The Muslim Boys Of London

Dwayne Daniels, 21, is a gang-banger from the bad side of London, part of the Muslim Boys gang which makes its living from robberies and murders. He was recruited by Marcus Grant, 20, with the pitch, "Bin Laden showed people what Muslims can do, he made a big scene, he was in the papers."

Not all the recruits are voluntary. Says one Muslim Boy, "If you not down with Muslim, we visit your home, maybe strip you naked in front of your f****** mother, we put a gun in your mouth. We give you three days, then if you not down with it, we f****** blow . . ." At least one young guy who refused to convert was shot several times in the head and left dead in a park.

Grant is an uneducated but cunning kid who bought the Muslim Boys line attacking the Bible, "They said it has been rewritten 10 times, and it’s being rewritten again. They said, ‘It’s not God writing it, so who is? It is just lies’." Christians were dirty, they said.

Islam provided a good foundation for gangster operations. Grant says, "They said the Koran says you can take things from people. And they said they were cleaning up the streets by killing drug dealers. And when that happens a few times you have other criminals thinking it might be sensible to join Islam or they’ll be killed too."

There is a subculture of these kids, who hail from broken homes with absent or negligent parents, for whom Islam provides power and structure in their otherwise empty and futile lives. The step from gangster to terrorist is a small one.