More troubles in ‘Londonistan’
We call it London, but its nickname among many terrorism watchers and security experts is “Londonistan.”
According to Foreign Policy magazine’s Leela Jacinto, “the term apparently originated with a sarcastic remark by a French intelligence officer frustrated by Britain’s failure to crack down on radical Islamists in their midst.”
Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies says it comes from the fact that Britain “was known in the 1990s for housing known extremists and the ‘Saudi opposition’ that had links to al-Qaeda. The policies in the U.K. didn’t distinguish between known extremists and average Muslims.”
“In fact, some of alQaeda’s public statements were even routed through London at the time,” Joscelyn said last night.
Theresa May is cranky about President Trump’s unhelpful tweets, but perhaps she should reserve her wrath for British politicians who have repeatedly refused to pass a counterterrorism bill May has been pushing since at least 2015. Some critics opposed elements of her approach, which focused in part on “extremist” speech and opinions by Muslim citizens. This is a legitimate concern.
But it appears the reason there’s been no forward motion on a policy is that some British politicians are still insisting that any discussion of terrorism that also includes a discussion of the civil war currently being waged in the Muslim community is unacceptable.
Imagine someone arguing during “The Troubles” that every discussion about terrorism must avoid discussing the issue of Ireland. This is just that stupid.
Melanie Phillips, who literally wrote the book on “Londonistan,” says that even in the wake of repeated terror attacks from their own Muslim communities, “the intersection of an aggressive religious fanaticism with the multicultural ideology of victimhood has created a state of paralysis across British institutions.”
That paralysis is on display yet again, as are the horrifying images of bomb fragments and burned children.
By the way, Phillips is also regularly denounced in Britain as a hater and extremist for tying the government’s obsession with promoting multiculturalism to jihadist violence. And yet the violence continues.
Since the London subway and bus attacks that killed 52 on July 7, 2005, the British media have been filled with stories we would find absolutely unacceptable here in the U.S.: Saudi-funded local schools using textbooks filled with anti-Semitism and homophobia; mosques run by The Muslim Brotherhood; Sharia courts operating across the U.K.
And yet the British elites insist that the root cause of terrorism must be found elsewhere. Which is why, unfortunately, that terror is likely to continue.