Bollards, barriers, bans . . . everything but tackling extremism head-on
by James Fenner, The Conservative Woman:
In May 2017, Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb at the Manchester Arena and killed 22 innocent people. Many of the victims were young girls attending a pop concert. The act was described as ‘senseless’ and ‘incomprehensible’. More than a year later, a recording surfaced from the Didsbury Mosque and Manchester Islamic Centre, the mosque that Abedi frequented. The audio recording is of Imam Mustafa Graf, who appears to discuss the virtues of ‘military jihad’ with his congregation. Graf’s flock remain silent throughout the entire affair and offer no objection to his words.
To the uninitiated, these details, which were part of a BBC exposé, may come as a surprise. To those familiar with Abedi’s former place of worship, this is not news. The mosque is renowned for hosting Islamists, and many of its former attendees have connections to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The mosque has also experienced a run of bad luck with members of its congregation, a number of whom have become ISIS recruits.
The BBC should be commended for its belated investigation into Didsbury Mosque. But waiting over a year to ask the tough questions summarises the problem with Britain’s approach to Islamic terrorism. All too often, the ruling class are stunned to learn of prominent figures within the Islamic community touting jihad. This surprise – feigned or otherwise – is an inevitable consequence of ignoring the very institutions that enlist such speakers.
On Islam, Britain remains in a juvenile, ill-informed, uneducated state. We know the barriers and bollards are aimed at stopping vehicles from careening into pedestrians, but we don’t appear to want to know the why. Why do some Muslims want to drive cars into non-Muslims? So, the uncomfortable questions are ignored – questions about the Koran and the hadiths, and the mosques and madrassas, and the Saudi money. Instead, we look the other way. We prefer to think about other things. As Douglas Murray so aptly puts it, our culture is ‘becoming expert at forgetting what happened the day before yesterday’.
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