A harsher message is emerging from some mosques in the north of England, especially in places like Burnley where many have roots in the war zone on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. The plight of people fleeing the region is keenly felt. Many blame Pakistan’s government, not the rebels. “People think the Pakistani government is fighting not for itself, but for American interests,” says Abdul Hamid Qureshi, the chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, which groups Muslims of all shades. People in an angry and defensive mood will hardly welcome Gordon Brown’s pledge, on April 29th, to work with the Pakistani army to fight terror. Neither will they take too seriously the prime minister’s vow to boost education and ease poverty on Pakistan’s border.

British Muslims, who number at least 2m, can amaze their cousins from South Asia with their religious conservatism. One reason is the high incidence of migration from poor, rural parts of South Asia, such as Mirpur in Kashmir and Sylhet in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh the fortunes of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party plummeted in last December’s election. But the movement can still attract second- and third-generation youths of Sylheti origin in London, who know little of the group’s record at home. Some British-based Bangladeshis are dismayed by the influence the Islamists enjoy in the diaspora.

Worry over radicalism made in Britain extends to Bangladesh, too. In March the Bangladeshi authorities raided a madrassa that was full of guns and ammunition. It emerged that this supposed school had been financed and run by a charity based in Britain. There are some institutions that no teaching material will correct.

... contd.