Inside Dar al Harb

For those who wanted to see it: Muslim Association of Britain Rallies Against Terror - see the photos here.

Caption: British MP George Galloway delivers an address during a vigil held by the Muslim Association of Britain and the Stop the War Coalition, near the scene of where an explosion took place July 7 on a bus in central London, Sunday, July 17, 2005.

Hundreds of Muslims have taken part in marches through London and Blackburn to protest anti-terror legislation.

Saturday's protests were organised by more than 50 Islamic organisations including Stop Political Terror and the Islamic Human Rights Commission.

Dr Adnan Siddiqui, an organiser of the London march, said: "This demonstration sends a clear message against the climate of fear that has been created."

A recent poll commissioned by The Guardian found that 84 percent of Muslims surveyed were against the use of violence for political means, but only 33 percent of Muslims said they wanted more integration into mainstream British culture. Almost half of those surveyed said their Muslim leadership did not represent their views.

The grievances of the boys of Cross Flats Parks have not propelled them toward political action. But Dr. Waheed, a practicing psychiatrist, and Mr. Khan, a documentary filmmaker, are acting on their alienation.

Both men, eloquent, better educated and better off than most in their community, are also among the more politically motivated. They have embraced one of the more conservative, if not militant, Islamic movements in Britain today - Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of Liberation.

The party's stated goal is to rebuild the Caliphate - the Muslim state dissolved with the fall of the Ottoman Empire - to displace corrupt dictators in the Muslim world, and to instill Islamic mores and Islamicize almost every aspect of daily life.

London -- "Everything changed with the 19 magnificent terrorists of 9/11," thunders Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. A raucous rejoinder of "Allah Akbar," or God is great, rings out from the more than 60 men who fill the Collingwood Hall community center on a Saturday night in East London.

The room is so crowded that some of the audience -- mainly young men under 25 -- must sit on the floor while others watch from the hallway.

Long before the deadly July 7 bombings in London, Bakri's detractors warned that behind the lurid sound bites and incendiary language was an extremist whose sermons might be interpreted by his followers as justification for terrorist attacks in Britain.

Bakri, the founder of al-Muhajiroun (the Emigrants), a radical group whose goal is the worldwide domination of Islam, held off his critics by saying that Muslims in Britain lived under a "covenant of security" that prevented them from bringing any harm to the nation that sheltered them. But in his Collingwood speech, he said the government had flouted the contract, and all bets were off.

"The British government is sitting on a box of dynamite, and they have the matches," he warned.

Though none of the suicide bombers has been linked to Bakri, his message of Islamic supremacy has reportedly inspired hundreds of young Britons to become holy warriors. In addition to London, he has preached in Leeds, where most of the London bombers lived, and in Luton, where police found a parked car carrying high explosives that they suspect was used by the bombmaker.

Under pressure from the government, Bakri dissolved al-Muhajiroun last October, but he continues to preach in community centers and parks. In the past year, his furor has been turned on the British government.

In an interview, Bakri listed three developments he said breached the "covenant of security" with Britain: First, new laws, such as the Terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001, allowed the government to arrest individuals suspected of terrorist activities without charging them.

The second was a communiqu頤istributed last year by the Muslim Council of Britain to more than 1,000 mosques that urged imams to help the government combat terrorism. "Mosques are no longer houses of sanctity because imams are obliged to report anyone who comes to speak about jihad and supporting (Osama) bin Laden," Bakri said.

?It?s as if a very high, impenetrable wall separated you from Paradise or Hell,? he said. ?Allah has promised one or the other to his creatures. So, by pressing the detonator, you can immediately open the door to Paradise ? it is the shortest path to Heaven.?

MUNICH, Germany -- North of this prosperous city of engineers and auto makers is an elegant mosque with a slender minaret and a turquoise dome. A stand of pines shields it from a busy street. In a country of more than three million Muslims, it looks unremarkable, another place of prayer for Europe's fastest-growing religion.

The mosque's history, however, tells a more-tumultuous story. Buried in government and private archives are hundreds of documents that trace the battle to control the Islamic Center of Munich. Never before made public, the material shows how radical Islam established one of its first and most important beachheads in the West when a group of ex-Nazi soldiers decided to build a mosque.

The soldiers' presence in Munich was part of a nearly forgotten subplot to World War II: the decision by tens of thousands of Muslims in the Soviet Red Army to switch sides and fight for Hitler. After the war, thousands sought refuge in West Germany, building one of the largest Muslim communities in 1950s Europe.

Recall that fellow Muslims are often the victims of Islamic extremist groups.