"Untold" story of WW2 stirs Muslim youth pride

By William Maclean

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Taunted by racists as a "Paki" and "terrorist," Haroon bin Khaled spent his teenaged years feeling rejected by mainstream Britain and increasingly drawn to al Qaeda extremism.

But the young Muslim of Pakistani descent found an unexpected answer to his alienation the day he heard the story of how Muslim soldiers, many from what is now Pakistan, fought and died alongside Britons against the Nazis in World War Two.

Almost at a stroke, the jobless young man with an unpromising future felt a sense of belonging. As he examined the facts, he began to shed his belief Britain despised him or that fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan was a worthwhile idea.

"Truthfully, it touched me," said the former gang member, now 21 and with a prison stretch for fraud behind him.

"If that could be shown to other youths it could make a big difference."

That "difference" could be better community relations, hurt in the years after the September11, 2001 attacks on the United States and especially after four young British Islamists carried out suicide bombings in London in July 2005, killing 52 people.

It could also help security by dissuading Muslim men from joining the Taliban war against Western forces in Afghanistan, or from taking part in attacks at home such as the London bombings or attacks in Madrid in 2004 that killed 191 people.

"WE USED TO ADMIRE THE TALIBAN"

Bin Khaled is one of dozens of youths of Pakistani descent in the industrial second city of Birmingham to have attended a workshop by academic Jahan Mahmood that uses the Muslim role in the war to wean young men away from extremism and alienation.

Jahan says his presentation is intended to counter the notion of perennial confrontation between Christians and Muslims that al Qaeda seeks to present as an immutable fact of history.

Another attendee was Sabeel Saddique, 19, who used to watch videos of al Qaeda beheadings on his mobile phone for kicks and still feels Britain does not fully accept him.

"I've always thought that we were on our own," the burly former gang member said in an interview in the largely immigrant Sparkbrook district, a drab district renowned for drug dealing.

"We used to think, 'Taliban - yeah!' We admired them, we just wanted to be like them because everyone was always on about 'Muslims are terrorists' and it just used to make us angry."

Saddique said when New York's World Trade Center was attacked "we all thought it was cool ... But now I see it in a different way. That's all just wrong. It's killing innocents."

He still opposes Western armed action in Muslim countries. But he says his sense of belonging to Britain and his distaste for al Qaeda is real and stems from Jahan's lecture, which showed "what our grandparents have done for the country."