From article: "We have closed our eyes to the reality that to fight for ISIL and to slaughter and maim on its behalf is a political act, not a religious one."
From Breitbart London
The sadistic beheading of the American journalist James Foley by an ISIL killer apparently from Britain, just a few days ago, is the first such killing of an American by a jihadist with a British passport.
But it is the second ritual beheading carried out by
British Islamists (the head of a British soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, was
hacked from his body by two of them in Woolwich, London last year in
full public view).
Jihadists from Britain are at the forefront of the most
violent extremism seen in modern times and many will properly be puzzled
by how such people be citizens of a civilised country like Britain and
why we seem powerless to prevent them from behaving like this.
On 8 October last year Andrew Parker, head of MI5,
Britain’s security service, said there were ‘several thousand Islamist
extremists’ in the UK. He also said that the UK has ‘one of the most
developed and effective set of counter-terrorist capabilities and
arrangements in the world’. Adding ‘for the future there is good reason
to be concerned about Syria. A growing proportion of our casework now
has some link to Syria, mostly concerning individuals from the UK who
have travelled there to fight or who aspire to do so. Al Nusrah and
other extremist Sunni groups there aligned with Al Qaeda to attack
western countries’.
If we knew all this last autumn, and if our capabilities
and arrangements are so superb, why have we not only failed to eliminate
the jihadist danger but actually seen it increase? Today about 500
young Muslims from Britain have travelled to Syria, turning jihad into a
gap-year activity.
One answer is that instead of quizzing Parker (and his
colleagues from MI6 and GCHQ) as to what should be done about several
thousand extremists in Britain, Britain's intelligence community was
stunned by a barrage of criticism from civil liberties groups and the
libertarians in the Tory and LibDem parties, a bizarre coalition, which
was frequently joined by prominent ‘human rights’ lawyers.
Already under attack from this lobby thanks to the
appalling activities of Edward Snowden, and of Julian Assange before
him, our intelligence chiefs found themselves having to justify their
work on our behalf instead of being able to request more resources and
firmer policies to make carrying it out easier for them.
Just a few days ago another jihadist from London, known
previously only as a rapper, whose music was broadcast on the BBC, was
seen in ‘the Islamic State’ proudly holding the severed head of a
soldier under the caption ‘Chillin’ with my homie of what’s left of
him’.
Another Brit, Reyaad Khan, 20, from Cardiff boasted online
of his ‘martyrdom ops’, ‘planning “fireworks” ’ and ‘executing many
prisoners’. Abdul Amin, an engineering student from Aberdeen texted that
joining ISIL was one of the ‘happiest moments of his life’. There are
many other like these: the list is very long. Foreign Secretary Philip
Hammond has admitted that ‘significant numbers’ of Britons are involved
in the commission of atrocities’.
It is now obvious to everyone that almost ten years after
the London bombings, Britain has a serious and growing problem when it
comes to young British Muslims becoming radicalised and turning to
terror. What now needs to be reflected upon is why this should be the
case – and what our policy makers must do about it.
Part of the problem is that many Muslims in Britain come
from parts of the world like Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Horn of Africa,
where political violence is endemic. Yet the biggest single trigger of
jihadism here has been our adherence to ‘multiculturalism’ which has
meant that we have for far too long allowed vile Islamist ideologies to
be propagated under the cover of ‘free speech’ or ‘religious freedom’.
Islamists in Britain have been able shamefully to exploit
our proud tradition of freedom and staying out of religious disputes,
seen as questions of personal faith. We have closed our eyes to the
reality that to fight for ISIL and to slaughter and maim on its behalf
is a political act, not a religious one.
Professor Anthony Glees MA M Phil D Phil (Oxon) is the
Director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS)
at The University of Buckingham
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