(CBS) Written for CBSNews.com by London field producer Steve Berriman.

---

The terror raids in Birmingham Wednesday have prompted much anger among the area’s Asian community. But they have also made local mosque leaders question the source of the rise in Islamic fundamentalism among Britain’s young Muslims.

Shabir Hussain, the imam of a mosque near one of the homes stormed by anti-terror police, believes that the dangerous ideology of radical Islam is coming not from a small number of imams sowing anti-western sentiment at secret meetings, but from the Internet.

"The children are not learning from the mosques, not learning from the parents,” he said. “Young kids, they see the news and see the Internet. They think, ‘something's happening in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Palestine, in Kashmir, and Muslims are oppressed everywhere and some injustice is happening in the world.’”

The personal — and some might say secretive — nature of Internet use could be creating a sense of paranoia that is being felt inside the homes of British Muslims.

"Something is happening in the house,” Mr Hussain said. “Father is looking at son, 'What are you looking at on the Internet? What are you watching on the TV? Where are you going? Who are your friends?’ These kinds of things are already happening."

A London based producer who monitors daily a range of jihadi Web sites for CBS News, believes there is a host of factors contributing to the groundswell of anger evident among many young Muslims in Britain.

"They've lost a sense of belonging. Integration doesn't work. There's the recent spate of arrests,” he said.

But it could be the easy access to militant Islamic websites that is increasing and channeling this anger.

CBS News' producer said that young British Muslims are “more politicized than others their age, simply because of their background” and that some seek the unsanitized view of the world offered by the Internet, a view that many feel is lacking in more mainstream news.

"There's no barrier between the youngsters and what occurs in the world in terms of conflict," he said. “You go into a website at random and put in ‘beheading clips’ and you will find them, starting from Daniel Pearl in Pakistan to Ken Bigley in Iraq.”

The alleged plot by the nine terrorist suspects arrested yesterday to kidnap a serving British Muslim soldier, behead him and broadcast the footage on the web is chillingly similar to the media-savvy tactics employed by jihadist groups in Iraq.

The fighters who construct these Islamist websites have even taken to calling themselves "electronic mujahideen."

"Every operation they make, there's a camera filming it and then it's posted on the Internet," the producer said. "There's messages from al Qaeda, and now they're going on Arab satellite channels and American security centers.”

By Steve Berriman
© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Back To Top