October 19, 2023 - 7:00am
William Shawcross’s review of Prevent — the prevention strand of the Government counter-terrorism strategy — was considered highly controversial when it was published earlier this year. This was not least due to its insistence that Islamist terror remains the most significant threat to Britain, and that neither resources nor attention were being allocated proportionately.
He also pointed out that, although counter-terrorism circles tend to define the threat posed by Islamism as one limited to groups like al-Qaeda and Isis, the Islamist movement in Britain is in fact much broader. Indeed, it poses a more complex challenge both in terms of security and this country’s democratic values.
Events of the last two weeks have surely proven Shawcross’s findings correct. First, despite the Israeli government’s insistence that Hamas is equivalent to Isis, they are vastly different groups in both ideological and strategic terms. Hamas’s version of Islamist ideology is closely informed by the worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Islamic State would deem as apostates (and therefore deserving of death). That said, Hamas has demonstrated a willingness to use tactics against Israeli civilians which are certainly reminiscent of Islamic State’s very worst abuses.
While Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood are often referred to as non-violent, the position of non-violence is contextual rather than philosophical. In Britain and across Western Europe, a variety of these non-violent Islamist organisations greeted the 7th October massacre of civilians as an act of resistance, amplified by those on the anti-imperialist and decolonial Left. For these groups, violence against Israeli civilians is entirely justified by virtue of the fact that, to them, “Israeli civilian” is simply an oxymoron: there is no such thing. They are settlers, colonialists and all subject to national service — so they are all combatants.
This is a message which obviously has some purchase, evident in the large crowds that gathered in the likes of Manchester, London and Birmingham to celebrate the act of resistance. This is not to mention the established support networks for Hamas in the charity sector (again highlighted by the Shawcross review), and their sympathisers in academia. A number of UK registered charities have long been suspected of links to Hamas, and several have been banned by other countries including the United States — their true activities masked by humanitarian rhetoric.
That said, in just the last few days jihadists have again demonstrated why they pose the most urgent security threat. On Friday in Northern France, a teacher was murdered by a known extremist whose family was subject to an expulsion order. Meanwhile on Monday, another extremist known to authorities, and who was not supposed to be present in Belgium, gunned down Swedish football fans — possibly an act of collective revenge for the recent Quran-burning stunts in Sweden and Denmark.
It is unclear if either attack is connected to the situation in Israel and Gaza, although France’s interior minister warned of a rising “jihadist atmosphere” since the Hamas raids. Certainly, in times of higher tension and instability, some jihadists may feel emboldened to finally act. This itself creates a perception of momentum and of the movement’s resurgence which encourages others — something for which Britain should also be prepared.
A moment when the Islamist movement as a whole feels emboldened is a dangerous one for this country. We, too, have our own “entrepreneurs of rage”, and our own jihadist population which has not gone away even if it has gone (relatively) quiet.
Throw into this mix the continuing threat posed by Iranian regime operations on British soil, something over which the MI5 chief raised the alarm this week, and we enter a highly combustible period. A period in which, again, we are reminded why Islamist extremism — whether legalistic or violently jihadist, whether Sunni or Shia, and whether state-sponsored or not — poses the biggest challenge to Britain and its allies, regardless of whether they are in vogue in countering-extremism circles.
Perhaps even more perilous, though, is what else the last two weeks have revealed, when so many can excuse, justify or even celebrate the mass murder of civilians: profound, and potentially irreconcilable, fissures in our own society.
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SubscribeI think we all know that not much will be done by ‘the powers that be’ in the UK:
1. The justice system (especially the police) is crippled by their own political correctness (Rotherham), ideology and ‘human rights’ laws.
2. No political party will do anything at all to stop the mass immigration, legal or illegal, of Muslims. No political party can enforce integration: that inflatable boat has sailed.
3. The prevailing culture of political correctness means most people in UK consider Islam to be a ‘religion of peace’, (or say they do, at any rate) and would oppose any restrictions that clearly treated Islam or Islamic institutions differently to, say, the Quakers or the Girl Guides. This despite any glaringly obvious differences in ‘values’.
4. The extant fear of being ‘cancelled’, sacked, arrested, assaulted, beheaded or stabbed means that many people won’t speak out publicly even if they don’t think Islam is a ‘religion of peace’: and so on nearly every critique aimed at other historic or religious institutions, Islam gets (and will continue to get) a free pass.
So if you’re scared of Islamic terrorism in the UK, and to some extent you probably should be, don’t hope to be protected by those in power: they have already put you in harm’s way and they preside over a culture in which you are in even more danger if you point this out; you are just putting your head above the parapet.
This problem will grow, the divide will deepen, the prevarication of government will continue, until civil conflict. I don’t like or want this and I very much hope it doesn’t happen in my lifetime. But considering the above, I’m afraid I just don’t see any other possible result being very likely.
But demographically the sooner it happens the better our chances of survival
Islamism provides the perfect counter-culture, not only for born muslims, but for any other immigrants from Africa or the Middle East who bear a grudge against us. Their asylum claim failed, or they didn’t get to be a pro footballer, whatever. The common pattern for such grudge-bearers is that they engage in petty crime, eventually they get imprisoned and once behind bars they get brainwashed by radical Islamists. On release from prison, they then have a world view that explains their misfortune by blaiming us.
The only way to break this cycle is rapid removal, which implies doing whatever it takes to neuter the ability of lawyers to throw spanners into the works.
Just withdraw legal aid form all immigration/deportation cases
“First, despite the Israeli government’s insistence that Hamas is equivalent to Isis, they are vastly different groups in both ideological and strategic terms.”
To me this is a distinction between the Islamic equivalents of ‘the Judean People’s Front’ and the ‘People’s Front of Judea’.
Agree, as an outsider looking in. However, one should never underestimate the narcissism of small differences: recall that, in the movie, the “People’s Front of Judea” hated the “Judean Popular Front” even more than they did the Romans.
No doubt the various sectaries and zealots will go for infidels such as we, as the first order of battle – but once they feel they’ve made some headway, they’ll be at each other’s throats soon enough.
Start arresting people and deporting whenever possible.
“Are the British police ready for a renewed terror threat.”
Judging by the caption photograph definitely NOT! In fact given their past history, have they ever been?
Not in Rotherham at least, local houmous sympathizers are too busy diddling with little local girls
Last week groups of unspecified activists tore don an Israeli flag from the town hall (marking the 1400 dead in the Hamas attack a few days earlier) and replaced it with a Palestine flag. Same at Sheffield town hall.
A very public display of power.
I wonder what the mayor of South Yorkshire has to say about it, especially from a Jewish perspective.
It isn’t ‘Islamism’, it’s Islam, the real Islam, the Islam invented, preached, and practised by Mohammed and his followers. The texts, and the supposed sayings and doings, are capable of an infinite number of ‘interpretations’, but all are held with utter certainty, and order or authorise violence in pursuit of their aims, and in furtherance of their power bases.
Yeah, I really struggle to get that whole “Islam is a religion of peace” rhetoric. Has anyone read the Qu’ran?
The sira of Mohamad is even more instructive. It describes his hundreds of attacks on neighbouring kufar communities tribes in glowing terms.
You lost me at ‘not immune’. Islamic jihadism is virtually guaranteed.
If a Muslim attacks gay people due to his reading of the Koran (as in Reading the other year and and attempted in London a couple of months ago), is this seen as islamist terrorism or just homophobia? Personally I believe Islamist terrorism is a lot more common than we are led to believe
Liam, what a moderate, calmly objective assessment of real existential threat to our security and democratic foundations, one which is not neatly arrayed against us like a monolithic foreign country, but a diffused one with its strong tendrils winding through our body politic and even stifling its own powers of self protection. Congratulations Tony Blair, this was what you were after, wasn’t it?
Well quite. I recommend David Kilcullen’s “Blood Year” for anyone interested in the battlelines of this new war.
Surely a statement of the bleeding obvious. Does ANYONE imagine we in the UK are immune from the Islamist threat (especially given our track record)?
A pensioner was stabbed to death in Hartlepool a few days ago. His killer was a cross channel migrant from North Africa staying in a local hotel at our expanse.
The authorities are being coy about his motives…
They are not islamists, they are British.
Islam is a religion, British is a nationality therefore they can be both
Only if they pass the ‘cricket test’ as Mr Norman Tebbit put it so appositely some years ago now.
Islamism is also an abstract political ideology, like Marxism. Both, as we know, have their ´practical applications´.
Unfortunately it’s quite possible to be both British and an Islamist.
‘We’ shall have to change that, which is why we have Parliament in the first place.