Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2007
Source: New Statesman (UK)
Copyright: 2007 New Statesman
Contact:  http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1067
Author: Rageh Omaar
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HOW HEROIN CREATES TERRORISTS

Rageh Omaar reveals how "Sergeant Heroin" has become an important 
recruiting officer for militant groups

Hundreds of young British Asians and Somalis in cities throughout the 
UK have become vulnerable and isolated within their own communities 
as a result of dealing in and using drugs. They form a critical 
recruiting ground for militant organisations.

Heroin's grip on inner city estates used to be described through the 
phrase "King Heroin" - but a much better phrase to describe the role 
the drug has played in helping militant groups reach out to young 
British Muslims is "Sergeant Heroin". It is a real and important 
recruiting officer for militant groups.

I've spent much of the past month exploring the meteoric rise in the 
dealing of hard drugs among young Somali, Pakistani and Bangladeshi 
boys in London - in Hounslow, Woolwich and Tower Hamlets. Most of 
them belong to gangs, but only in the loosest sense of the word. They 
describe themselves as "crews" - often nothing more than a group of 
young boys who have all grown up together, and are tightly knit 
around their families, culture and skin colour.

Brick Lane has changed enormously over the past decade; regeneration 
has transformed it into one of the capital's tourist highlights. 
You're as likely to meet young tourists from Denmark and Holland as 
young Somalis and Bengalis. But step away from the glitz and buzzing 
restaurants of Brick Lane, down any of the side streets that lead to 
the estates three minutes away from the celebrated road, and you find 
some of the most deprived wards in the UK.

Down one such side streets is a small fenced-in five-a-side football 
pitch and patch of green. The area is notorious for the sale and use 
of heroin. At 11pm on a cold Friday, I was taken here by volunteers 
from the Brick Lane Youth Development Association. Muhammad Rabbani 
and his co-workers counsel and mentor hundreds of boys as young as 14 
and 15 who find themselves in a a world of drugs, academic failure, 
racism and much more.

As we walked through the estates behind Brick Lane, Muhammad and his 
colleagues were recognised by respectful young teenagers, both Asian 
and Somali. Irham, 16, and his Somali friend, Abdallah, spoke calmly 
of how dealers offered users a combination called "Black and White" - 
a wrap of heroin (black) along with a wrap of crack (white). Around 
the corner, in one dealing hotspot - completely in the open - were 
older Bengali lads selling the heroin wraps, while users sat around 
smoking the drug. Even here, Muhammad and his colleagues have access 
and sufficient respect to approach dealers and urge them to stop what 
they are doing, offering support to help them do so.

Drugs play an important role in radicalisation. Everyone knows who is 
dealing. It is when these young men have been ostracised or go to 
prison - in other words when they've hit rock bottom - that they are 
ripe for targeting by proselytisers. At first, it is a way out of 
drugs. Families are overjoyed at seeing lads who were once dealing 
drugs going to the mosque, studying in madrasa groups - even asking 
to go to Pakistan or Somalia to study the Koran. It is a far more 
radical version of how the Nation of Islam spread among black 
Americans whose lives were blighted by drugs, poverty, crime and alienation.

When the government speaks of concentrating on combating radicalism 
in cyberspace, they betray how ill-equipped they are to reach out to 
those young men most vulnerable to al-Qaeda's message. Organisations 
such as BLYDA need support. The men in these organisations have 
respect and legitimacy among young British Muslims. Many have gone 
through what these 14- and 15-year-olds are facing and many others 
have gone through radical "first point of contact" organisations such 
as Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Many British Muslims do heroic but utterly unsupported work with 
youngsters to keep them from being disenchanted, hopeless and 
radicalised. I call them the Thin Brown Line. The battle will be lost 
without them.