LONDON, Oct 31: Traitors or would-be martyrs misguided by radicals, young British Muslims anxious to do their bit for Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban face an unenviable choice between their country and their religion.

They may be traitors, warns the government in London, saying they could be prosecuted under a 750-year-old treason law.

No, say radical British-based Islamic groups such as al-Muhajiroun — they are defenders of the faith willing to “martyr” themselves for the cause.

They are misguided dupes, lament moderate Muslims, denouncing their radical colleagues as a “lunatic fringe” giving Islam a bad name.

Most Muslims in Britain have condemned the September 11 suicide attacks in New York and Washington which led to the US-led riposte against chief suspect Osama bin Laden, who is based in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Tony Blair insists his fight is against terror networks such as bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, not against Islam.

But an al-Muhajiroun spokesman calling himself Abdul Haq claimed he knew of at least 100 men of fighting age who had left here to help the Taliban.

The figures are disputed by the government and other groups, who say little more than a handful of Britons may be helping the Taliban.

The big mistake London has made, Haq said, was to believe in the concept of a British Muslim.

“For us as Muslims, our identity is based upon a creed, an ideology, not a nationality,” he told AFP.

“My sovereignty is only to God, not to queen, country or government. If my Islamic law contradicts British law, then change the (British) law, but I will never change my belief.”

Haq said six men from Britain had been killed in the US-led raids so far on Afghanistan, four of them while they were praying in a mosque. “They were all fighters.”

Al-Muhajiroun’s claims, however, are met with much scepticism.

“We have had no official reports of any British deaths in Afghanistan,” the Foreign Office said.

Blair’s spokesman dimisssed talk of hundreds of British Muslims en-route to Afghanistan as “way off beam.” It was more likely to be “a handful.” Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, derided al-Muhajiroun as a “lunatic fringe” distorting the truth for its own ends.

“They have been using the war and the misery of innocents to make political mileage,” he said. “They want to gain some kind of currency with a community that has rejected them.”—AFP