DEWSBURY, UNITED KINGDOM // Ten years after the ringleader of the London bombings set out from his Dewsbury home to blow up a train, the small English town is again grasping for answers after a local teen-turned-suicide bomber staged a deadly attack in Iraq.
As Britain marks the anniversary on Tuesday of the attacks which killed 52 people, many in Dewsbury’s tight-knit Muslim community blame the internet for radicalisation, and eye government anti-extremism projects with suspicion.
A recent speech by prime minister David Cameron in which he accused some British Muslims of “quietly condoning” extremist actions has sparked outrage in the town.
“What Cameron said has angered people,” said Madiha Ansari, a local resident who has set up a literature club for vulnerable youths.
“It’s like asking middle-aged white males to apologise for paedophilia,” interrupted her younger brother Bilal.
Dewsbury’s problems are a microcosm of those faced across the country, said Ms Ansari, with cities from Portsmouth to Coventry asking how hundreds of their citizens ended up dying on foreign militant battlefields.
Despite a decade of soul-searching over how local man Mohammad Sidique Khan became the leader of a foursome of suicide bombers that attacked London on July 7, 2005, the town seems no closer to agreeing on how to combat homegrown extremism.
The debate has intensified in recent days following reports that a 17-year-old from Dewsbury, Talha Asmal, had become Britain’s youngest suicide bomber, killing 11 people near an Iraqi oil works.
His neighbourhood friend Hassan Munshi is still believed to be fighting alongside ISIL militants.
Some point the finger at local mosques, with Dewsbury’s Zakaria mosque, where both Munshi and Asmal worshipped, coming under the microscope.
The mosque sits modestly among the terraced houses of Savile Town, the epicentre of Dewsbury’s 20,000-strong Muslim population.
Around the corner is the huge Markazi mosque, where Khan worshipped.
Between 97 and 99 per cent of Savile Town’s residents are Muslim, most of them descended from Indian and Pakistani immigrants.
Despite teaching conservative strains of Islam, locals strongly deny the mosques are to blame.
“The mosques have never preached about hatred. They are places of peace where people go to pray and that’s it,” said worshipper Rizwan Essat.
Law student Adam Zaman added: “There are bad crowds in terms of violence, drugs.
“But bad crowds, in terms of recruiting and extremist views, it’s just not like that.”
Home secretary Theresa May recently asked parents to report “radicalised” children to police, and new laws now force schools to tackle the problem.
But many warn such actions risk further polarising communities and fostering an air of permanent suspicion.
The town has no shortage of success stories either, having produced Conservative lawmaker Sayeeda Warsi, numerous entrepreneurs, cricketers and rugby superstar Sam Burgess.
“Although you have the fundamentalist side here, you also have a lot of people who work hard and want their kids to achieve,” said Ms Warsi said during a drive around Savile town.
As she turned a corner, she pointed to a red-brick home.
It was from here that Khan set off on the morning of July 7 to detonate a bomb on an underground train, killing six people.
* Agence France-Presse
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
RESULTS
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Winked, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB) Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Boerhan, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard
6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA) Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA) Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Messi, Pat Dobbs, Timo Keersmaekers
7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA) Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle
8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
'The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure'
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, Penguin Randomhouse
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Company%C2%A0profile
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PFA Team of the Year: David de Gea, Kyle Walker, Jan Vertonghen, Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Alonso, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Christian Eriksen, Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah, Sergio Aguero
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
