Britain must fight fire with fire
Other Voices
By Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor
WHEN news of the terrorist attack in Manchester first broke, I experienced feelings of sorrow. England, where I have a country home, has always held a special place in my heart. But since soulless fiends murdered innocent people in London out enjoying a lovely summer’s evening, my sorrow has turned to rage.
Eyewitnesses say the killers shouted “This is for Allah” during their indiscriminate stabbing rampage. One woman was stabbed up to 14 times. I do not know which god they worship or religion they follow. I do know it is not mine. They are cultish blasphemers hiding under Islam when their deity is death.
The Holy Quran forbids the killing of women and children even during war and states that the killing of one innocent person is like killing all of humanity. These sick individuals are not only robbing human life all over the world, they are waging war against everything my tolerant, peaceful faith, the religion of Islam, stands for.
Prime Minister Theresa May said enough is
enough. She has finally admitted that the United Kingdom has been too tolerant of extremism. What took her so long to reach that conclusion? It is one that I came to many years ago when DAESH was touting for followers in the centre of London under the eyes of the police and its flags were seen fluttering over one of the capital’s suburbs.
In December 2014, I wrote in an article headed “The UK, an extremist’s Utopia” that evidence is pointing to Britain becoming a safe haven for terrorist organizations. I went on to cite the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal, where state-run schools in Bradford were found pursuing an extremist agenda, and the freedom given to Al Muhajiroon whose radical leader Anjem Choudary was recruiting for DAESH.
It amazes me that one of the London attackers, Khuram Butt, was a Choudary sympathiser who had been on MI5’s radar since 2015. Another had been flagged by Italy. The killer who murdered four people last March in Westminster had also been investigated by MI5 only to be written off as harmless. There seems to be a pattern here. What is the point of tracking suspects when they are free to embark on bloody rampages at will? It is a similar story in France and Belgium.
Britain has even put out a welcome mat for the Muslim Brotherhood. When I read a message on the Home Office’s (Ministry of Interior) own website actually inviting “high profile or politically active” Brotherhood members to apply for asylum in the UK, I was incredulous. The father of the terrorists’ ideology was one of the Brotherhood’s own leading lights Sayyid Qutb.
The UK’s politically correct culture has gone to ridiculous extremes. The police hesitated to arrest Pakistani gangs that were sexually abusing 1,400 children in the town of Rotherham because “of not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat”, as one Member of Parliament quoted by Forbes magazine explained. This is utter madness. It is nothing short of appeasement. It is beyond my comprehension why it took three attacks in two months for Britain’s government to open its eyes.
Stripped down to its bare bones, the situation now is this. Britain has to deal with a ruthless enemy within. According to a recent report in the Daily Mail, “MI5 struggles to deal with 500 terrorism probes at any time and has foiled five plots in the past five months.” Britain’s newspapers have been warning of a wave of jihadist returnees from Syria and Iraq where DAESH’s enclaves are being pummelled.
The security services are currently monitoring 23,000 terrorist suspects, including hundreds who returned home from Syria.
There are only around 124,000 full-time police officers in the entire country. They are not all on duty at the same time. How can they be expected to secure every single soft target from an assault? Most are unarmed. The contingent of specially trained counter-terrorism police is relatively small.
Mrs May seems to think regulating the internet by co-opting social media providers to assist governments in decrypting suspect messages and taking down sites where extremists disseminate their ideology and plot terrorist acts is the answer. That is an important step, but it is long-term and dedicated mass murderers will always find alternative methods of communication.
I strongly believe that Number Ten should take another more effective approach bearing in mind that the first human right is the right to life. The right to life of peaceful citizens should always come before any rights claimed by people who are on the path to hell.
Realistically, 23,000 suspected plotters and haters cannot be watched 24 hours a day and their encrypted messages cannot be deciphered. In this case, there is only one solution that would save lives.
British passport holders currently being monitored should be locked up in detention camps, preferably sited on an uninhabited island. In fact, one of Scotland Yard’s Assistant Commissioners has called for radical extremists to be interned. Good idea. Lock them up and throw away the key.
Others with dual nationality and non-Britons should be immediately deported without any right of appeal, their files transmitted to their home countries to enable officials to deal with them as they see fit.
The UK and other targeted European states should stop doling out passports to all and sundry. So many recipients are without any loyalty to the country. So many second and third generation Britons, French and Belgians have viciously turned against the land which gave their grateful parents or grand-parents sanctuary from war or poverty. The practice of giving nationality to babies of foreign parents who happen to be born on UK soil should also be stopped.
Moreover Britain, the European Union and the United States should resolve to get tough on states such as Iran and Qatar, known to have funded or armed terrorist or extremist organizations; their assets should be frozen. Countries that wilfully turn a blind eye because they hunger for foreign investment are complicit by default and should be held to account by their people.
I was caught by surprise when the Eiffel Tower went dark following the attacks on Tehran’s Parliament and Khomeini’s mausoleum. The capital “stands in solidarity” with Iran Tweeted the Mayor of Paris. Of course, all our hearts go out to the victims of terrorism no matter their nationality, but