Is threat to uk

The massacre of 300 worshippers at a Sufi mosque in Egypt’s Sinai province should deeply trouble us – not just because all these innocents died but because it exposes the insanity of current government policy concerning returning jihadists.

A month ago, Max Hill, QC, the independent reviewer of anti-terror laws, revealed what is effectively government policy on the hundreds of fanatics who have returned to the UK after fighting for Islamic State (IS) and similar groups such as Al Nusra (current estimates are that 425 of an estimated 800 who fought for IS have returned.)

Mr Hill said in a BBC radio interview that: “The authorities have looked at them and looked at them hard and have decided that they do not justify prosecution, and really we should be looking towards reintegration and moving away from any notion that we are going to lose a generation due to this travel.”

In essence, we are treating war criminals who hate us and our way of life as no more dangerous than muggers or burglars. Currently, our only real defence is the difficulty of obtaining military-grade weaponry in the UK. Those of us old enough to remember the devastating effect of Libyan arms shipments to the IRA will not feel reassured.

To protect the public, we need to adopt a far tougher approach, and require those who have been in Iraq and Syria during the conflict to prove that they were not involved with Islamist groups. This should be relatively straightforward for a native of the region, a journalist or an NGO worker, but rather harder for British Muslim adventurers.

OTTO INGLIS Inveralmond Grove, Edinburgh