Britain and Islamic Extremists
by Michael Curtis, AINA:
The official attitude, political and legal, of Britain to Islamic terrorists, jihadists, and their supporters has and continues to be ambivalent. It used to be indecisive: now it’s not so sure. If not imitating the action of the tiger, British policy needs stiffening of the sinews.
Events during the last month in Britain illustrate the uncertainty if not a double standard being invoked in decision-making. On one hand, Anjem Choudary, a terrorist linked to ISIS and to at least 15 terror plots, was on July 26, 2016 convicted in London and sentenced to prison. On August 9, 2016 a Muslim extremist named Tanveer Ahmed was sentenced to a 27-year prison term for the “barbaric, premeditated” murder in Glasgow of a fellow Muslim in an Islamic sectarian dispute. It was heartening news that the new prime minister Theresa May has spoken of a possible ban on extreme Islamic preachers in mosques and other places.
Yet, on the other hand and at the same time, the British Special Immigration Commission on April 18, 2016 took a surprisingly timorous position and allowed six Algerians, suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda, to remain in the UK because it felt they might be ill treated if deported to Algeria.
The benign attitude towards Islamic extremists has been repeated. On July 16, 2016 two Pakistanis clerics, Muhammed Naqib ur Rehman and Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman were allowed to enter Britain for a seven-week preaching tour, “a Sacred Journey,” at mosques in a number of cities. With what must be considered astonishing nerve, one of those cities is Maidenhead, the constituency of Prime Minister Theresa May herself.
The lack of judgment in admitting the two clerics to the country was compounded by the behavior of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. On July 18, 2016 he “welcomed” the two clerics to his official residence in Lambeth Palace in London. No one doubts the good will and intentions of the archbishop, who until he was aged 60 thought he was the son of a whiskey salesman of Jewish origin, towards members of other religions. He has on June 10 hosted the Grand Imam of the Al Azhar Mosque in Egypt.
The archbishop in a debate in the House of Lords in December 2015 showed political astuteness. He declared that ISIS would not be defeated by military action alone. Religious and political extremism needed to be confronted with a robust ideological response, and supporters of Islamic extremism had to be confronted. After the massacre in Nice on July 14, 2016 Archbishop Welby said, “Let us weep with them, let us stand with them.”
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