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ISIS THREAT
In wake of James Foley's murder, does Britain have a jihadi problem?
August 27, 2014 -- Updated 1945 GMT (0345 HKT)
New clues in James Foley execution video
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Masked man in video of James Foley's murder had London accent
- UK officials say roughly 500 people linked to Britain have joined ranks of ISIS
- Radical British cleric Anjem Choudary says Islamic caliphate will spread to Europe, U.S.
- Chairman of south London mosque says Britons fighting for ISIS don't understand Islam
Moments later, the U.S.
journalist was beheaded by ISIS militants, and the grisly video of
Foley's murder was beamed around the world on YouTube. The masked man's
London accent is hard to miss -- and it has ignited a debate about
whether Britain, America's closest ally, is now one of the West's
biggest incubators of Islamic extremism.
About 500 people linked
to Britain have joined the ranks of ISIS -- the militant group that has
declared an Islamic state in Syria and Iraq -- in the past several
years, according to the UK's Home Office. Roughly half have now returned
to Britain, prompting fears that these radicalized recruits are
preparing to wage jihad against targets in the West.
Does Britain have a
jihadi problem? According to CNN calculations -- based on government
estimates of the number of people who have traveled from their country
to Syria, and Pew Forum estimates of the number of Muslims in each
country -- Britain has roughly the same proportion of ISIS recruits as
France, and a much lower proportion than Australia, Belgium and a number
of northern European countries.
But there is a deep
concern amongst experts that Muslim extremism is a growing threat in the
UK -- and as CNN's reporting reveals, there are a number of British
extremists who believe ISIS' Islamic caliphate will spread across the
world.
Who are ISIS' British recruits?
The video of Foley's
killing wasn't just a message to America -- it was also a recruitment
video for young men like Abu Bakr and Abu Anwar, foreign fighters inside
Syria.
Abu Anwar is from
Britain. He said he would be "more than honored" to take part in a
similar act against ISIS' opponents. "I hope that Allah gives me a
chance to do to James Foley to another enemy," he told CNN. "My hands
are ready to commit to this blessed act."
Is there a profile for
young militants like Abu Anwar? Experts paint a diverse picture of
British Muslim extremists. Most are single men under the age of 30, but a
significant number are older and married with children. Many are
converts to Islam or are UK-born Muslims from immigrant families. Few
have personal connections to known extremist figures -- and many are
deepening their extremist ideology online. Some have links to gangs, but
many are well-educated and middle-class.
The last time CNN spoke
to Abu Bakar, he insisted he wouldn't return home, but that has now
changed. Bakar appears willing to bring his jihad to British soil. "I am
ready to take that step to come back if your armies, your countries
don't stop attacking us," he said.
How are ISIS' British recruits being tracked?
Hundreds of British
jihadis in Syria are boasting about their battlefield exploits on social
media. Those accounts have been pored over by analysts at King's
College in London, who are now tracking more than 450 alleged militants
online.
"What's really useful
about this is that you can get a sense of what weapons they're using,
what they're equipped with," said Joseph Carter from the International
Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. "Before, in a conflict, you
would have to have intelligence you gleaned on the ground, and now you
can see that stuff on Twitter."
But despite trawling
through hundreds of photos and videos online, none of the jihadis the
Centre has been profiling matches the man with the British accent in the
video of James Foley's killing.
Even if he is found, he
is still far from the reach of the British government, with no guarantee
that Foley's executioner will ever face justice.
Is there support for ISIS in London?
When the world first
heard the London-accented voice of the militant in the James Foley
video, it spoke of Britain's long past of Islamic extremism.
This week, in a basement
cafe in east London, the supporters of radical British cleric Anjem
Choudary told CNN that the so-called Islamic State is not a terror
haven, but a utopia to welcome.
None of the men
explicitly condemned Foley's murder. One, a bearded man called
Zakariyah, said that although he didn't condone the act, "if you attack
someone, you should expect to be fought against" -- an apparent
reference to ongoing U.S. airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq.
Another man, who
referred to Britain as "a police state," said he would be happy to move
to Syria and live under the Sharia law espoused by ISIS militants. He
told CNN: "If the government would be willing to give me safe passage
and not arrest me at the airport, and not raid my home ... and arrest
all my family and relatives, just because they suspect I'm going there
for something that they don't like -- what's wrong with going there to
live under Islam?"
Choudary -- a controversial preacher whose al-Muhajiroun organization once praised the 9/11 hijackers as "the Magnificent 19," according to Reuters -- told CNN that the world had been split into two camps.
"[There's a] camp which
believes that sovereignty and supremacy belongs to God. They are the
Islamic State, at the head of which is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," Choudary
said. "In the other camp you have those people who believe sovereignty
and supremacy belongs to man. At the head of that camp is Barack Obama."
"I believe this Islamic State will spread, rapidly, and I believe it will be in Europe and even America within decades."
What can be done to tackle radical Muslim ideology in Britain?
In a south London mosque
so full of worshipers that people are praying in the streets, the
devout listen to a message of peace and piety.
Tariq Abbasi, the
chairman of the Woolwich mosque, says that the Britons going to fight
for ISIS in Syria do not represent his faith. "It's nothing to do with
religion," Abbasi told CNN. "They don't have knowledge of the teachings
of Islam."
Last year, around the
corner from the mosque, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale hacked
British soldier Lee Rigby to death in the street. They claimed the
killing was to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world at the
hands of the British army.
Abbasi said he knows how
to fight extremism. In 2005 a London court granted him injunctions to
stop radical preachers from teaching the mosque's children. He told CNN:
"We said, 'Excuse me, you're no longer going to preach and teach our
kids' ... but I think damage was already done."
"We have to be vigilant and very careful as to what is being taught here and who is teaching it."
The Pew Research Center
predicted that Britain's Muslim population would grow fivefold between
1990 and 2030. As that population expands, and twisted ideologies
continues to spread, people in Woolwich say they will need to be
relentlessly focused to protect their children.
This story is based on reporting from CNN's
Atika Shubert, Nick Paton Walsh, Erin McLaughlin and Richard Greene. It
was written by Nick Thompson in London.
COPY http://edition.cnn.com/
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