UK 'fertile ground for extremism'

Foreign law enforcement agencies have repeatedly claimed that Britain provides a fertile breeding ground for Muslim extremists.

The allegation that the suicide bomber who caused carnage in Tel Aviv and his accomplice were travelling on United Kingdom passports will increase the pressure on the security services to redouble their efforts to penetrate radical groups in this country.

After the 11 September attacks, MI5 and Scotland Yard focused on Muslim terrorism, concentrating on Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida terrorist network. The first person to be charged over the 11 September attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui, who is alleged to have been the 20th hijacker, is said to have belonged to an al-Qa'ida cell in south London.

British-born Richard Reid was jailed for life in January. Passengers on an aircraft flying from Paris to Miami had overpowered him as he tried to ignite explosives in his shoe in December 2001.

Last month, two British men were jailed for 11 years for plotting to raise funds and recruit members for al-Qa'ida.

Brahim Benmerzouga, 31, and Baghdad Meziane, 38, illegal immigrants from Algeria, made thousands of pounds through an elaborate credit card fraud. They also supplied military equipment, false travel documents and recruitment material to the organisation.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, from Wanstead, east London, masterminded the kidnap and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in January 2002. A Muslim cleric, Abdullah el-Faisal, who preached in east London, was jailed for nine years in March for delivering sermons in which he urged worshippers to kill all non-believers with chemical and nuclear weapons.

The Government has begun moves to strip Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric who has praised Bin Laden and preached a holy war against the West, of his citizenship.

He preached regularly at the Finsbury Park mosque, north London, until he was suspended by the Charity Commission in April 2002. Seven men were arrested after 150 police officers raided the mosque in January. The move was linked to investigations into a "factory" producing the highly toxic substance ricin, in Wood Green, north London.

The FBI has described the mosque as a recruiting ground for young Muslims who made their way to al-Qa'ida training camps in Afghanistan.

The support among sections of the Muslim community for Bin Laden's cause was underlined by the numbers who headed for Afghanistan 18 months ago to try to repel American-led forces.

Nine Britons have been held for more than a year at the Camp X-Ray naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being taken prisoner during military action in Afghanistan.

They include three men from Tipton in the West Midlands. Shafiq Rasul, 24, a former law student from a Muslim family, Asif Iqbal, a factory worker from a Pakistani family, and student Ruhal Ahmed, both 20.