‘So long as we are in Iraq, we will continue to be in real danger’

MUSLIM leaders yesterday called on the British Government to acknowledge the role played by the war in Iraq in the radicalisation of some of its youth.

The Muslim Council of Britain said it was an important factor which contributed to a sense of disenchantment among some youngsters.

Inayat Bunglawala said the government must not ignore the part played by the ongoing conflict.

He said: “There is no doubt that Iraq is an important factor in the disenchantment we have seen among some Muslim youths. There are also other factors to do with unemployment, under-achievement in education, religious discrimination - a feeling that their faith is being demonised continuously. It’s about time the government acknowledged that the government must not completely ignore the Iraq factor.”

Mr Bunglawala also called for an inquiry into the motives of the July 7 bombers in a bid to better understand what led four British Muslims to commit such acts.

Mr Bunglawala’s comments came after senior Muslims participating in a televised debate in Birmingham earlier yesterday agreed the only way to stop the attacks was to withdraw British troops from Iraq.

Speaking after the event, Dr Azzam Tamimi, from the Muslim Association of Britain, said the threat to Britain would continue so long as its forces remained in Iraq.

He said: “7/7, 21/7, and God knows what will happen afterwards, our lives are in real danger and it would seem, so long as we are in Iraq and so long as we are contributing to injustices around the world, we will continue to be in real danger. Tony Blair has to come out of his state of denial and listen to what the experts have been saying, that our involvement in Iraq is stupid.”

Shahid Butt, marketing manager for The Muslim Weekly newspaper, said he believed the threat to Britain would reduce if it pulled its troops out of Iraq. “At the end of the day, these things [violent incidents] are going to happen if current British foreign policy continues. There’s a lot of rage, there’s a lot of anger in the Muslim community,” he said.

“I believe if Tony Blair and George Bush left Iraq and stopped propping up dictatorial regimes in the Muslim world, the threat rate to Britain would come down to nearly zero.”