Come to Londonistan, our refuge for poor misunderstood Islamist victims Melanie Phillips The London Times June 06, 2006 http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-2212130,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,1072-2212130,00.html ACCORDING TO REMARKS attributed in the past few days to security sources, no fewer than 1,200 Islamist terrorists are biding their time within British suburbs. Yet does Britain even now fully understand the nature of the threat it is facing, let alone have the will to deal with it?
The recent report by the Commons Intelligence Committee on last July's London bombings barely scratched the surface of the failure by the security establishment. It failed to note, for example, Britain's dirty little secret: that from the 1990s, Islamist radicals had been given free rein in Britain in a "gentlemen's agreement" that if they were left alone, they would not turn on the country that was so generously nurturing them. The result was "Londonistan", as Britain became the hub of al-Qaeda in Europe. This intelligence debacle, however, was only the tip of the iceberg. Among Britain's governing class -- its intelligentsia, its media, its politicians, its judiciary, its Church and even its police -- a broader and deeper cultural pathology persists to this day. Londonistan is more than the physical presence of Islamist extremists. It is also a state of mind. To a dismaying extent, the British have signed up to the false narrative of those who are laying siege to their society. The problem lies in a refusal to acknowledge that Islamist extremism is rooted in religion. Instead, ministers and security officials prefer to think of it as a protest movement against grievances such as Iraq or Palestine, or "Islamophobia'. They simply ignore the statements and signs that show unequivocally that the aim is to Islamicise the West. In large measure, this is the outcome of a profound loss of cultural nerve. The doctrines of multiculturalism and minority rights, themselves the outcome of a systematic onslaught by the British elite against the country's own identity and values, have paralysed the establishment, which accordingly shies away from criticising any minority for fear of being labelled as bigoted. As a result, it ignored the radicalisation of many British Muslims by extremist Islamic institutions. Worse still, "grievance culture" has meant that instead of fighting the paranoia and lies driving the Islamists' hatred of the West, British society is afflicted by the very same pathology. Minority rights doctrine has produced a moral inversion, in which those doing wrong are excused if they belong to a "victim" group, while those at the receiving end of their behaviour are blamed simply because they belong to the "oppressive" majority. Britain effectively allowed itself to be taken hostage by militant gays, feminists or "anti-racists" who used weapons such as public vilification, moral blackmail and threats to people’s livelihoods to force the majority to give in to their demands. So when radical Islamists refused to accept minority status and insisted instead that their values must trump those of the majority, Britain had no answer. This was disastrous because Islamist violence is fuelled by precisely this false sense of victimisation. The mendacious message preached by Islamist leaders, that Britain and America are engaged in a war on Islam rather than a defence of their societies, is a potent incitement to terror by whipping up a hysteria that Muslims are under attack. So any attempt by the West to defend itself against terror becomes a recruiting sergeant for that terror. The more atrocities committed against the West, the more the West tries to defend itself; and the more it does so, the more hysteria among Muslims rises that they are under attack, and the more they are thus incited to hatred and to terrorism. The circle is completed by British fellow-travellers who promulgate the same morally inverted thinking, and thus help further to incite both Muslim extremism and Western defeatism. After the London bombings, this gave rise to the widely expressed view that the major problem was not Islamic terrorism but Islamophobia. It is impossible to overstate the importance -- not just to Britain but to the global struggle against Islamist extremism -- of properly understanding and publicly challenging this moral, intellectual and philosophical inversion, which translates aggressor into victim and vice versa. For it has destabilised debate by allowing Muslims to argue that British and American foreign policy is unfair and aggressive towards the Muslim world. So profound is the fear of being branded a bigot among British liberals that the obvious examples of illogicality, untruths and paranoia in such discourse have never been challenged. The British Establishment also ignores this because it is in a state of denial. With few exceptions politicians, Whitehall officials, senior police and intelligence officers and academic experts have failed to grasp that the problem to be confronted is not just the assembly of bombs and poison factories but what is going on inside people’s heads that drives them to such acts. Transfixed instead by the artificial division it has erected between those who actively espouse violence and those who do not, the British Establishment rejects the idea that the hatred of Jews, Israel, America and the West that suffuses the utterances of the Muslim Brotherhood forms an ideological conveyor belt to terrorism. The result of this institutionalised denial has been that the Government has settled upon a disastrously misguided strategy. Believing that Islamist terrorism is merely about grievances, it thinks it can appease Islamist rage by pandering to extremism and inviting Muslim Brotherhood radicals into the heart of the British Establishment as advisers. In Britain, hundreds of thousands of Muslims lead law-abiding lives and merely want to prosper and raise their families in peace. But truly moderate Muslims are finding that, through such appeasement, the host community is cutting the ground from under their feet and delivering them into the hands of the extremists. This is a deliberate policy of riding the Islamist tiger. But those who ride a tiger may get eaten. Extracted from Londonistan by Melanie Phillips, published next week by Gibson Square ============================================================== (UK) Muslim Britain split over 'martyrs' of 7/7 - Sixteen per cent of British Muslims, equivalent to more than 150,000 believes 7/7 London suicide bombing cause "was right" http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-2254764,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,22989-2254764,00.html (UK) 'Sympathy' For 7/7 Killers http://www.sky. <http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13508854,00.html> com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13508854,00.html One in five UK Muslims sympathize with the suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London on July 7, a survey suggests; poll also reveals four in 10 want hardline Sharia Law introduced to parts of Britain. The day when Osama bin Laden applied for asylum in Britain http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1802835,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2-1802835,00.html Commentary Melanie Phillips: Come to Londonistan, our refuge for poor misunderstood Islamist victims http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2212130,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,6-2212130,00.html (UK) Commentary: Appeasing jihadists http://www.washingt <http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060706-085930-1585r.htm> ontimes.com/op-ed/20060706-085930-1585r.htm In London, Islamic Radicals Found a Haven http://www.washingt <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901390.html> onpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901390.html (UK) Commentary: Behind the Lines: London in denial? http://www.jpost. <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885937402&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull> com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885937402&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Leaked No 10 dossier reveals Al-Qaeda's British recruits http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1688261,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1688261,00.html (UK) More than 230 terror suspects free to stay in Britain - identified by MI5 and Scotland Yard as suspected terrorists have been allowed to stay in Britain as asylum seekers http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2190421,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2190421,00.html Britain still hub for Islamic militants http://www.newsday. <http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-womili0414,0,4237102.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines> com/news/nationworld/world/ny-womili0414,0,4237102.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines (UK) Reporter plants (fake) 'bomb' on nuclear train http://www.itv. <http://www.itv.com/news/index_220726e533cf0a62a05bf86530f99875.html> com/news/index_220726e533cf0a62a05bf86530f99875.html (UK) MI5 fears Hezbollah terror attacks in Britain http://www.dailymai <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=397136&in_page_id=1770> l.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=397136&in_page_id=1770 (UK) Report: Bangladesh Islamist cleric to visit London - Delwar Hossain Sayeedi visa approved by UK govt - known for anti-Western rhetoric and was accused of war crimes last year http://www.washingt <http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060714-114725-2142r.htm> ontimes.com/upi/20060714-114725-2142r.htm Train bombers 'funded by British businessmen' - Indian intel officials accuse Britain of failing to stop wealthy businessmen funneling up to £8 million a year to LeT and other Kashmiri militants http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2273287,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,3-2273287,00.html July 7 ringleader linked to British Tel Aviv suicide bombers http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2261775,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2261775,00.html (UK) Imam Abubaker Deghayes backs terror attack against Blair - Brighton mosque radicalized http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2230761,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2230761,00.html (UK) Joking Muslim cleric mocks victims of London blasts http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2261777,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2261777,00.html UK probing 8,000 Al-Qaeda sympathisers http://www.hindusta <http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1737857,001301780000.htm> ntimes.com/news/181_1737857,001301780000.htm UK Imam's visit raises concerns - Sheik Riyadh ul-Haq invited to Scarborough mosque http://www.thestar. <http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150841198161&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home> com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150841198161&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home London Muslims urged to shun police http://www.washingt <http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060607-124858-5357r.htm> ontimes.com/upi/20060607-124858-5357r.htm UK Islamist Group Al-Ghurabaa: "There is no Room for Freedom in Islam" http://www.alghurab <http://www.alghurabaa.co.uk/articles/freedom.htm> aa.co.uk/articles/freedom.htm British computer whizz-kid exports terror via Internet - e-mail trail has led to arrest of global suspects recruited and schooled in bombmaking - senior security source says far greater number of terror networks in Britain than previously thought using Internet to plot attacks http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2214663_1,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,3-2214663_1,00.html (UK) Blunders that left Abu Hamza free - should have been removed from Britain 25 years ago after being caught flouting immigration laws http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2202315,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2-2202315,00.html (UK) Report: Papers Found in Ditch Detail Britain's Response to Terror Attacks http://www.foxnews. <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202307,00.html> com/story/0,2933,202307,00.html (UK) Guardian Report: Al-Qaida plan to infiltrate MI5 revealed - Attempts to join agency disclosed as police say four major terror plots foiled http://www.guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1812185,00.html> .co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1812185,00.html (UK) Amnesty plan for 500,000 illegal migrants http://www.telegrap <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/14/nimm14.xml> h.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/14/nimm14.xml (UK) MI5 at full stretch as 20 Islamist terror plots revealed - as many as 1,200 potential terrorist suspects may now be in the UK http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2200246,00.html> ine.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2200246,00.html (UK) More than 230 terror suspects free to stay in Britain - identified by MI5 and Scotland Yard as suspected terrorists have been allowed to stay in Britain as asylum seekers http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2190421,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2190421,00.html (UK) 900 terrorist suspects in Britain leave MI5 and police unable to cope http://news. <http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=702822006> scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=702822006 (UK) MI5 chief: terror threat to UK may be getting worse http://www.theheral <http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/61903.html> d.co.uk/politics/61903.html I killed US troops, British al-Qaeda gunman claims http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1723202,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1723202,00.html Briton convicted of missile plot in United States http://www.cnn. <http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/27/missile.plot.lakhani/index.html> com/2005/LAW/04/27/missile.plot.lakhani/index.html (UK) London Educational System: Providing Terrorism in Context or Moral Confusion? http://www.timesonl <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2227886,00.html> ine.co.uk/article/0,,6-2227886,00.html (UK) Lawmaker George Galloway - Killing Blair 'morally justified' - claims killing UK PM Blair in suicide bombing would be "morally justified" http://www.news. <http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19267877-23109,00.html> com.au/story/0,10117,19267877-23109,00.html BBC Documentary Says Terror Threat to UK is a Fantasy http://www.guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html> .co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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