Muslim Leaders in Britain Pledge Solidarity Despite Divisions

Tamimi says the London bombings were an act of barbarism. But he placed much of the blame on the government while at a rally of several hundred antiwar demonstrators on Sunday on a street off Russell Square, near the Piccadilly Line subway tunnel that was the scene of the worst of the attacks.

"See for yourself what you've done to the world," he said, addressing Blair and President Bush. "No matter how much we supervise our children, if the politicians do not revise their policies, it will not work."

In an interview afterward, Tamimi said he and other Muslims had done everything they could to combat the influence of radical preachers. He is part of the governing council that seized control of the Finsbury Park mosque in London at the behest of the authorities who said it had become a hotbed of extremism.

"The police asked for our help and we've cleansed Finsbury Park from the militants, and we ran a lot of risk," he said.

"But we've seen the commissioner of police, the prime minister and media put the blame on the Muslim community, as if the community could have prevented the bombings," he added. "If the government comes and shows me where I have failed, I will admit it, but we all know where the government has failed. I'm not absolving Muslims of any responsibility, but I'm saying the government is not helping us with its policies."

Several groups of Muslim clerics have issued fatwas , or religious decrees, against the London bombings, saying the acts were prohibited in Islam. But the fatwas have largely been silent about suicide bombings in Israel.

Tamimi asserts that the situation there is different. "A Palestinian has had his home bombed, he's had his children killed, his trees uprooted, and what he does is a legitimate response to oppression," he said. "But here we are in a democratic state. What these youngsters did in London is a crime against innocent people that is 100 percent forbidden in Islam."

About 1.3 million of Britain's estimated 1.8 million Muslims come from the Asian subcontinent -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and India -- and many have been here for two generations or more. While Indians are often prosperous, many Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have been stuck on the bottom rung of Britain's socioeconomic ladder. Even the most mainstream of organizations, such as the Muslim Council of Britain, express a sense of grievance against British society and complain about growing "Islamophobia."

Ahmed, the member of the House of Lords, says many Muslim parents believe their children are being brainwashed outside mosques and on university campuses by radicals, some of whom are Arabs.

Many of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi imams at mosques have moderate views, but their message doesn't get through -- often they deliver sermons and lessons in their native tongues, which many second- and third-generation young people do not understand.

"I was born in Pakistani Kashmir, but I don't understand every bit of Pakistani or Urdu," said Ahmed, 48, who came to England as a child. "So you can't expect my son to understand it, and my granddaughter understands nothing."

Mainstream Muslim leaders say they are discussing a variety of measures to make moderate Islam more relevant in the lives of young people. There is talk of requiring imams to preach at least parts of their sermons in English and of a new vetting system that would prevent radical clerics from taking over local mosques. The government is considering new statutes outlawing indirect incitement to terrorism and making it easier to deport foreign nationals who engage in it.

Some leaders said they feared such measures might exacerbate grievances and alienation and target Muslims for persecution. Others argued that the community in effect needs to look in the mirror before it worries about the actions of the outside world.

"We still have a lot of soul-searching to do," said Shahid Malik, a member of Parliament who represents Leeds. "We recognize we've got to do better at confronting these evil voices."