LEEDS, England?Fazel, a 19-year-old British-born Muslim who is angry about his "immoral" surroundings, seems ripe for the picking by the recruiters of Islamic extremism. "I would go if they approached me," he says.
"I want to get away from here. I don't have a job. I want to learn everything about Islam," said Fazel, who refused to give his last name during an interview Saturday at a mosque here. His remarks suggested he hoped to find his way to a Muslim country where he could further study the religion and develop his beliefs.
Like three of the four named suspects in the July 7 suicide bombings in London, Fazel was born in Leeds. His parents were from the Pakistan-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir. Three of the four bombers also had Pakistani parents. The fourth alleged attacker was born in Jamaica but converted to Islam while growing up in Luton, north of London.
Islamic radicals inside the British Muslim community who are searching for men to become suicide attackers or foot soldiers in the global jihad are thought to recruit disaffected young men like Fazel, sending them for religious or military training in Islamic countries.
For example, Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old member of the alleged bombing team, reportedly visited two religious schools on a trip to Pakistan.
Fazel's comments came as British officials rejected criticism that lax policies toward Muslim political refugees helped facilitate terror recruiters.
"In terms of asylum, our policy is: If you are in fear of persecution, you are entitled to come here," Charles Falconer, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, said yesterday on BBC television. "Obviously, if you then seek to attack the very state that you come to, that gives rise to different questions."
Despite Fazel's growing contempt for Western mores, he said he disagreed with the London bombings of four Underground trains and a bus because "Islamic scholars said it was wrong." The attackers "should have talked to more educated people."
He denounced, however, Prime Minister Tony Blair's characterization that the bombers were inspired by an "evil ideology."
"The evil programs on TV, the music, the literature, the magazines ... are all responsible for the terrorist attacks. People are becoming rebellious because they are against fornication, gambling, alcohol."
"Until they get rid of Eminem and Marilyn Manson, they can't get rid of our preachers," he said.
Fazel called himself a former kafar (infidel), who once enjoyed drinking with his friends and the company of young women.
Then, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, he read about Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden.
Images of the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsing, he said, fuelled his curiosity about the faith of his ancestors.
"Allah pointed me to him (bin Laden)," said Fazel, dressed in a white shalwar kameez, the traditional loose tunic-and-trouser common to men in South Asia.
The young man denied he was confused about his faith and asserted just as vehemently that he did not "give a damn about the world."
Zahir Birawi, an official at the mosque where Fazel was interviewed, later said he had seen the young man a few times at prayers and assured a reporter Fazel's views were not normal.
He said officials at the mosque would tell police about Fazel if his views did not moderate.
