Thursday, July 05, 2007
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed in the Independent on Sunday
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, author of Overlook/Duckworth's The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry offers some thoughtful words on the recent UK car attacks.
"So there is every reason to believe that the extremist Islamist networks that incubated these cells are fully operational, and actively planning new terrorist attacks. MI5 spokesmen have said as much, confirming that nearly 2,000 Britons linked to al-Qa'ida are under surveillance, with 30 potential terrorist plots being tracked. This is a staggering figure. It suggests that we have a real problem of Islamist radicalisation in Britain. But there are caveats. Is this demonisation by association?
That was pretty much the question addressed on Radio 4's Today programme when London Mayor Ken Livingstone insisted that the vast majority of British Muslims are law-abiding citizens who have nothing to do with extremist Islamism. Radicalisation, he said, was really down to two key factors: anger at Anglo-American involvement in Iraq, and social disenfranchisement. Young Muslims, he noted, are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than others."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment