GENERATION JIHAD

Posted Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005; 10.53BST

	Karim Ben Khelifa for TIME britain British-born Zaheer Khan has turned his back on radicalism

Combine alienation, unemployment, political anger and the power of the Internet, and the result is toxic. In neighborhoods of north and east London, Sajid Sharif, a 37-year-old civil engineer who goes by the name Abu Uzair, once handed out incendiary leaflets for the now dissolved al-Muhajiroun extremist youth movement. In the climate of suspicion engendered by the July 7 attacks, firebrands like Sharif have adopted a lower profile. He has stopped recruiting on the streets and now leads a radical group from his home. His so-called Saviour Sect claims several hundred supporters and seeks to unite all Muslims worldwide under a strict conception of Islamic law. That might seem fanciful — except that Sharif's mentor, al-Muhajiroun founder Omar Bakri Muhammad, was one of the first clerics to lose his right to live in Britain. In August, Bakri was barred from returning from a vacation abroad when Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke declared his presence “not conducive to the public good.” Sharif says he isn't concerned about the threat of eviction because he is British-born, and his lawyer has told him he has little to worry about. “Anyway,” he says calmly, “it is all in the hands of Allah.”

Sharif is bearded, wears a long white gown and quotes nonstop from the Koran and Hadith (a collection of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad). His Pakistani parents are secular Muslims, he says, and still speak little English. In his youth he smoked and went to nightclubs. It was not until he was a university student in London that he embraced Islam. “Since I have come to Islam, I have a lot of tranquility,” he says. Now he tries to steer people away from drugs, drink, crime and smoking. Sharif's supporters refuse to vote in elections because his sect recognizes only Shari'a, not secular law. While he does not openly support terrorism, he says that the July 7 attacks were retaliation for Britain's support of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The majority of Muslims in the U.K. are frustrated, but they cannot speak,” he says. “They will not condone the London bombings, but inside they believe that Britain had it coming.”

Recruiters would tell you that taking out car insurance is against Islamic principles, or voting is forbidden

It's a critical question: how do second-generation European Muslims define themselves? Many say they feel a part neither of the country of their birth, nor of their parents' heritage. That some often live on the dole, unable to find work, only enhances their sense of estrangement. The attitude of Riad, a 32-year-old French citizen who has been unemployed since 2002, is all too common. Sitting in a café in the Lyons suburb of Vénissieux, he says, “They say we are French, and we would like to believe that as well. But do we look like normal French people to you?” His friend Karim, 27, insists they are discriminated against because of their long beards. “Who will give us a job when we look like this? We have to fend for ourselves and find a way out.”

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