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Times Square bomb suspect charged

The World — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:40:06 +0000

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A Pakistan-born US citizen has been charged with terrorism over the failed car-bomb attack in New York’s Times Square on Saturday. Faisal Shahzad, 30, was also charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to documents filed at Manhattan federal court. Shahzad was arrested on a Dubai-bound plane at JFK airport on Monday. Earlier, President Barack Obama vowed that Americans would “not cower in fear” after Saturday’s bombing attempt. He said the incident was a “sobering reminder of the times in which we live” and vowed that justice would be done. Matthew Bell reports.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. U.S. authorities have brought formal terrorism charges against a suspect in the failed bombing attempt on Times Square. Thirty-year-old Faisal Shahzad is a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan. Officials say he admitted receiving bomb making training in Pakistan. He is being charged on multiple counts, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Shahzad allegedly planted a crude bomb in an SUV and drove the vehicle into one of the busiest parts of Manhattan on Saturday. U.S. officials say if the bomb had detonated as planned, it would have killed many bystanders. President Obama made a short statement today about the investigation, as The World’s Matthew Bell reports.

MATTHEW BELL: The President said U.S. officials are learning everything they can about the alleged plot, about the suspect in U.S. custody, Faisal Shahzad, and whether he has any connections to terrorist groups. Mr. Obama added that this incident is another sobering reminder of the times in which we live.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Around the world and here at home, there are those who would attack our citizens and who would slaughter innocent men, women and children in pursuit of their murderous agenda. They will stop at nothing to kill and disrupt our way of life. But once again, an attempted attack has been failed.

BELL: The President said the plot failed because a few ordinary citizens were vigilant. They reported suspicious activities to the police and then, Mr. Obama said, authorities at all levels, local, state and federal, worked in a swift and coordinated fashion to apprehend the suspect. He was pulled off a plane at JFK Airport last night, shortly before it was scheduled to take off for Dubai. Finally, the President had some words of praise for New Yorkers. He said once again they have reminded Americans how to live with their heads held high.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We know that the aim of those who try to carry out these attacks is to force us to live in fear, and thereby amplifying the effects of their attacks, even those that fail. But as Americans and as a nation, we will not be terrorized. We will not cower in fear. We will not be intimidated. We will be vigilant and we will work together and we will protect and defend the country we love to ensure a safe and prosperous future for our people. That’s what I intend to do as President, and that’s what we will do as a nation.

BELL: In the nation of Pakistan, there were reports of several arrests today in connection to the Times Square plot. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was asked about those reports during news conference this afternoon. He said he was in no position to confirm any arrests in Pakistan. Holder declined to say if there were other suspects in the case, or if Faisal Shahzad was connected with any foreign terrorist groups. The Attorney General did say, however, that authorities are looking into a number of leads.

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: The investigation is ongoing and I wouldn’t want to reveal at this point any of the information that we gleaned from him other than to say that he has been talking to us and providing us with useful information.

MALE VOICE 1: Has he admitted involvement in this?

HOLDER: He has done that.

BELL: Holder said the failed car bombing was an attempt to carry out a terrorist attack aimed at killing as many people as possible. Shahzad is being charged with terrorism and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Holder said investigators are looking at evidence found in the suspect’s car and at his Connecticut home. The Attorney General also praised law enforcement and Homeland Security officials for a job well done. Counter-terrorism expert, and former FBI official, Matthew Levitt echoes that sentiment.

MATTHEW LEVITT: The fact that they were able to run down these leads this quickly, stopped the suspect from escaping the country, just hours really after the attack, running down all kinds of leads, to me, as someone who is former FBI counter-terrorism, is impressive. And I think that should give American citizens a lot of comfort. No less important, by the way, is the role that regular citizens played in helping the authorities do their job.

BELL: The Times Square car bomb plot is also stoking an ongoing and highly politicized debate about the best way to prevent terrorist attacks. Levitt says the issue is often framed in a misleading way.

LEVITT: There is this debate which paints a black and white picture between a law enforcement approach to counter-terrorism and a military approach to counter-terrorism. I think it’s a false distinction. Counter-terrorism demands the strategic approach that involves the use of all tools of national power. And on a case-by-case basis assessing in which case the right tool is most applicable.

BELL: President Obama might have had that debate in mind today when he said the FBI and its partners have all the tools they need to conduct the investigation into Saturday’s attempted bombing. For The World, I’m Matthew Bell.

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Radicalized at a British university?

The World — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:15:12 +0000

The alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day sent a shock through the security system. Prosecutors say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (pictured) tried to detonate a bomb sewn into his underwear. Ever since, American authorities have been trying to fix the intelligence gaps that allowed him to board the plane in the first place. Abdulmutallab’s former university in London is launching its own review into whether he became radicalized there. The World’s religion editor Jane Little reports. Download MP3

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. U.S. Intelligence officials have delivered this warning, Al-Qaeda may attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months. That testimony before Congress comes about a month after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a U.S. airliner. Ever since then, authorities have been trying to fix the intelligence gaps that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board the plane in the first place. Meanwhile, Abdulmutallab’s former university in London is launching its own review. The World’s Religion Editor, Jane Little, reports.

JANE LITTLE: Lunchtime at University College London and its cafeteria is packed with students of many ethnicities and nationalities. You need top grades to study here. Last year U.C.L. was fourth in a prestigious university ranking behind Harvard, Cambridge, and Yale. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied engineering and business finance here from 2005 to 2008. During that time, he served as president of its Islamic Society. Now, an independent enquiry is looking into whether his radicalization began here.

MALCOLM GRANT: The whole process by which a young man is converted from being a mild mannered and devout Muslim into a potential mass murderer is I think of profound importance and a great worry to anybody.

LITTLE: Malcolm Grant is the president of U.C.L. He says the investigation will look at the whole of Abdulmutallab’s time at the university. It will also consider whether academics should keep a tighter rein on students and whom they invite to speak on campus. But, Grant adds, that raises some difficult questions.

GRANT: Should we be forever monitoring and trying to oversee and indeed as some have suggested, spy upon our students? Should we attempt to do as we have been doing already, which is to maintain a freedom of speech on campus, to expose all speech to challenge and not to move in to suppress it?

LITTLE: Those concerns don’t impress one of the U.K.’s top security experts. Anthony Glees heads the Buckingham University Center for Security and Intelligence Studies.

ANTHONY GLEES: Individual tutors have got to engage with their students as individuals, and if they detect signs of political extremism they have to challenge them. Academics cannot turn a deaf ear to the political attitudes of their students.

LITTLE: In 2005, the year of the July 7th London bombings, Glees published a report, “When Students Turn to Terror: Terrorist and Extremist Activity on British Campuses.” In it he warned that universities had become recruiting grounds for Islamic extremism. At the time, he was widely accused of exaggeration. Now, he claims he’s been vindicated with several former students in Britain implicated in terror offences.

GLEES: Universities have been seen as safe sites for recruitment by Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda associates. These people who want to destroy our way of life have noticed that students are rarely observed in the modern university.

LITTLE: One Muslim scholar, who warned of the dangers of student radicalization, suggested that universities should not have a separate space for Muslim prayers where the extremists can take over. In fact, U.C.L. doesn’t have one. But it does have an active Islamic Society.

LOTIFA BEGUM: Here we’re raising awareness for Islam and we’re going to have a few events next week. It would be really fantastic if you came along. Thank you.

LITTLE: Lotifa Begum is a politics student here. She wants to explain to non-Muslim students what real Islam is about, which she says is not violent extremism. The annual Islamic Awareness Week has taken on extra resonance in the wake of all the media attention she and fellow Muslim students have been getting. It’s unwelcome attention and most are reluctant to talk, wary of reporters who they say portray them as potential terrorists. Begum is tired of it.

BEGUM: We as a society are carrying on with our activities as usual because we have no affiliation with any such kind of behavior.

LITTLE: Another member of the Islamic Society, Asif Hussein, is in his final year studying law, and like Lotifa he says he’s never met an extremist on campus.

ASIF HUSSEIN: Most people at U.C.L. are quite driven in their field of academic study. It’s really difficult to get into U.C.L., and so people don’t want to waste their time here either just lounging around doing nothing or inciting extremism, whatever. They’re here to get a degree, to get a job and further their careers.

LITTLE: So you have never met an Abdulmutallab type figure?

HUSSEIN: I never have, no, no.

GLEES: I would say that if they deny ever having come across a radical, they have lost all sight of the meaning of the word radical. I would put it the other way that you’re very unlikely to come across a student at an Islamic Society who isn’t a radical.

LITTLE: Anthony Glees’ assertions will likely upset more than a few Muslim students in the U.K., whether or not there is any credence to his claims. Meanwhile, the former U.C.L. student, Abdulmutallab, now awaiting trial in the U.S., has ensured that the students and their academic institutions are under scrutiny as never before. For the World, this is Jane Little in London.

“We are at war”

The World — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:38:04 +0000

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In his report about the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing, President Obama said “we are at war against al Qaeda.” The unclassified summary stated that US intelligence officials had received unspecified “discrete pieces of intelligence” to identify Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as an al Qaeda operative and keep him off the flight from Amsterdam. The World’s Matthew Bell explores what the President means by being “at war”.

JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World. The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner made his first appearance in a US court today. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was formally charged with attempted murder and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. His lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The foiled attack prompted President Obama to order a sweeping review of security measures, and to state publicly yesterday that the country is “at war with al Qaeda.” As The World’s Matthew Bell reports, the president’s words were reassuring to some, and troubling to others.

MATTHEW BELL: In the aftermath of the failed airline attack outside of Detroit, President Obama has faced no small amount of criticism for not acting, or speaking, like a wartime president. Conservatives say he doesn’t use the word terrorism enough. He doesn’t talk about the enemy. He likes to pretend we’re not at war. Mr. Obama might have been trying to take these criticisms head on when he said this last night.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people and that is plotting to strike us again. And we will do whatever it takes to defeat them.

BELL: In an appearance on C-SPAN this morning, terrorism expert Juan Zarate said he welcomed the President’s comments. Zarate served as deputy national security advisor under George W. Bush.

JUAN ZARATE: We’ve got to remember who the enemy here is. We’ve got a transnational movement trying to radicalize people around the world, including American citizens, and they continue to try to attack us, in big ways and small ways. And so we’ve got to keep our eye on the ball, and I think that’s something that President Obama I think reasserted yesterday, which was healthy and good.

BELL: Zarate’s former boss often reasserted that the nation was at war against a terrorist enemy. And here’s a sampling.

GEORGE W. BUSH: This is long term battle, war… different kind of enemy than we’re used to, but we’re going to smoke them out… a war against all those who seek to export terror… and we’re adjusting our thinking… and a war against those governments that support or shelter them. Terrorists know that Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. This is a long war against terrorist activity.

BELL: Intelligence expert James Carafano at the Heritage Foundation has been critical of what he sees as reluctance on the part of President Obama to talk about the nation being at war against al Qaeda.

JAMES CARAFANO: And the reason for the reluctance I think is purely political, is a lot of people on the left who didn’t like the Bush approach. They didn’t want to hear him say that, and they’re just disappointed.

BELL: Carafano welcomed President Obama’s blunt acknowledgement that the country is fighting a war.

CARAFANO: It’s important to acknowledge it for a couple of reasons. It’s the justification for military detention. It’s the justification for military operations worldwide, and it’s a statement that we’re powerful and we’re going to defend ourselves. So there’s lot of reasons why it’s important to do that. And to be reluctant to do that, just because people on the left don’t like that, to hear those words, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

BELL: Carafano says president Obama should have gone even further in his remarks yesterday.

CARAFANO: I thought it was very disappointing last night. The President didn’t link the military operations in Afghanistan to winning the war on terror. It was a perfect opportunity to kind of reinforce the importance of his decision, but rather than remind people of that, he didn’t even mention it.

BELL: That phrase, “war on terror,” though is something this President has mostly stayed away from. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t take the threat seriously, says Middle East expert Marc Lynch at George Washington University.

MARC LYNCH: What he has done though in the past has been quite appropriately to have a much more subdued and matter of fact, pragmatic kind of rhetorical approach to al Qaeda, which I think is the right way to weaken that organization.

BELL: Lynch says presidential rhetoric about the grave threat posed by al Qaeda are counterproductive. It only serves to exaggerate the group’s importance. He says it also undermines one of President Obama’s stated goals of re-making America’s relationship with the Muslim world.

LYNCH: For example the response to Captain Underpants, the failed bomber. The original response in most of the Arab media was complete and total indifference. It was just not seen as a major issue. Obama’s response and the American media frenzy around it has become a major story. And now they’re much more focused on it. And so, in a sense, what I think the American political debate has done is to transform what was one in a long series of al Qaeda failures into what can only be characterized as a success for them.

BELL: Lynch says President Obama’s talk about waging war on al Qaeda marks a rhetorical return to the Bush era, and he says that’s a mistake. For The World, I’m Matthew Bell.

The President’s report on Flight 253

The World — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:21:21 +0000

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President Obama has spoken of the intelligence failures uncovered by the White House inquiry into the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing. He said the government had the relevant information – scattered around the system, as he put it – to possibly prevent the attack, but failure to follow up on the information, coupled with a failure of analysis, had left the US exposed. Anchor Jeb Sharp talks with The World’s Matthew Bell about the President’s speech.

BBC coverage
Declassified report
FAQ Jet bomber case
Best of BBC: “I boarded a plane with an aerosol can”

JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp. This is the World. President Obama said today the government has to do a better job of connecting the dots when it comes terrorism threats. And he said the nation’s terrorism watch lists need to be strengthened. The President spoke today at the White House, at the end of the urgent review he ordered in the failed airline bombing on Christmas Day. The World’s Matthew Bell has been following the story. He’s here in the studio with me now. . Matthew, it didn’t seem as if there was a whole lot new in the statement, and yet it contained a powerful message.

MATTHEW BELL: That’s right. In terms of the plot, we’ve known so much, so many fine details, for days now, about how this thing seems to have played out. The most important part of the speech, and the part that really struck me came at the end, and it’s when the President appeared to address criticisms from the right, from conservatives who’ve said that this President doesn’t seem to be taking the issues of terrorism and talking about being at war so straightforwardly. So here’s what he had to say.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We are at war. We are at war against al Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people and that is plotting to strike us again. And we will do whatever it takes to defeat them. And we’ve made progress. Al Qaeda’s leadership has hunkered down. We have worked closely with partners, including Yemen, to inflict major blows against al Qaeda leaders, and we have disrupted plots at home and abroad and saved American lives.

BELL: So what I’m hearing there is the President trying to take control of this issue and say, “Look I’m at the helm. This is the bottom line.”

SHARP: What did he actually say about the investigation and the problems?

BELL: He laid out a few details and obviously there are going to be more in that report that was put up on the White House website today. I’ll break down a couple of them. He said intelligence leads have to be followed up on. For example, when the Detroit bombing suspect’s family talked to US officials in Africa, said that he’d been radicalized, that appears to have been dropped at some point. He talked about strengthening the analytical process in the intelligence world. He talked about strengthening the criteria to add people’s names to watch lists. When you look at details like chatter evidently coming out of Yemen, that there was a Nigerian operative tied to al Qaeda, involved in some operation. And then you look at some of the other information that was out there about this guy, you wonder, why wasn’t his name put on this no-fly list? Well, that’s going to be addressed evidently. The President said changes have been made, but there are more, and this is an evolutionary process.

SHARP: And the President has made it abundantly clear for days now, and again, in this statement, that he is really unhappy about what happened. What did he have to say about accountability?

BELL: That was another theme in this statement. He basically seemed to be trying to say to me, “The buck stops here. I’m the one ultimately responsible and my people understand that they are responsible, and I’m holding them responsible for this issue.” The report, as he flagged earlier, this was about a screw up. This was about an intelligence screw up. Here’s a little bit more of what the President had to say about what went wrong.

OBAMA: The US government had the information scattered throughout the system to potentially uncover this plot and disrupt the attack. Rather than a failure to collect or share intelligence, this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence that we already have.

BELL: So there you have it. This is the President and the administration that came into office saying, “Look, we are going to be transparent. We’re going to lay everything out.” And I think that’s part of what you’re hearing right now.

SHARP: This comes at a pretty interesting moment. We’re one year into the presidency. The President seemed to want to underline this whole incident today and move beyond it. What’s ahead, Matthew Bell?

BELL: It’s interesting, isn’t it, that yeah, he’d like to move beyond this particular plot. But when you start looking at the plot and all the details, it’s this thread that you kind of pull, and there’s so many connections here, right? There’s the Yemen connection. There are huge questions about what is US policy toward Yemen and this group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula there? What about Afghanistan? What about US policy toward the Muslim world? These are all huge national security priorities that are connected for the Obama administration and for this President.

SHARP: The World’s Matthew Bell, thank you so much.

BELL: You’re welcome.

Mumbai remembers

The World — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:25:43 +0000

Ceremonies are being held in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) to mark the first anniversary of a series of devastating attacks on the Indian city by militants. Police have paraded in the city, a memorial has been inaugurated and a candle-lit prayer service held.The attacks, which began on November 26, 2008 and lasted nearly three days, left 174 people dead, including nine gunmen. Marco Werman talks with correspondent Tinku Ray, who is in Mumbai for the commemoration. Download MP3

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In pictures: Mumbai one year after
On The World: India Muslim community

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. The people of Mumbai, India held tearful memorials today. They were remembering the attack that militants launched against their city one year ago. It was November 26, 2008 when ten gunmen staged the attack. They hit the city’s biggest train station, luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites. The raids killed 166 people. Fursaj Jahani owns one of the places that was hit, the Café Leopold. Jahani says he and other shop owners in Mumbai are back in business one year after the terrorists struck.

FURSAJ JAHANI: We wanted to prove to the world that we won, they lost, we pull the shutters up, we’ve opened again. You know people that had come twenty years back, thirty years back, they came back. These are the people that supported me, supported this place to bounce back.

WERMAN: The Pakistan based book, Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for masterminding the attacks. India broke off talks with Pakistan after the violence. Yesterday, a Pakistani court indicted seven Pakistani’s in connection with the siege. Shashi Tharoor is India’s Minister of State for External Affairs. He’s urging Pakistan to prosecute, convict and punish the attackers. He also says Indians should feel pride in their country today.

SHASHI THAROOR: Today where of course we remember our grief and our mourning, a day in which a horrendous loss of life a year ago will continue to stir our consciences and our hearts. But it is also a day to salute the courage and the bravery of so many people, our security forces, the police and then the ordinary human beings, the hotel workers, people who went out of their way to save the lives of innocents. Let the message go today from India to the rest of the world. India will not be terrorized.

WERMAN: That seems to be the mood at the Trident Hotel, one of the targets of the militants. The BBC’s Tinku Ray is there.

TINKU RAY: I’ve spoken to people here at the hotel. Many of them here were actually present when the gunmen entered the hotel last year and the stories are so harrowing and so eerie, I actually had nightmares last night but thankfully, it sounds like none of the staff actually left their jobs. Both of them came back within a few days of the incident ending and people basically have really, really bounced back.

WERMAN: I mean those scenes, those dramatic scenes are unforgettable, the scenes coming from the security cameras at some of the city’s cafes and the train station and the, of course, the gunmen storming the Taj Hotel and where you’re staying, the Trident. What is the sentiment now among the Indians who came back to their jobs and are now working in those places? Any sort of heightened sense of vigilance among them or it’s just kind of business as usual?

RAY: Oh, security is just amazing at these hotels now, Marco. You’re talking about airport type security and both of these hotels which were struck, the Taj and the Trident, have spent millions of dollars on increasing their security. Cars are not even allowed to enter up to the doors. You have to have your bags scanned and then you are frisked by security personnel. It’s amazing. But, shockingly, the station which was also attacked, this is the main station here in Mumbai, has practically no security. I went there yesterday and we’re talking about a station where millions of people go through every single day and there was not a single bit of security to check people, stop people and I think it’s impossible to do so, that’s the main thing.

WERMAN: Now Tinku, another target of attack was the city’s Jewish community and I’d like us to listen now to some comments from Rabbi Abraham Berkowitz who is in charge of rebuilding Habbad House. It’s a Jewish center where six people were killed last year in these attacks. Here he is explaining why instead of rebuilding the destroyed center, it’s been moved to another location.

RABBI ABRAHAM BERKOWITZ: Our immediate security concerns take us to a discreet location and I must say that there hasn’t been one week that we haven’t had continued activities and we are not giving up and we won’t go away. We will not let terror ruin our way of life. We just are doing it very carefully, with very important steps to be taken.

WERMAN: Rabbi Abraham Berkowitz there in Mumbai. Tinku Ray, you said there was no security at the train station, a contrast with the elaborate security at hotels in Mumbai. The fact that the Jewish center has moved to an undisclosed location suggests a lack of faith in Indian security forces. Do the Jews of Mumbai feel safe?

RAY: Well Marco, I think it’s not really a lack of faith for the Jewish community. I mean you heard Rabbi Berkowitz, who’s from Brooklyn, he’s come here to take over the center from the Rabbi and his pregnant wife who were killed in those attacks last year and he said that the Jewish community in India has never been attacked by any of the communities here so they’ve always felt safe.

WERMAN: And a year after these attacks, what is the plight of the city’s Muslims? Do they feel threatened at all?

RAY: Well that was a really surprising thing. Following the attacks, there was absolutely no backlash and nobody in Mumbai or even India blamed the Muslim community for these attacks and especially after it was discovered that these gunmen came from outside of the country. In fact, there were rallies and protests and marches in which people from all communities came together.

WERMAN: The evidence points to the Pakistan based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba being behind the attack and many Indians claim the Pakistani government hasn’t cracked down enough on the group or at all. Is the Indian government satisfied that Pakistan is taking steps to ensure similar attacks aren’t in the works?

RAY: There’s always been this uneasy relationship between the two countries, Marco, India and Pakistan, ever since partition. Every time there’s an attack in India, Pakistan is automatically blamed. I think this time there has been a lot more cooperation between the two governments and just yesterday we saw the Pakistani government charging seven people in connection with these attacks and I think that’s a very positive step to be taking by the Pakistani’s and I think we’ll have to see how things develop and whether the dialogue between the two countries can now resume at some level at least.

WERMAN: Tinku Ray, one year after the attacks in Mumbai. Thank you very much for speaking with us.

RAY: It was a pleasure talking to you, Marco.

India’s Muslim community – part 3

The World — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:16:40 +0000

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This week Mumbai is marking the first anniversary of coordinated terrorist attacks on the Indian city. On Thursday, a few big-name movie stars will join an inter-faith ceremony commemorating the dead. Mumbai dominated by Bollywood, and there are many Muslims both behind and in front of the camera. But the film industry rarely depicts their lives – or anything to do with real life, for that matter. In the third and final part of her series on India’s Muslim minority, Miranda Kennedy reports from Bollywood.

Miranda Kennedy’s stories from India were funded by a grant from the International Reporting Project.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. India is marking the one-year anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. An Islamic militant group based in Pakistan is believed to have planned and executed the attacks. That’s raised religious tensions in India. Tomorrow, an interfaith ceremony is planned in Mumbai to memorialize the 166 people killed a year ago. The ceremony will include Bollywood movie stars. There are many Muslims working in Bollywood, but India’s film industry rarely depicts the lives of Muslims, as Miranda Kennedy reports from Mumbai.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: A decade ago, director Mahesh Bhatt broke the unspoken and inflexible rules of Bollywood with this film, “Zakhm.” The movie’s very first scene is of Hindu-Muslim riots on the streets of Mumbai, a no-no in an industry in which successful films ignore ugly reality in favor of romantic plot lines. And the love story here is between a Hindu man and a Muslim woman, which also breaks a taboo. Bhatt says he made the movie as a way to come to terms with his own experience as the product of a secretive inter-religious relationship.

MAHESH BHATT: Portions of my childhood are there: why my mother was not allowed the status of a wife, how she was a closet Muslim, how she hid her faith and prayed behind closed doors, how she gave us Hindu names and sent us to Christian schools. According to her instinct, her motherly instinct, that don’t let them tell the world that their mother is a Muslim.

KENNEDY: A generation ago, it was completely unacceptable for a Muslim to marry a Hindu in most sections of society. It may be a little easier in today’s India, but it’s still not considered okay in the movies. Mahesh Bhatt couldn’t get any big-time backing for his film, and it didn’t do well at the box office. Indu Mirani covers Bollywood for the Mumbai Mirror.

INDU MIRANI: Films here are largely about entertainment. “I’d much rather go and see a song and dance routine.” That’s the way people think here. “Take me into another world, make me happy.”

KENNEDY: Mahesh Bhatt says the big studios steer clear of films that examine religious tensions, because such films can easily lead to protests or riots, shut down movie theatres, and cause millions of dollars of losses.

BHATT: It’s a very important thing to understand this: I can’t make an entire film which talks about the Muslims being discriminated. You can’t make a film on Malcolm X. Not ready yet.

KENNEDY: While many top Bollywood stars are Muslim and keep their names, they still can’t make movies about their own religious identity. And if commercial Bollywood films do feature Muslim characters, they tend to be stereotypes. That’s according to Kabir Khan, a director with one of Bollywood’s biggest studios.

KABIR KHAN: They’re either die hard nationalists and patriotics and will give up life for the country, or they’re these sort of monsters who come in from this terrorist factory, and nothing is in the middle.

KENNEDY: Khan tried to move away from Muslim stereotyping in this film, called “New York,” that he directed earlier this year. It cost around $5 million dollars, which makes it a big release by Bollywood standards, and it’s about an issue usually only addressed in small-budget art films and documentaries.

[Film clip plays]

KENNEDY: The main character is a Muslim. He’s profiled, detained, and tortured in custody, and then eventually turns to terrorism out of a desire for revenge. Pretty political for Bollywood. But then, it’s not a film about India. It’s about post-9/11 America. Film critic Indu Mirani says that neutralizes its impact in India and makes it acceptable for Bollywood.

MIRANI: When you make a film that is about the Muslim identity in America, you’re not really setting yourself up to get into trouble, because that is not something that most of us have faced. But if you talk of Hindu-Muslim riots, that is subject that really very, very few people would touch, because that would be a film that is too close to heart.

KENNEDY: Still, the film “New York” was a lot more political than Bollywood is used to. When it drew big crowds, it was a surprise for everyone, including Khan, its director.

KHAN: I do believe that in the next three, four, five years, we are going to see big budget films which would look at Indian politics. All studios are trying to push boundaries a bit because they realize that the taste of the Indian audience is definitely changing.

KENNEDY: Most Bollywood insiders agree that Indian tastes are shifting ever so slightly away from the age-old formula of boy meets girl, sings her six songs, and marries her at the end. There’s no sign of big budget films about Indian politics on the horizon yet. But Bollywood audiences are already anticipating a second film about Muslims being mistreated in America after 9/11. The next one, called “My Name is Khan,” features Shah Rukh Khan, the biggest superstar of Indian cinema.

ANNOUNCER: Shah Rukh Khan has suffered deep humiliation at the hands of agents at a United States airport. In fact…

KENNEDY: This isn’t a movie clip. It’s real-life news coverage of an event which strangely mirrors the upcoming film. Earlier this summer, Shah Rukh Khan was detained for a couple hours at Newark airport as he came into the US. The Indian media responded with outrage. But some suggested the incident might not be so bad. It was free advertising for Shah Rukh Khan’s film, which, in spite of its unsexy subject matter, is expected to be a blockbuster when it comes out early next year. For the World, this is Miranda Kennedy, Mumbai.

WERMAN: Miranda’s reports from Mumbai were funded by the International Reporting Project. Her three-part series is available at The World dot org.

India’s Muslim community – part 2

The World — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:31:04 +0000

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India is on high alert this week for terrorist attacks, as the country marks the one- year anniversary of strikes that paralyzed Mumbai last year. Indian officials have warned about threats from both foreign and domestic militants. But as we heard in part one, Muslims in India have largely not been radicalized to a violent form of Islam. However that hasn’t stopped the police from targeting suspected homegrown terrorists. In the second part of her series, Miranda Kennedy reports on the growing alienation of Mumbai’s Muslims.

Hameedia Mosque in Mumbai

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. India is on high alert this week. The country is marking the one year anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and officials have warned about new threats from both foreign and domestic militants. The concern about homegrown terrorists in India often focuses on Muslims. But as we reported yesterday Muslims in India have largely not been radicalized to a violent form of Islam. In the second of our stories about India’s Muslim minority Miranda Kennedy reports from Mumbai.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: The streets around Hameedia Masjid, one of Mumbai’s oldest mosques, are jammed with the usual tumult of Indian life. Streams of traffic maneuver around a cow lying nonchalantly in the road. Cows are sacred to most Hindus and even in this Muslim area they respect it. Maulana Daryabadi who preaches in the mosque says that’s because Hindus and Muslims have lived side by side here for at least a century.

MAULANA DARYBADI: [SPEAKING ARABIC]

TRANSLATOR: This is a country where one cannot work without the other. The Hindus and the Muslims always work together. They always need each other.

KENNEDY: Muslims may be geographically and culturally integrated into Indian society but the Mualana says that when it comes to how the authorities with them all is not equal.

DARYBADI: [SPEAKING ARABIC]

TRANSLATOR: Every time there’s a blast or anything happening wrong they come and round up Muslims. We have demanded from the government to look into the matter questioning them why.

KENNEDY: His congregation tells him stories of their sons being tortured in police custody or worse of those who’ve been encountered. That’s a verb you hear a lot in India. It refers to extrajudicial killings by the police. The government doesn’t deny that these killings happen. In fact several Mumbai police offers have been dubbed encounter specialists and publicly commended for their work. The Indian government denies that police ever target people from a particular religion or community.

SAYEEDA HAMEED: There’s a long history of deprivation which starts in 1857.

KENNEDY: Sayeeda Hameed, a cabinet minister who is herself a Muslim, sites that year because it was the first major Indian rebellion against British colonial forces. The British blamed Indian Muslims and worked to undermine their power. When India declared its independence in 1947 it was a secular democracy that promised equal rights to Muslims even though many chose to move to neighboring Pakistan. Yet she says the Muslim population in India has consistently been neglected.

HAMEED: They have fallen so far behind that it’s going to take a while before we bring them on par with other communities.

KENNEDY: A government report on the state of India’s Muslims found that there actually fewer schools and roads in Muslim dominated areas than in other parts of the country. Twenty five percent of Muslim children have either never gone to school or have dropped out. Because there’s no affirmative action policy for Muslims there are less gainfully employed than all other groups in India.

[HASHMI FILM SONG]

And it’s not just the poorest of the poor who experience discrimination. It’s found even here among the stars of Bollywood, India’s prolific and lighthearted film industry. In this film Jannat, the actor Emraan Hashmi, is the romantic hero courting the young heroin.

[HASHMI FILM SONG]

Hashmi has become a sought after name in the industry in the last couple of years. He can now charge about a million dollars a film. And the fact that his name clearly identifies him as Muslim has not been a problem for him. But outside the film studios actors like Hashmi sometimes find themselves treated like Muslims rather than stars. Recently Hashmi tried to by an apartment in a well-heeled neighborhood known as the Beverly Hills of Mumbai.

EMRAAN HASHMI: Because everyone knew that there are a couple of buildings that don’t know allow people from a section and we had heard that this building don’t allow Muslims.

KENNEDY: But Hashmi and his wife really liked the place so they found a broker who was willing to try to get it for them.

HASHMI: The reason why he said that you know I’ll try to get the deal through is because I’m an actor and maybe they will overlook the fact that I’m Muslim.

KENNEDY: Although they’d agreed to pay the asking price, $700,000 for a two bedroom, the couple was refused. The co-op insists it did not deny Hashmi the apartment because of his religion but he filed a compliant with the government minority commission and publicly accused them of discrimination. Since he went public with his complaint Hashmi has realized that no matter how rich and famous he is he shares a common bond with India’s impoverished Muslim community. He’s been shocked at how many people have told him similar stories about being denied housing because of their religion. The difference is that no one paid them any attention. For The World this is Miranda Kennedy, Mumbai.

WERMAN: Tomorrow we stay in Bollywood for the third in our series of stories from Mumbai. A look at how Muslims are portrayed in Indian films.

India’s Muslim community

Michael Rass — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:50:28 +0000

One year ago this week, 10 militants arrived from Pakistan by boat in Mumbai, India. They fanned out across the city. They attacked hotels, a train station, and other targets. It took almost three days for the Indian authorities to end the violence – by then,166 people were dead. Mumbai’s Muslim community immediately hunkered down, terrified of a backlash. Fortunately for India’s Muslims and for their country, that backlash never came. Miranda Kennedy’s stories from India were funded by a grant from the International Reporting Project.

In the first part of the series, Miranda Kennedy looks at why not many Indian Muslims have become radicalized.

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Read the transcript>>>

The Taj Mahal Hotel was one of the sites attacked by gunmen

Although India’s Muslims have largely not been radicalized, the security forces have not refrained from targeting suspected homegrown terrorists.

In the second part of her series, Miranda Kennedy reports on the growing alienation of Mumbai’s Muslims.

Download MP3

Hameedia Mosque in Mumbai

Emraan Hashmi

Mumbai is also the capital of India’s film industry. Many of its workers, even some of its stars, are Muslim. But the films rarely portray the realities of Muslim life in India.
In part three of her series, Miranda Kennedy looks at Bollywood’s Muslims.

Download MP3

BBC coverage of Mumbai attacks

Miranda Kennedy’s stories from India were funded by a grant from the International Reporting Project.

India’s Muslim community – part 1

The World — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:50:20 +0000

One year ago, 10 militants arrived from Pakistan in Mumbai, India. They fanned out across the city to attack hotels and other targets. It took almost three days for the Indian authorities to end the violence. The Muslim community was terrified of a backlash, fortunately it never came. Miranda Kennedy has the first in her series of reports about the lives of India’s Muslims. Download MP3

Series page
BBC coverage of Mumbai attacks

MARCO WERMAN: It was one year ago this week that India suffered a horrific terrorist attack. Ten militants arrive from Pakistan by boat to Mumbai on November 26^th. They fanned out across the city. They attacked hotels, a train station, a Jewish center, and other targets. It took three days for the Indian authorities to end the violence. By then more than 160 people were dead. Mumbai’s Muslim community immediately hunkered down terrified of a backlash. Fortunately for India’s Muslims and for their country that backlash never came. Miranda Kennedy has the first her series of reports about the lives of India’s Muslims.

NEWS CLIPPINGS: And the news tonight is dominated by a series of terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai.

There have been multiple attacks at high profile locations in the main tourist and business area of India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

Nikhat Sheikh is a little ashamed of what first went through her mind last year when she heard that the attackers had laid siege to her city.

NIKHAT SHEIKH: We were very worried you know that now the kind of hatred people will have for us and then it would not be very good to say like that, there was a little relief when I came to know that no Indian was involved in this. Thank God you know.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: Thank God that Indian officials blamed Pakistani-trained militants rather than homegrown terrorists. Nine of the attackers were killed during the siege and the 10^th was captured. He’s on trial in Mumbai and could be given the death sentence for the attacks widely referred to in India as 26/11. India’s Muslim’s are a significant minority of 160 million but they’ve had an uneasy relationship with the state going back to India’s partition in 1947 when many Muslims moved to Pakistan. Those who stayed felt obliged to prove their allegiance to India over Islam and for many that feeling of insecurity remains. Nikhat sits down on the floor of her parent’s bedroom to play with her toddler son. Nikhat says she senses an increasing need amongst Muslims to prove that they’re not all terrorists. She’s writing a doctoral thesis about the impact of terrorism on her community. It’s something that especially concerns her because she has a second child on the way. Nikhat’s pregnancy shows even under her long black robe. She decided to wear it and to cover her hair with a head scarf when she went to college much to the surprise of her secular middle class family. Nikhat’s economically comfortable upbringing is unusual for her community. India’s Muslims are significantly poor and less educated than the general population.

SHEIKH: I really want to give that same kind of good feeling to my children that I had in my childhood. I was always proud to be an Indian. I never felt you know that being Muslim and being an Indian are two different things. I can be a very good Muslim and I can be a very good Indian. But now not anymore you know.

KENNEDY: Just in her lifetime Nikhat says she’s seen Muslims become more alienated from India. That’s partly due to the widespread international perception of Muslims as terrorists. After last year’s strikes in Mumbai the fear was that India was becoming a target for, or even a home for, international jihad. But that doesn’t seem to have happened.

ASHOK SINGH: There is a degree of alienation amongst the large Muslim community. There is radicalization but by and large Indian Muslims have stayed away from bombings.

KENNEDY: Ashok Singh, who studies Islam and terrorism, points out that Indian Muslims have been blamed for several domestic attacks over the years including major bombings on Mumbai in 1993 and 2006 and there’s been militant attacks in the disputed region of Kashmir for years. But there’s no evidence of any Indian ever joining al-Qaeda or any other international terrorist group. Singh credits India’s democracy saying it gives Muslims a peaceful outlet for their dissatisfaction. Irfan Engineer who runs a research center on Islam and secularism says there’s another explanation tool.

IRFAN ENGINEER: The Indian roots of Muslims are strong. We have not yet got Arabized or what they call Islamized. You know the standard Sunni Wahhabi ideology has not got roots amongst Indian Muslims. Muslims here were converted more Sufi saints who didn’t preach hatred against anyone not even against Hindus even during Muslim rule.

KENNEDY: Nikhat aggress that Indian Muslims have largely not been radicalized but she’s a little more cynical about why. Muslim’s economic status and education levels remain extremely low and they feel chronically persecuted.

SHEIKH: At least I have not seen Muslims you know in that position to take revenge. They’re too weak. They are too powerless to even think to do anything you know.

KENNEDY: She worries that her children will suffer discrimination or that her family or neighbors in her Muslim dominated Mumbai neighborhood could be blamed if there are more bombings or riots.

SHEIKH: We want out children to be safe. We want our men to be safe. We want our lives to be safe. It’s that way.

KENNEDY: For The World this is Miranda Kennedy, Mumbai.

WERMAN: Miranda Kennedy’s stories from India were funded by a grant from the International Reporting Project. Tomorrow she tells us about discrimination toward India’s Muslims.

Recruiting Somalis in Kenya

Michael Rass — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:30:10 +0000

Somalia has experienced almost constant conflict since the collapse of its central government in 1991. The long-running instability has created misery for its people. And it’s spilled over into its east African neighbor, Kenya, home to many ethnic Somalis.

Heba Aly has the story of one Kenyan community – hundreds of miles from the border – that’s lost one of its young men to the insurgency.

Isiolo, Kenya

Heba Aly: In a village in central Kenya, children play soccer in a dusty yard. For a ball, they use plastic bags tied up with rope. Many of the Kenyans living in this poor village are ethnically Somali, though their families have lived here for generations. One young man who grew up here was Tawakal Ahmed.

Tawakal Ahmed's friends

His friends remember him as someone who played soccer, hung out and chewed khat leaves, a stimulant popular among Somalis. But after high school, Tawakal began to change. He became increasingly religious. At first, his friends – like Frank Metro – weren’t too alarmed.

Frank Metro: It happened gradually and I didn’t anticipate it to go out of hand. I just thought; he’s just infiltrated with that theory of being holy, making it to heaven, but after a while, he will come to terms of the reality and maybe mix the religion and reality on the ground.

Heba Aly: But that didn’t happen. Instead, Tawakal took off for Somalia, where he joined Islamist insurgents fighting a new Western-backed Somali government, installed in early 2007.

Frank Metro: Then after a while, that is when we heard that he has passed. And so it was like, this is sad.

Heba Aly: There’s no official confirmation, but many here believe that Tawakal blew himself up in a suicide attack. His friends can’t understand why, since he never had much of a connection to Somalia. But recent changes in his hometown might provide some clues.

The home Tawakal Ahmed grew up in

Heba Aly: The sermon playing out of this mosque in Isiolo is in Somali. In recent years, Somali immigrants and refugees have settled and taken control of some of the mosques. Some locals say the new Somali mosque leadership is connected to extremist insurgent groups back home – specifically the feared al-Shabab. Hussein Noor Roble is a village elder.

Hussein Noor Roble: If ever there is a recruitment going on in this area, it’s done by those people – the elders of that mosque, be they the committee, be they the imam or whatever.

Heba Aly: Noor’s wife Kamar also sees extremism taking hold in the village. As she cooks a meal of pancakes, she remembers a day last year when some elderly women were celebrating the birth of the prophet, Muhammed.

Kamar: Boys from the mosque. They come. 20, 25, like that. They were many.

Heba Aly: She said the young men didn’t believe in worshipping anyone other than Allah. So they went on a rampage.

Kamar: That time, they stoned people. They stoned people. They come up to inside. They beat people… We said they were al-Qaeda.

Some residents say this mosque preaches a radical version of Islam

Heba Aly: It’s not clear that those labeled extremists here have any links to Al-Qaeda. Still, some locals say it’s this kind extremism that led Tawakal to his death. They also believe he was lured by money and the prospect of accomplishing something in life.

Village elder Noor invites Tawakal’s cousin over to talk. The cousin is too scared to give his name. He tells me it’s marginalization that leads young men like Tawakal to go to Somalia.

COUSIN: This government is not giving Kenyan Somalis any job, any opportunity. We are just like 2nd class citizens. The boys – and everybody – is annoyed with the government, with the life they are living, so they are ready to do anything.

Heba Aly: That’s why Somali insurgents usually recruit from predominantly Somali areas of Kenya. But Tawakal’s story is among the first known cases of recruits from central Kenya, hundreds of miles from the border.

Heba Aly: And that’s troubling to many here in Isiolo. Milgo Ahmed is another of Tawakal’s cousins. She worries other young men will follow her cousin’s path.

Milgo Ahmed: Tawakal is dead. But many many other Tawkals are going to have the same fate if the international community does not take action. We are not part of al-Shabab, we don’t know their ideology

Milgo Ahmed worries other young men will follow her cousin's path.

Heba Aly: She adds we are not interested in their fighting. But we cannot save our children from them. For the World, I’m Heba Aly, Isiolo, central Kenya.

View more photos from Isiolo

Somalia conflict leaks over the border

The World — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:19:48 +0000

Correspondent Heba Aly has the story of a young man from central Kenya who went to fight with the insurgents in Somalia. He’s believed to have blown himself up in a suicide bombing. Now his family and friends worry that other young men from his village will follow his path. Listen