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MUMBAI: London has become a target by its? home-grown Islamic extremists whose messages of violence and death have divided the Muslim communities in the United Kingdom.CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour investigates the cultural conflicts within the country?s Muslim communities and why the radical minority is creating such division among Muslims in ?The War Within? airing Saturday, January 20.
This hour-long documentary explores how the London commuter attacks of July 7, 2005 and the foiled airline terrorism plot in August 2006 have forced a spotlight on the growing tensions among the Islamic community of all ages.
?Christiane examines the complex issues that are starting to tear apart the large British Muslim community?, said CNN International senior vice president Rena Golden. ?The simmering tension, angst and disillusionment in the faces and words of those she interviews underlines the difficulties now faced by many countries around the world.?
Some Muslims in the UK assert that home-grown extremists have "hijacked" their religion, distorted its tenets and spread fear and misunderstanding in the name of Islam. Hanif Kadar, a youth worker in the London suburb of Walthamstow, says that foreign policy is the leading cause that is bringing in young Muslims into the extremists? circles.
?It?s the minority radical groups that use [foreign policy] to get to our young people,? Kadar said. ?There?s a minority in the schools that believe?blowing people up is cool.? Amanpour also talks to Anjem Choudary and Omar Brooks, both well-known Islamic extremists in Britain whose ideologies drastically differ from those of mainstream Muslims.
Choudary pushes for Shari?a, or Islamic law, to be enforced in Britain: ?All of the world belongs to Allah and we will live according to the Shari?a wherever we are.? Brooks, a self-appointed cleric?, says the Quran sanctions violence: ?We are the Muslims. We can drink the blood of the enemy and we can face them anywhere - that is Islam and that is jihad. ?But there are those in the community who hold views that strongly oppose those of Choudary and Brooks.
Imam Usama Hasan, an Islamic scholar who memorized the Quran by age 11, rejects their radical ideologies and says they skew the teachings of Islam to support their ?wrong intentions.? ?The people who do this kind of action and who support it are a very small minority," Hasan said. "But it only takes a handful, of course, to create devastation."Amanpour also interviews Shahid Malik, one of only four Muslim members of the British Parliament. Malik acknowledges that even moderate Muslims feel more alienated by fear and suspicion since the terrorist attacks in 2005.
?I think the Muslim community does feel under siege?there?s a degree of polarization that?s taken place in our communities.?
