7/7 suicide bombers force soul-searching in British town

Picture taken on July 8, 2005 of the number 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square, which was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. Peter Macdiarmid/PA

DEWSBURY, UNITED KINGDOM // Ten years after the ringleader of the London bombings set out from his Dewsbury home to blow up a train, the small English town is again grasping for answers after a local teen-turned-suicide bomber staged a deadly attack in Iraq.

As Britain marks the anniversary on Tuesday of the attacks which killed 52 people, many in Dewsbury’s tight-knit Muslim community blame the internet for radicalisation, and eye government anti-extremism projects with suspicion.

A recent speech by prime minister David Cameron in which he accused some British Muslims of “quietly condoning” extremist actions has sparked outrage in the town.

“What Cameron said has angered people,” said Madiha Ansari, a local resident who has set up a literature club for vulnerable youths.

“It’s like asking middle-aged white males to apologise for paedophilia,” interrupted her younger brother Bilal.

Dewsbury’s problems are a microcosm of those faced across the country, said Ms Ansari, with cities from Portsmouth to Coventry asking how hundreds of their citizens ended up dying on foreign militant battlefields.

Despite a decade of soul-searching over how local man Mohammad Sidique Khan became the leader of a foursome of suicide bombers that attacked London on July 7, 2005, the town seems no closer to agreeing on how to combat homegrown extremism.

The debate has intensified in recent days following reports that a 17-year-old from Dewsbury, Talha Asmal, had become Britain’s youngest suicide bomber, killing 11 people near an Iraqi oil works.

His neighbourhood friend Hassan Munshi is still believed to be fighting alongside ISIL militants.

Some point the finger at local mosques, with Dewsbury’s Zakaria mosque, where both Munshi and Asmal worshipped, coming under the microscope.

The mosque sits modestly among the terraced houses of Savile Town, the epicentre of Dewsbury’s 20,000-strong Muslim population.

Around the corner is the huge Markazi mosque, where Khan worshipped.

Between 97 and 99 per cent of Savile Town’s residents are Muslim, most of them descended from Indian and Pakistani immigrants.

Despite teaching conservative strains of Islam, locals strongly deny the mosques are to blame.

“The mosques have never preached about hatred. They are places of peace where people go to pray and that’s it,” said worshipper Rizwan Essat.

Law student Adam Zaman added: “There are bad crowds in terms of violence, drugs.

“But bad crowds, in terms of recruiting and extremist views, it’s just not like that.”

Home secretary Theresa May recently asked parents to report “radicalised” children to police, and new laws now force schools to tackle the problem.

But many warn such actions risk further polarising communities and fostering an air of permanent suspicion.

The town has no shortage of success stories either, having produced Conservative lawmaker Sayeeda Warsi, numerous entrepreneurs, cricketers and rugby superstar Sam Burgess.

“Although you have the fundamentalist side here, you also have a lot of people who work hard and want their kids to achieve,” said Ms Warsi said during a drive around Savile town.

As she turned a corner, she pointed to a red-brick home.

It was from here that Khan set off on the morning of July 7 to detonate a bomb on an underground train, killing six people.

* Agence France-Presse