To give a balance to the style of reporting as shown in the Times article posted by Catwoman, I give this article from the Guardian/Observer and written by a female Muslim Journalist, Urmee Khan. She was also 'under cover' of sorts but her coverage is completely different and her reason for visiting the community in Leeds, much more positive and well intentioned.

Please be clear . . . I am not defending terrorism, I have already stated my disgust. My issue is about reporting styles and how the media is often not interested in what good intentions the majority of Muslims have; not interested in showing Muslims as decent human beings.

Catwoman you can shout from the rafters as loudly as you wish about Muslims not denouncing acts of atrocity or not doing enough to integrate. I don't think what you say is entirely correct, the issue is far more complicated and what is more, I think you know that. We can all find something on the net to support what we want to say.

Here is the article, it is very long because it is more of a journal, I've provided some excerpts too:

Young, British and Muslim: one woman's journey to the home of the 7/7 bombers. June 18, 2006

I'd like to quote the end of the article first:

'At the end of my month in Beeston, I come to some conclusions about being a Muslim in a place that entered the public consciousness for all the wrong reasons, like Dunblane or Lockerbie. Famous because it had some link to tragic events.

This impoverished community has warmth, hospitality and a decency that is never reported. I went to Beeston looking for signs of trauma. They are there, of course - but I came to see it as a neighbourhood, not as the vehicle for events that happened 200 miles to the south.
...
As I painted henna tattoos at the mela - including such names as Courtney and Connor - I had to remind myself that this park was the place where Tanweer had played cricket, a place that had sent a shudder through me on my first visit. Beeston is in fact much bigger than those four individuals, and so is Islam.

This journey has been hard for a British Muslim from the edge of London. The events of 7 July left me sick in the stomach, shocked and angry at the ideological rubbish which had allowed four so-called Muslim men to unleash carnage in the name of religion. Our religion.

In Beeston I found kind, decent people: young mums, bored kids, community cohesion, an interfaith set-up which was the pride of northern England. I came looking for mullahs bent on destruction. All I found was mothers. I came looking for answers to explain 7/7 and ended up realising that, just as in every community, there are complexities here that cannot be explained simply. Yes, some people are angry. But most are just trying to get on with their lives.

The first anniversary of the July bombings falls in just over a fortnight's time, and hard, blank faces will greet the inevitable new media intrusions. We'll get yet more descriptions of a 'closed community', full of danger and an 'it could happen again' mentality. Such descriptions, however, would be wrong.'


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/jun/18/july7.uk

Excerpts

Next month is the anniversary of the attacks on London. Three of the terrorists came from Leeds, two from the suburb of Beeston. Here, writer Urmee Khan reveals her remarkable experience living with the community which was home to the men who killed in the name of religion.

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To get under the skin of a community is hard. When it is scarred as badly as Beeston - home to two of the 7 July terrorists, with a third from nearby - it becomes almost impossible. This area of Leeds, in the LS11 postcode with about 5,000 people, has had the world's press gawp and shudder at the place which 'produced the monsters' that killed 52 people and injured hundreds more.

For months afterwards, TV cameras zoomed in on the terrace houses as correspondents announced: 'I'm standing in front of where the youngest suicide bomber lived. As you can see this is an area of deprivation and...' Their grave tones cemented an image of an area full of angry people, people who would give succour to terrorists. Despite such intensive exposure there has never been a real insight into a place often accused of being 'closed'. We have never heard the voices and aspirations of people such as Imran.
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Premises that used to house the area's only dedicated youth club were boarded up after it was reported that the bombers used to hang out there.
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Imran is about 6ft and quite heavy-looking. He is unshaven and has a big square diamond stud in his ear. He looks much older than his 28 years. 'I was on heroin and I used to deal but I've been clean for the past five years,' he says. 'My mates helped me. I was taken to another mosque, and while the others prayed my teeth were clattering as I went cold [turkey].'

The boys who helped him get off the drug included 'Kaka [baby] Shehzad Tanweer. The Aldgate bomber was a good friend of mine,' Imran says.

He goes a bit quiet and says: 'Kasme [promise] you're not secret service?' I promise and he continues: 'He wasn't a bad lad, you know.' Both Tanweer and Khan were part of the 'Mullah Crew' who helped local boys to get off drugs and embrace Islam again.

Imran looks in his rear-view mirror. 'These gora [white people] exaggerate stuff and we're all suddenly baddies.' It's been especially bad for his mother. He looks sad. 'She's frazzled. She just can't believe it. Those fucking journalists have made it hard to live around here.'
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I realise that many of the young men here are no more religiously observant than an equivalent group of white men.
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I came here expecting lots of angry young men. When the press came here last July, we were all told about 'disillusioned, young thugs'. And to a certain extent, there were lads milling about looking, well, pretty disillusioned. A large number get sucked into the boy racer scene, or use hard drugs. But anger was not something I experienced: there was not one Free Palestine flag in sight.

Real life is far more neutral
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The Asha Centre sits on Stratford Street, about three doors from the vaguely marked Stratford Street mosque. The only thing distinguishing it from a similar terrace house nearby is a bright yellow bit of canvas pinned above the door which says: 'Asha Centre 20 Years'.

This street was a particular focus of newspaper attention following 7/7. The mosque was reported to be radical . But both the Stratford Street and Hardy Street mosques had banned the bombers from worshipping, and worked closely with the police.
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It is the week of the Forest Gate raid, where two Muslim men are detained as police storm a house in east London. There are lurid tales in the papers that a chemical attack has been foiled. One of the brothers is shot in the shoulder.

I ask people in Beeston what they think as the headlines again use imagery of Muslim people as an enemy within, terrorists. 'Oh the stuff going on in east London, it's happening again,' one woman says. 'Obviously they got it wrong, like they got it wrong in Iraq, like they killed that boy in London, I don't trust these people - MFI, FBI, IE, EF whatever their funny organisations are. They need to work to reassure the Muslim communities they are not unfairly under fire.'

Another woman says: 'They have so much dodgy information, but they have to act on it to protect us. Maybe it's the price we have to pay for living in these times.' The first woman looked unconvinced, bit into her sandwich and said: 'We'll see'. These debates are happening in kitchens all over the country, including here. The men were later released without charge. There was no chemical plot.
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On Saturday, England play Jamaica in a friendly ahead of the World Cup finals. In Beeston, England flags flutter sporadically on the streets. The TVs in most houses are tuned into the match. There's suddenly a round of cheers. England have scored again and a young Asian man shouts out of the window to a young woman in a sari. 'Meena, you've got to come and see this, Crouchie's stupid dance - a right goal fest!'
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I am invited to a public meeting at the Al Hikmah Centre in Batley, about seven miles away. Organised by the Crown Prosecution Service, this 'listening, reassurance and information seminar' is called Engaging the Muslim Community. It is an opportunity for Muslims from all over Yorkshire to listen to CPS officials including its head of counter-terrorism.

There are about 70 people there, mostly elderly religious men. Some of the talk on race hate legislation and confidence in the criminal justice system feels like a law lecture. But interesting questions arise afterward such as: 'Why does Abu Hamza get put away when Nick Griffin [of the BNP] is not prosecuted?' The older men make long speeches about civil liberties, Iraq and Ireland.
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For the Reverend Bob Shaw, of the Holy Spirit Church in Beeston, the changing face of the area is an advantage as well as part of its problem. 'There are a fair number of refugees and asylum seekers from all over. I don't have a big congregation, but in it I have people from Cameroon, Lebanon, south India, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, South Africa and Malawi, and we're just a small congregation.

'The people here have really pulled together. That's what this community is all about. It is the most important thing, and it has saved us.'
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I admit I was surprised to see little Muslim girls running around with their faces sporting a red and white St George's flag, as they eat pakoras [an Indian dish] and bright blue ice lollies. It was everything a fair should be.

During the afternoon, the boys disappear to watch the football, and I remember the pride with which a friend of Imran's had told me: 'We've bought air horns for the England games!'
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This community is human, but sorry to say people aren't interested in reading about the normality of a community . . . IT DOESN'T SELL NEWSPAPERS!!!!! And that's only one reason

BBC news has broadcast that Young Muslims are to be taught "Citizenship" in Mosques. I found this too:

"Citizenship class for young Muslims

Young Muslims will be taught citizenship in mosque schools as part of a bid to prevent them being turned into extremists, the Government said.

Trials of the new lessons will begin in several cities at the start of the new term in September, said Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.

The initiative - designed to show youngsters there is no conflict between their religion and being British - is part of a package of measures due to be published.

It also includes a new independent board of academic and theological experts and a group of community leaders to advise on local responses to tackling extremism.

"We have made significant progress working with communities to build an alliance against violent extremists," Ms Blears said."

Taken from http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2932231.html?menu=news.story

Perhaps the media need "citizenship" classes too. Perhaps initiatives like this will only work if journalists report more responsibly. (I'm not talking about reporting atrocities btw).