REPORTER: Sophie McNeill

It's just over a week since the London attacks and the city of Leeds is still in a state of shock, reeling from the news that this was home to three of the four suicide bombers.
I've come to find people who knew Mohammed Sidique Khan - a 32-year-old schoolteacher - Shahzad Tanweer - a 22-year-old student - and 18-year-old Hasib Hussain.
Many of the Muslim Pakistani families that live in Leeds have settled here in the poor, working-class suburb of Beeston. These are the streets where the bombers grew up, where they prayed and where they are thought to have planned their devastating act.

REPORTER: So it this common now - there's police on the streets everywhere?

MAN: Yeah, now more. This is now, yeah.

Yeah? Did you ever imagine this would happen in Beeston?

MAN: Nah.

Today the suburb is under siege from both police and media. But some residents are trying to put on a happy face. This is the park where one of the suicide bombers, Shahzad Tanweer, used to play soccer. But today it's the site of a picnic for peace.
Down at the other end of the park, I met up with some of Shahzad's friends who are having their regular Sunday game. But they're tired of reporters and are reluctant at first to be on TV.

REPORTER: Oh, you do mind?

YOUNG MAN: I don't want to be on camera because I might end up in Guantanamo Bay.

KANNI: These lads will be more than happy to go out of their way a mile down the road and get some dinner for themselves and the four of you, knowing that you're an Australian and everything.

After buying me lunch, they agreed to let me film. Kadeer has a PhD, but is unemployed. He wanted to tell me how his life has changed since the London attacks.

REPORTER: Kadeer how did you feel when you caught the Tube in London last week?

KADEER: You just felt a bit awkward, you felt like everyone was looking at you just because of the colour of your skin. I mean, I don't look particularly radical in terms of like having a beard and stuff, but you could just see people staring at you. I deliberately didn't carry a bag or anything 'cause that would just raise suspicions.
But you could feel their eyes burning through your skin - it was like, is he one of those people that would do that kind of stuff?

ZUBAR: I think they did it because of the racism happening around in Beeston and stuff because I think everyone suffers from racism around here, but I think one day they just thought that we've had enough and we're gonna do something about it.
And, fair enough, it's not the right way to do it, but in their minds they must have thought they were right.

So you can understand why they were angry?

ZUBAR: Yeah, I can relate to them.

How can you relate to them?

ZUBAR: Like, when people be racist, in your mind you just want to get at them, but most people just... they only think it but these have gone the extra level then and actually done the bombing.

Eventually the young men began to talk about their two friends, Shahzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan. Arif is 26 and drives a taxi.

ARIF: Most of these lads, they were respectable lads, they had good backgrounds, the families were well respectable people in the area, so I mean, that's not the reason.
But that is something that the British community need to look at - what makes a person do such a thing? You know, it is a big thing to do. I can't do it. There's people getting killed all over the world. If you look in Palestine, there's people getting killed there, if you look in Afghanistan, there's people getting killed there - innocent people. You look in Iraq, there's people getting killed there.
Palestinians - I mentioned that first. How come the media doesn't go there and see what's happened there? Here, what happened? We're all saying it's wrong that's happened, 57 people have died, it's a big thing. It's going to go down in the history books - first suicide bombers ever.
Well, 57 people died, there's thousands of people dying all over the world, so there's questions to be asked and we need answers.

KANNI: If you want to hear our views they're gonna hurt. Why do they hurt? Because be in our shoes for once. Try being a Muslim man and getting to know what it feels like. So I like looking at so many other ways. It's just not right.

The Blair Government has said that those who link the London bombings to the war in Iraq are making excuses for the terrorists.
But Kadeer grew up across the road from Shahzad and remembers both him and Mohammed talking about Iraq.

KADEER: They obviously made us aware of the things going on in Iraq, which we were aware were going on anyway.

REPORTER: So how did they make you aware of those things?

KADEER: Just pointing out stuff that was going on - people getting in Iraq, people getting killed in Bosnia. I mean, it's common knowledge anyway.

REPORTER: So they were very political?

KADEER: No, I think they were just trying to put a point across that Muslims around the world were not getting a fair deal.

MAN: You know, it's not a big thing to wonder why, it's not a big conspiracy to wonder what drove them to it. They saw death, they saw it there.

This man, who didn't want to be named, is a construction worker around Leeds.

MAN: They were general lads, just like ourselves, working, educated, financially secure, they were from financially secure families.
What put the picture in the mind is the media they're seeing - their own brethren getting killed day in, day out and it does affect you.

REPORTER: So why do you think they were so angry?

MAN: Well, look at the policies that have been going on. We're not just talking about these four - I'm talking about everyone, I'm talking about myself here.

REPORTER: Why are you angry?

MAN: Because three generations - let's say four generations - of our brethren, of humanity, not my brethren, nor of humanity - the same as you, the same as me. I mean, I'm going to put them barrier down.
Humans are oppressing humans in Palestine for three generations, right, and the lowest of the lowest crimes are happening there which didn't even happen in Stone Age times.
Women could give birth where and when their contractions happen. They're in the same kind of conditions - their contractions happen, they go through a checkpoint and they're refusing for them to go past.
Our religion is getting vilified on worldwide press, yeah, not regional, on worldwide news day in and day out.
Islamophobia is a common thing now. It's open to be Islamophobic. It's not open to be anti-Semitic. If you be anti-Semitic, you have a ton of bricks come down upon you. Yeah. Anywhere around the world you'd have Mossad come knocking on the door. Why are you saying this? Why are you preaching this? But it's open to be Islamophobic now. And it shows - it drives people to extremes.
You know what I mean? Eye for an eye, blood for blood, you know what I mean? That's what they were thinking.

KANNI: Why is that every time Palestinians suffer, America backs Israel up? Never once backed Palestinians up, never once said that wall should come down. Berlin knocked their walls down after generations, didn't they? The wall doesn't exist. And these four lads are just victims.

And these young men don't just care about what's going on in Iraq and Palestine.

KANNI: What happened to them foreigners that arrived out of Australia? And Australia didn't let them out of the ships and didn't even let them on their ground? Why is it that there are no terror attacks happening in Australia happening from Muslim people after we know that Australia has got a strict foreign policies of how immigrants come to their country? We know this, I know this.

In the meantime, one of the men went home to get a DVD he wanted to show me.

KANNI: Three hours of the true documentary of what exactly happened at 9/11. There's a flash underneath the aeroplane and before that even hits the Twin Towers it's already blasted the towers. How did that manage to blast the towers. Who was that plane belonging to?

Kanni is 32 and has four sons. He thinks that September 11 was part of a grand conspiracy to wage war on Islam.

KANNI: Now, when you watch it, it tells you exactly and it makes sense.

In the world of these young men it's logical to believe that America was behind the attack on the World Trade Centre and that Osama bin Laden is just the fall guy.

KANNI: So if you come to the truth - why America did hide it? Why? Well, it's there, innit?

Later that night I hear reports that six people have just been arrested in Beeston on terrorism charges, so I head out to see what's happening.
Leeds is crawling with reporters and every new development is hot news. Eventually the word arrives that the arrests had nothing to do with terrorism and the media interest quickly evaporates.

ABDUL: The way normal, everyday people are driving past this road, it's like they're scared. It's like they are scaring people. They're trying to get the voice around now. Every Asian who lives around here is a terrorist.

Down the road, I meet some more teenagers who knew Shahzad Tanweer, but they don't want to be identified. Despite it being universally accepted that most of the London bombers were from Leeds, these kids don't want to believe that their friend did it.

BOY: We don't believe that because we're his friends we went to school with him. We don't believe that they did it. We think that they're victims.
He was a young lad. He took his backpack with him because he was willing to spend three nights in a religious mosque in London.
He took his rucksack, he took his duvet, everything, sleeping bag, everything, with him. There were no bombs in there. He went in the bus or the train, whatever they say. Someone else did it. They're my beliefs coming from the heart. I don't believe that they were the people who did it.
The bomb happened and it was terrorists in London who did it. Terrorism is in London, not in Leeds.

REPORTER: Do you guys agree with Abdul?

MALE: They found four Asian men's ID. Why blame it on them? They could have found any other guy's ID.

ANOTHER MALE: Did you the state of the bus? You saw it was ripped apart - how could an ID manage to survive that? Exactly. You tell me. How can any form of ID still stay around? How did you find anyone's ID in the Tubes? That could have found anyone's ID, that could have been planted.

These kids believe that just because they are Muslim the worst is immediately suspected of them.

MAN: After 9/11, they're just looking for any Asian man with a beard to blame for anything. Like me, personally, I like to wear my traditional clothes. I can't wear it no more. I can't wear it. If I'm going out already, I can't wear this. If I wear this, it's not right. I might be a terrorist or I might be a bomber. There's always suspicions.

ANOTHER MAN: They're taking the piss of our religion, yeah, they're taking the piss. They're trying to knock it down, bit by bit. We are British Muslims, but we love our religion as well. We love the country but we love our religion. If someone was to say, "What do you love more - your country or your religion?" we'd have to say religion.

I was surprised by what the kids had said to me last night - that, despite being born and bred here in the UK, they are convinced they don't really fit in because of their religion.
In a Beeston barbershop, I meet up with community leader Aftab Ahmad. He's worried that this feeling of alienation can make young men susceptible to radical Islam.

AFTAB AHMAD: And they're not being accepted. They want to be British, they want to support British in whatever way they can, they want to help Britain, they want to integrate into Britain, but their colour and their culture is against them and they are vulnerable to these extremists who come and say, "Look, we're gonna shop around, and we're gonna recruit these people who are very easy and gullible."
And they are very easy to find because they don't integrate into that society. I do my best to integrate and I have been integrating and, to a certain extent, I have been very successful. But there's always people reminding me that I'm not accepted.
I suppose I don't want to go into details, but I have been told that no matter what I do, I'm still Pakistani. I'm still alien in their eyes.

After speaking to Aftab, I went to the local pub, just down the road from the barbershop. Inside, I was approached by Greg, who wanted to tell me what he thought of his Pakistani neighbours.

GREG: They never asked us if we wanted them. We didn't want them and we never have wanted them, and we hate them and they hate us.

Most of Greg's friends agreed with him, but they're worried that he could be prosecuted under Britain's anti-vilification laws.

MALE: If he puts that on telly, you'll get done, you stupid thing.

GREG: I will not get done!

MALE: Well, shut up, then!

They refused to let me film them.

REPORTER: But surely this is just one incident, I mean surely this doesn't...

GREG: No, no, no. That was wrong. We've always hated each other, never mind what they say down there, the rag heads and whatever. We've always hated them, hated the mortal sights of 'em. And they hate the mortal sites of us.

REPORTER: I interviewed someone who is about your age who's got the exact same accent as you who would have lived here for as long as you, except his parents are Pakistani. Don't you think you guys have something in common?

GREG: Nothing at all, I have got nothing at all in common with 'em.

Down the road from the pub, the police have just raided and cordoned off the local Islamic bookshop.

BCC REPORTER: Now, the question tonight is, how much of role did this shop play in their indoctrination? And it was written by seven people, one of whom was Mohammed Sidique Khan and in it what it says is that he is a youth worker...

Julie's come out of her house to see what's going on. One of the bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, taught two of her children at school. Unlike Greg from the pub, she'd always accepted the Pakistani community in Beeston.

JULIE: He was a teacher at my daughter's and my son's school. He was just basically a nice guy. It's just really weird, you know?

But now Julie feels betrayed.

JULIE: You just don't know who to trust in the Muslim or Asian community anymore. I've got three young children at home, aged 12, 13 and 10. I'm thinking, you know, they're going to be in school one day and the school is going to go up because there's Asian boys in the school.
Are they gonna be taken away with the families? They might be brainwashed and brought back and blow the school up or anything. You just don't know, do ya? Is there any more in the area that we don't know about? Were there more of these people in this country, but they've only got three of them because they're the ones who did it.
Are there any more around Leeds, around Manchester, around any of the major cities in the country? Are there any more men or young boys out here to do the same carnage as they did over in London?

In fact, the vast majority of young men I met in Beeston were quick to condemn the bombing. But on my third day here I did meet one man who said he would be prepared to do the same thing. My taxidriver - a man of Pakistani origin who's lived here in the UK for 35 years - he told me he was happy about the London bombings. He said he agreed with what the men did, and that there are plenty of others who felt the same way.
He would not let give me his name or let me film him, but he was very clear about the message he wanted to give. He said, "It's about time we did it to them so they know what it's like to suffer."
On my last day in Leeds, I went to visit Dr Hassan Alkatib, the chair of the Leeds Muslim Forum.

REPORTER: Dr Alkatib, I've spent the last few days around Beeston talking to the young men and I was quite surprised to find out really how angry a lot of them are. Do you think that the community leaders realise what's going on?

DR. HASSAN ALKATIB, CHAIR OF THE LEEDS MUSLIM FORUM: I think they do, but it wasn't expected they would be violent to the level as what has happened in London, but this is quite expected. In general, youth are rebellious, you know, in nature.

I told Dr Alkatib that some of the local kids didn't believe that the London bombers had been the boys from Leeds. I was surprised by his response.

DR. HASSAN ALKATIB: Until now we haven't seen the bodies of these four lads. How conveniently they found their credit cards and their driving licences and all those people who have known them, they speak very nicely about them.

REPORTER: Is there any doubt in your mind that these young men did it?

DR. HASSAN ALKATIB: Well, I haven't known them myself, personally, so I can only follow what the people are testifying for them and against them as so far all testimonies are in their favour, so that definitely throws doubt in the mind of other persons.

REPORTER: So perhaps they were set up?

DR. HASSAN ALKATIB: Perhaps. Most likely, in fact.

If one of the city's leading Muslims believes it's most likely that the bombers were set up, then how can the community's feelings of anger, suspicions and distrust be resolved?
As I left the UK, Londoners were under attack again, and my trip to Leeds had left me with more questions than answers.

© 2024 Journeyman Pictures
Journeyman Pictures Ltd. 4-6 High Street, Thames Ditton, Surrey, KT7 0RY, United Kingdom
Email: info@journeyman.tv

This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. For more info see our Cookies Policy