The biggest threat to US security emanates not from Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather from Great Britain, AmericaÂ’s closest ally because of Pakistan-oriented young Islamists in that country, according to two noted terrorism experts. Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank write in the current issue of New Republic that for terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda, which has reconstituted itself in Pakistan, ethnic Pakistanis living in the United Kingdom make perfect recruits, since they speak English and can travel on British passports. There is anecdotal evidence for the influence of Muslim extremism on British Pakistani communities. The two authors found strong jihadi sentiments at a fitness centre in East London, frequented by Muslims, five of whose regulars are included among those arrested this month in England and Pakistan on terrorism charges. The authors point out that many of BritainÂ’s young Pakistanis are filled with contempt both for the moderation of their parents and for a British society that wonÂ’t quite accept them. For many, this leaves a vacuum in their identities that radical Islamist preachers have been all too glad to fill. Young British Pakistanis are also unemployed and thus especially vulnerable to the temptations of radicalism.
Bergen and Cruickshank write that it is primarily in Pakistan - not the United Kingdom - where British citizens are being recruited into Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. About 400,000 British Pakistanis per year travel back to their homeland, where a small percentage embark on learning the skills necessary to become effective terrorists. According to a government report released this year, British officials believe that the lead perpetrators of the 2005 attacks in London - Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - met Al Qaeda members in Pakistan. Several individuals allegedly involved in a 2004 plot to explode a fertiliser bomb in Great Britain also spent significant time in Pakistan. In April 2003, Omar Khan Sharif, whose family immigrated to Great Britain from Kashmir, attempted to carry out a suicide attack in a bar in Tel Aviv after visiting Pakistan.
The two authors believe that what motivates many of these young men is Kashmir since a disproportionate number of Pakistanis living in Great Britain trace their lineage back to Kashmir. For the small number of British Pakistanis who want terrorist training, the facilities of Kashmiri militant groups have become an obvious first choice - as well as a gateway to Al Qaeda itself. Al QaedaÂ’s ties with Kashmiri militant groups date to the Afghan war against the Soviets, when bin LadenÂ’s forces fought alongside Pakistani groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Since September 11, the relationship between Al Qaeda and Kashmiri groups has only deepened.
Bergen and Cruickshank believe that the danger to the United States of the nexus between British Pakistanis, Al Qaeda and Kashmir is becoming clear. One of the alleged ringleaders of the plot to blow up transatlantic flights is Rashid Rauf, a Pakistan-born British citizen whose family immigrated to Great Britain from Kashmir. This should raise two concerns for American officials. The first is that American Pakistanis could pose a similar threat. They add, “Yet it seems unlikely that radicalism in the American Pakistani community could pose as large a threat as radicalism in the British Pakistani community. American Muslims are, on average, more politically moderate than their British counterparts.”
The two authors maintain that of more concern is the likelihood that British Pakistanis will continue to target Americans - both in the United States and abroad. To address this problem, the Bush administration should encourage the British government to monitor more closely the activities of UK-based extremist groups. Simply banning these organisations is not enough. In addition, Great Britain must step up efforts to identify its own citizens who attend Kashmiri or Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan. The British government will need help from moderate Muslims, some of whom are waking up to the threat posed by the radicals in their midst. According to London imam Ghulam Rabbani, “These people are ill. I say very categorically and very clearly that they are misguided and they don’t know the basics of Islam.”