There is a reason why Britain, in the words of one French official, is and remains the "Pakistan of the West", an incubator, entrepot and exporter of Islamic radicalism. There is a reason why, according to MI6, we face a "unique" threat from home-grown extremists. There is a reason why Britain is the only country in the Western world to have been subjected to a successful suicide terror attack by its own citizens. These things have happened, in part, because the last government, and Britain's security establishment, got its policy just about as wrong as it was possible to get. We were harsh where we should have been liberal – and liberal where we should have been harsh.

Control orders, the push for three months' detention without charge, random and blanket stop-and-search, and Britain's complicity in torture did little or nothing to restrain terrorism. But they undermined the rule of law for which we are fighting, angered middle-of-the-road Muslims and gave the extremists priceless fuel for their favourite narrative, "Islam under attack".

At the same time, we were crazily indulgent of some of the world's most dangerous Islamist radicals....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

1. MarkP wrote: “successful suicide terror attack by its own citizens” He had to go a ways with adjectives to exclude Oklahoma City. April 27, 5:45 pm | [comment link]

2. Katherine wrote: And if the topic is Islamist extremism, as the headline indicates, it has nothing to do with Oklahoma City, unless one believes unconfirmed reports of a “Middle Eastern” man hanging out with McVeigh. April 27, 9:14 pm | [comment link]

3. MarkP wrote: Sorry Katherine. My point was that he couldn’t say “Britain is the only country in the Western world to have been subjected to a successful suicide terror attack by its own citizens” if he’d left out the word “suicide,” which word I don’t think he would have included if he hadn’t had specific incidents he wanted to weed out (including OK city). The fact of its being a suicide bombing isn’t otherwise important to his point. April 27, 9:29 pm | [comment link]

4. Katherine wrote: MarkP, only Gilligan could tell us what he intended.  I took it to mean that the U.S. has not yet suffered an Islamist mass attack such as the London train bombings which were perpetrated by UK citizens.  He does forget to mention the various Islamist attacks we have suffered (Maj. Hassan and the Arkansas shooting among others) and the ones our security people managed to foil before they happened.  To date, however, home-grown Islamist violence in the U.S. seems somewhat less virulent than in the U.K.  I thought his focus was there. April 27, 9:38 pm | [comment link]

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