They're Not Dangerous Jihadi Terror Groups, They are "Safety Valves"

The Government has opened the way for official links with Muslim extremists after civil servants said radical groups could be a "safety valve" for those tempted by terrorism.

The groups specifically named - in documents leaked to The Sunday Telegraph - include al-Muhajiroun, which has praised 9/11 as "magnificent" and Hizb ut Tahrir, which wants to turn Britain into an Islamic dictatorship under sharia law.

See here and here for our archives on these two groups.
In addition, al-Muhajiroun's spinoff group Islam4UK was banned in January after planning a march through Wootton Bassett, a town known for honoring fallen soldiers upon their return to Britain. Is this supposed to be a "safety valve?"

In the classified papers, presented last week to Coalition ministers on the Cabinet's home affairs committee, officials say a "clear assessment" has been made that individuals "do not progress" to violence through such groups.

One paper, classified "Restricted" and entitled "Government strategy towards extremism", says: "It is sometimes argued that violent extremists have progressed to terrorism by way of a passing commitment to non-violent Islamist extremism, for example of a kind associated with al-Muhajiroun or Hizb ut Tahrir ... We do not believe that it is accurate to regard radicalisation in this country as a linear 'conveyor belt' moving from grievance, through radicalisation, to violence ... This thesis seems to both misread the radicalisation process and to give undue weight to ideological factors."

In fact, at least 19 terrorists convicted in Britain have had links with al-Muhajiroun, including Omar Khayam, sentenced to life imprisonment as leader of the "fertiliser bomb" plot, and Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the airliner "liquid bomb" plot, who is also serving life.

Al-Muhajiroun provided backing to Abu Hamza, the extremist cleric, whose Finsbury Park mosque was a forming-ground for other terrorists. Advertising a conference held in the mosque in 2002, al-Muhajiroun leaflets described the 9/11 hijackers as the "magnificent 19".

Go read the whole thing.