Looking for Trouble

• Share

There is no dome, no minaret, nothing but a small sign to indicate that this rundown Victorian house in the multiethnic south London neighborhood of Brixton is a mosque. But the fact that would-be shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the alleged 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui both worshiped here during the mid-'90s has brought the Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre an unwelcome notoriety. Along with London's Finsbury Park Mosque and fundamentalist cleric Abu Qatada's prayer meetings near Baker Street, Brixton seemed yet another nexus of Islamic extremism in the capital.

But Brixton may not have been a willing terrorist haven after all. Finsbury Park has long been known for the radical, anti-American stance of its one-eyed, steel-clawed cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, but the Brixton Mosque adherents say that in their strict orthodox teaching, terrorism and suicide bombing are condemned to the point that they earn hostility from extremist factions. And according to Magnus Ranstorp, deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at Scotland's St. Andrews University, the mosques themselves are not the problem anyway. The real threat is from the al-Qaeda talent spotters, trusted men of battle-hardened experience who use the mosques to find fresh terrorist operatives.

Extremist centers like Finsbury Park and radical groups like the British-based Al-Muhajiroun may provide the milieu, Ranstorp says, "but these talent spotters and handlers are the really worrisome parts of al-Qaeda. They can tap into new recruits and dispatch them as well. Unless we get them, we're not making any inroads." Though Britain has some new anti-terrorism laws, there is no sign yet of apprehending or even identifying them.

Richard Reid, the 28-year-old Anglo-Jamaican who on Dec. 22 tried to blow up an American Airlines plane by igniting explosives in his sneakers, was ripe for recruitment. He converted to Islam in 1995 while serving time for petty theft. Unlike Moussaoui, though, he was not a committed hard-liner when he arrived at the Brixton Mosque the following year. Over time the amiable, eager-to-learn Reid become more extremist and argumentative. He was not seen for a while, according to mosque chairman Abdul Haqq Baker, and when he returned he wore military fatigues and talked about jihad. Moussaoui and Reid, who probably met at the Brixton Mosque, both drifted away in l998, Reid to travel to Pakistan, Europe and the Middle East.

The Brixton Mosque is an ideal hunting ground for terrorist talent spotters since it attracts mainly young worshipers, including ex-convicts it helps rehabilitate. A criminal background is a useful indication that the candidate is not afraid to break the law. Recruiters often approach their targets at small, private Islamic study groups that meet outside the mosques. They "probe the psychological makeup of a possible operative," says Ranstorp. "You must display extreme calm in stressful situations."

Reid demonstrated his nerve in July when he flew to Israel and passed El Al's intensive scrutiny, after raising suspicions during security screening. "That was the litmus test of his ability to withstand pressure," says Ranstorp, who surmises Reid's trip involved learning about explosives — or acquiring them — since the type found in his shoes is similar to that used by Palestinian terror groups. His use of such a sophisticated explosive persuaded Ranstorp that Reid did not work alone, as some believe. Although no al-Qaeda links have been proved, a French justice official says: "Even if it's too early for us to prove beyond any doubt that Reid was part of, or in contact with, an al-Qaeda network, every indicator suggests that indeed was the case."

Fortunately Reid is no Mohamed Atta. He failed to cause an explosion and is now awaiting trial in a U.S. jail. But al-Qaeda's talent spotters are certain to have other recruits in place. Last week Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner David Veness warned that the number of British-based Islamic extremists and activists with links to proscribed groups reached three figures. And Hassan Butt, a member of Al-Muhajiroun, warned in a BBC interview from Lahore that British Muslim volunteers in Afghanistan would return to the U.K. to "strike at the heart of the enemy."

Moderate Muslim leaders scoff at Butt as a self-publicist. But Zaki Badawi, principal of London's Muslim College, warns that "the idea that you can cut off the head of al-Qaeda and the body will wither is not going to happen." Ranstorp agrees. Though al-Qaeda's lair in Afghanistan may have been smashed, he says, "The snake has already laid a thousand eggs, which are hatching and slipping off in all directions." Foremost among them Britain.