Brit Muslim MP urges parents to guard kids against Islamic radicalism

London, Sept 20 : British parents need to do more to protect their children against Islamic extremism said a senior Muslim MP.

Shahid Malik, the Minister for International Development, said so after the sentencing of Hammaad Munshi, who was only 15 when a terrorist cell believed to have been plotting against the Royal family recruited him, according to The Telegraph.

Now 18, Munshi was found guilty last month of compiling information likely to be useful in terrorism. Anti-terrorist officers also discovered notes on how to make napalm, detonators and grenades on his home computer.

The teenager, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, had downloaded information about bomb making from the Internet and hid notes about martyrdom under his bed.

Malik said that parents had to be vigilant against the threat of radicalisation, especially via the Internet and also called upon mosques to do more to combat fundamentalism.

Munshi, who was arrested on his way home from a GCSE chemistry exam in 2006, had two small bags of ball bearings, which are key components of a suicide vest.

He was groomed by Aabid Hussain Khan, 23, who was jailed last month along with Sultan Muhammed, also 23. The duo, from Bradford, had links to other terrorist cells and had assembled a dossier on 15 members of the Royal family.

While sentencing him to two years in a young offenders' institution, Judge Timothy Pontius said Khan and others had taken advantage of Munshi's youth.

The judge said that he had no doubt that Munshi fell under the spell of fanatical extremists due to his immaturity and vulnerability. And Khan and Muhammed took advantage of his youthful navety in order to indoctrinate him with pernicious and warped ideas masquerading as altruistic religious zeal.

This case, quoted Judge Timothy, demonstrates how a young impressionable teenager can be easily groomed through the Internet to associate himself with views running contrary to true Muslim beliefs and values.

ANI