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Thread ID: 6120 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2003-04-12
2003-04-12 13:55 | User Profile
Army faces uphill task over Muslims By Mike Thomson, BBC Radio 4 Today programme reporter
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2938391.stm]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2938391.stm[/url]
A room full of faces stare at roaring tanks, dashing soldiers in camouflage kit and smiling people in far flung lands.
This is the British Army selling its wares at a presentation conference in Southwark in London.
Around one in three people in this area come from ethnic minorities and these are the people the army is desperate to reach.
"We have reviewed our ethnic minority policies. There has been a real culture change. We continue to recruit actively from the pool of talent within our ethnic minority population."
The speaker boasts how 6% of soldiers now come from ethnic minority backgrounds, five times more than the late 1990s.
But the man in charge of this meet-the-people session, Colonel Philip King, accepts that because many young British Muslims view the war in Iraq as a fight against Islam, winning their hearts and minds won't be easy.
"Yes, it's a problem. But it is patent nonsense and we find that the people who come along to listen to us, listen with an open mind and are prepared to give us a fair hearing."
Dr Mohammed Naseem, chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, describes himself as a moderate and insists the same can be said for just about all the worshippers at his mosque.
But he is convinced that anybody recruiting for the army in the area will have an uphill task.
"I doubt very much whether anybody will be applying to join the army at this time.
"Having seen what I am seeing now, I would say hold back, this is not the right time to join the army.
"I think almost every [imam] will say the same thing."
'Unsympathetic' Muslims
The mainly middle-aged worshippers who gather on the street outside the mosque after prayers share Dr Naseem's view.
One said: "Blair, Bush is a butcher, they are worse than Hitler."
Young Muslims near the mosque are equally unsympathetic.
There is a feeling that the next country we are going to be at war with will be another Muslim country Nasser Khan Former soldier One insisted: "It is a totally stupid idea trying to recruit Muslims to fight against other Muslims around the world. I don't think it's a viable option."
Former soldier Nasser Khan, who has a brother still serving in the Army, has followed the war on television at his home in Blackburn.
He says despite the successes of British and American forces few soldiers he knows are returning home with any obvious pride.
"My brother usually comes up every weekend visiting the family. He's keeping a low profile at the moment.
"Even members of the Army who are not Asian, the white soldiers, I know a lot of them who come on leave and at the moment they stay at home without socialising too much."
Only 190 Muslims now serve in the British Army, and Mr Khan belives that number will shrink.
"Within the community as a whole there is a feeling that the next country we are going to be at war with will be another Muslim country, maybe Syria or Iran. It is going to have a long-lasting effect."