Smash hit

An audit cited by the Home Office found that 16% of working-age Muslims had never worked or were long-term unemployed — five times the level among the population as a whole.

More than half (51%) were economically inactive, 1½ times the figure for the general population. More than four out of 10 (43%) had no recognised educational qualification. Half of all Muslim women had never worked.

As one document noted: “Compared with the population as a whole, Muslims have three times the unemployment rate (nearly 15% against 5% for the population as a whole); the lowest economic activity rates (48% against 67% for the population as a whole); a higher proportion who are unqualified (43% against 36%); and a higher concentration in deprived areas (15% of Muslims live in the 10 most deprived districts, against 4.4% of the population as a whole)”.

In their paper, Home Office analysts tried to quantify the pool of terrorists in Britain. They suggested there may be between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims who “actively support” Al-Qaeda or related terrorist groups.

These numbers appear to draw on intelligence, opinion polls and a report that 10,000 Muslims attended a conference held by Hizb ut-Tahir, described by the Home Office as a “structured extremist organisation”, last year.

Although less than 1% of the Muslim population, the sheer size of the actual “pool” of potential Al-Qaeda recruits — those who go to meetings to express their support — represents a stark warning about the extent of the threat.

Al-Qaeda, the leaked paper noted, is now after the very young. “Extremists are known to target schools and colleges where young people may be very inquisitive but less challenging and more susceptible to extremist reasoning/arguments.

“There is evidence of the presence of extremist organisations on campuses and colleges.” The paper notes that even when an organisation is banned, its members often set up a society under another name.

“The 1924 Society, Muslim Media Forum and Muslim Cultural Society all have extremist tendencies,” the paper claims. However, there is no suggestion they are linked to terrorist activity.

The evidence of antipathy towards the West among a significant minority in the wider Muslim community is equally alarming. Opinion polls showed that while the majority of Muslims supported the government’s stance on the war on terror, a significant proportion were disaffected enough to say they backed Al-Qaeda’s terrorist campaigns.

An ICM poll published last March found that 13% of British Muslims thought that further terrorist attacks on America would be justified. Another poll found that up to 26% did not feel loyal to Britain.

Turnbull told his colleagues that because of the terrorist threat, Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5’s director general, had been asked to contribute to the debate. According to the leaked documents, intelligence officers are already drawing up profiles of the typical Muslim recruited by Al-Qaeda.

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