US Muslims fear the enemy within

Now they are hoping their community is not next in line to face the chilling scenario of one of its own turning against the country of his birth.

"The fact that these young men were British-born Muslims creates a degree of a different kind of anxiety within the community," said Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a group that presses for American Muslims' civil rights and for the peaceful integration of Islam into US society.

"If this could happen in the UK, it is our worst nightmare that it could happen here."

British police said four young British Muslims possibly operating under a foreign "mastermind" carried out attacks on three Underground trains and one bus in London on July 7 which killed 54 people.