There are growing signs that radical Islamist groups are turning to British street gangs for at least some new recruits, according to a senior police officer and youth workers.
Such gangs can produce fearless, team-oriented young men whom radicals can hook with the promise of redemption from their crimes, according to several youth workers, including an ex-gang member, interviewed by AFP.
Most at risk are British Muslim gang members of south Asian origin - Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani - though there were signs that street criminals of African and Caribbean backgrounds are also targets of extremist recruiters, they said.
Rob Beckley, a leading member of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), said: "We are aware of criminal gangs identifying themselves by reference to Islam.
"However, current information suggests that the adoption of faith as an identifying marker is an indication of convenience rather than adherence to the faith," he added in a statement.
"We are also aware of some individuals who have been recruited to gangs becoming radicalised," he added, while warning that the information was not verified. One man especially anxious about recruitment trends is Hanif Qadir, who runs the Active Change Foundation in Walthamstow, East London, as part of a personal mission to keep young Muslims off the streets and extremists at bay.
"In my experience, gang members are approached by radical individuals," said Qadir, estimating that such incidents happened at least "seven or eight times" this year.
Qadir said he understands the problem because he once rode a roller coaster of rage himself. As a British Muslim of Pakistani origin, he suffered the alienation, aimlessness and sense of lost identity that led him to first join a street gang in the 1980s.
"There are only certain people who join gangs. You want to prove something: 'yes. I'm the baddest guy around.' You carry that inside you until a certain age," said Qadir, his face scarred from a gang swordfight in 1988.
Recruiters know this, he said. "They're going to approach them because they have get up and go," said Qadir, adding that he came close to joining the fight against US-led forces in Afghanistan after a suspected Taliban recruiter approached him five years ago.
"I wanted to fight the cause," he said. However, the turning point soon came: after returning to England, a pious relative persuaded him that, as a Briton, the war in Afghanistan was not his conflict and that Islam also opposed the killing of civilians, even in wartime. The best way for a British Muslim to fight injustice is through the democratic process, he learned.
He has used his relative's arguments to save a member of an Asian gang who was "brainwashed" in the wake of the July 7, 2005 bombings that killed 56 people in London, including the four bombers. "He was a born-again Muslim. He used to sell illegal things. He wanted to die for his religion," Qadir said, adding that the Islamist group snared him with propaganda about allied brutality in Iraq.
The young man, whom Qadir would not identify, is now married with a child and a job. Uanu Seshmi, co-founder of the Boyhood to Manhood Foundation that works with street kids, said he has no first-hand knowledge of radical groups recruiting from among African and Caribbean gangs in London.
But he said his wider contacts in the community report that it is happening. "You have fundamentalist groups whether in Paddington or Whitechapel whatever they do target black young people," Seshmi said. "I know it is a particular street creed thing that has become increasingly popular for some type of young people," Seshmi said.
Radical groups are luring south Asian, African and Caribbean street kids alike through pamphlets, websites and hip hop lyrics glorifying Osama bin Laden and urging them to fight injustice against Muslims, he said. "Bin Laden is like Bruce Lee" to street gangs, black or Asian, he said.
Several security experts including former Metropolitan Police commissioner Roy Ramm and independent analyst Paul Beaver said they believed current or former gang members would be prized by extremists. Qadir added that recruiters approach potential recruits in their own street language while appealing to their sense of justice and adventure.
For example, they will invite street toughs to a camp in the country for rigorous activities, including catching animals for slaughter the halal way. These events will allow recruiters to spot the most gung-ho among the group.
They will also persuade them to hand over the proceeds from the stolen goods as "spoils of war" for the extremist group and tell them their crimes will be washed away on the day of judgement, Qadir said.
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