Standing up to the forces of evil
Soldiers in a show of strength
WHAT TURNED a British citizen, born and bred here, into a jihadist who was prepared to blow himself up – and innocent young people leaving a pop concert – in his home city?
Answering this question is now fundamental to the police and security operation that is in full swing after the cowardly extremist Salman Abedi perpetuated one of the worst terrorist attacks in this country’s history.
As the world shares Manchester’s grief, the Government’s rapid response – including the deployment of soldiers outside 10 Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace in a very visible show of strength – reflects the seriousness of the current threat.
Given that it was deemed necessary to raise the terror threat to ‘critical’ for the first time since 2007, the implication being that another attack is imminent, Theresa May would have been on a hiding to nothing if she did not accept the advice of experts – a Prime Minister’s first duty is upholding national security and the experience accrued from six years at the Home Office can only serve the country well at present.
And though there will, in time, need to be a wider debate about whether the security services have sufficient manpower at their disposal to track those extremists whose behaviour has aroused suspicion, and whether they need greater powers of intervention, it is only right that every precaution is taken to protect the public until more information is known about 22-year-old Abedi and his ‘network’ of associates.
A thankless task not made any easier by American agencies tactlessly leaking details of Abedi’s identity, and other background information, while the British authorities were appealing, reasonably, for discretion, Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s annoyance was plain to hear – the suicide bomber’s radicalisation holds the key to this frenetic investigation now underway. How did he become radicalised? Was he brainwashed? If so, by whom? What was the purpose, and significance, of his trips overseas? Who assisted him in making such a sophisticated bomb that was capable of turning an arena foyer into a war zone? When, and how, did he first become known to M15? Could, and should, they have intervened when he returned to Britain from Libya? Do they need new powers?
Challenges made even more difficult because of the extent to which the internet, a supposed vehicle of education, has at times become an agent of hate, these questions – and many more – go to the very heart of the recurring conundrum between public safety, civil liberties and freedom of speech.
Though Mrs May’s election manifesto makes reference to ‘defeating extremism’, it is predominantly in the context of empowering women to help Muslim women become liberated. It makes little reference to Prevent, and other community-led strategies to counter extremism, which now need to be reviewed to ascertain their effectiveness. The Tory leader says: “Our enjoyment of Britain’s diversity must not prevent us from confronting the menace of extremism.” Given soldiers on the street can only suffice for so long, the question is how?