A new generation is being radicalised
The grandiose Makkah Masjid Mosque in Leeds marked an impressive contrast with the surrounding terraced properties, as I walked through the tightly packed red-brick Victorian streets leading onto Royal Park Road. While the austere, graffitied houses still bore signs of poverty and neglect, their metal security gates indicating a grim sense of insecurity, the mosque stood as an oasis of calm and tranquillity.
This down-at-heel cosmopolitan community, home to immigrants, artists and students, had always been poor but peaceful. Yet on that afternoon 20 years ago, something had changed. The atmosphere was tense: the familiar sounds of Asian music, reverberating from youthful sound systems, had been replaced by a chorus of police sirens, and the colourful aura of the storefronts was lit up by flashing blue lights.
