68%."

The more that families try to control their children's future marriages, there is a danger that their male offspring will rebel, turning to drugs, gangs or extremism. When Mohammed Sidique Khan refused to abide by his parents' choice of arranged marriage partner, he was excommunicated from his family. In his isolation, he turned to extremism. This led to him commanding the four-man cell that carried out the London bombings of July 7, 2005, killing 52 innocent people. Groups such as Al Muhajiroun and its successors exploited young Muslim males who had become alienated from their families. Many recruits had been former heroin addicts.

Arranged marriages, as well as causing a rise in congenital illness due to generations of cousin marriage, can easily become forced marriages. When these fail, they can lead to honor killings. In June 2006 the British government abandoned its plans to outlaw forced marriage, even though each year at least 200 British Muslim girls are taken abroad, mostly to Pakistan, to be married against their will. The government had been pressured by the Muslim Council of Britain. Shortly after this, the chairman of the MCB, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said that he not only approved of arranged marriages, but believed that all people in Britain should adopt them.

Young Muslims who are drawn to gang culture often do so from a desire to "belong" to a community. In the 1980s, Muslim gangs, such as the Birmingham-based Aston Panthers, Lynx, Afghan Warriors and Redheads, were formed to protect their communities from attacks by white racists. Those conditions no longer exist. Though the above-named gangs have disappeared, they have been supplanted by gangs with no "raison d'etre" other than to kick up a storm on the streets, and to relish in a form of power denied them both at home and in the society at large.

The media and government have avoided objective discussion of the root causes of Britain's patchwork of gang communities, fearful of encouraging racism. Such approaches obscure the real intolerance that has created genuine "no-go areas" in some British cities. Until the problem can be addressed, as the 2001 Cantle report stated, in "open, honest debate", it will worsen. Already record numbers of young people have died from gang crime across Britain. In some instances, Pakistani and Bangladeshi gangs have carried out serious assaults and even racially-motivated killings. I will discuss these tomorrow, in part three.

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 15, 2008 7:54 AM

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