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July 05, 2007

Fatal flaws in our defence against terror

From the desk of Melanie Phillips: 

''Far from damping this fire down, the Government itself is fanning the flames still further. Because it refuses to acknowledge that this is an Islamic religious war against the West, the political and security establishment is actually trying to use Islamist religious extremism as an antidote to Islamist terrorism without acknowledging the unbroken line between the two.

''So it is actually promoting, as role models for impressionable young Muslims seeking a purpose to their lives, Islamists who claim not to support violence - even though they spout hatred of the West, Americans and Jews.

''Ludicrously, it has even recruited Islamist radicals into government - to act as advisors against Islamic radicalism.

''This lethal misjudgment has had disastrous results. Extremism has multiplied. The police themselves have been compromised. As the former radical Ed Husain has written, Islamists who work closely with the police to "represent Muslims" have been tipping off jihadists about police activities.

''And the Government's refusal to outlaw Hizb ut Tahrir, on the spurious grounds that although it promotes the Islamic takeover of Britain it is not committed to violence, has meant that this group continues to recruit thousands of students on campus to the cause of jihad against the West.'' <<Quick Read>>

Britons take it easy in the new age of terrorism 

''The threat level in Britain is “critical”. This means that a new terrorist attack could be imminent. Would-be car-bombers are said to be still at large. Iraq-style terror tactics have arrived.

''But the British public seems to be more worried about the threat from the domestic tabby than the menace of suicide bombers. Checking the BBC website on Monday for news of the latest arrests, I noticed that the “most read” story in the UK was headlined: “Experts warn on cat allergies.” Terrorism did not make it into the top five.

''Certainly the Londoners I travelled to work with did not seem terrified – or even particularly anxious. The crowds on the Tube were, as usual, immersed in their free newspapers and insulated by their iPods. People seem to have decided that the “British” thing to do (to use our new prime minister’s favourite word) is to stay calm. But the commuters around me were not putting on a brave face. They seemed genuinely relaxed.

''There is an obvious explanation for this. None of the three attempted bombings so far has killed anyone. Ever since the Tube bombings of July 7 2005, we have been warned that further attacks are inevitable. Given the grisly array of possibilities – dirty bombs, truck bombs, even nuclear terrorism – the startling incompetence of the recent attacks has come as something of a relief. Setting yourself on fire and then punching a policeman, while shouting “Allah”, is about as low-tech as it gets.''<<Full Read>>

 

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July 04, 2007

Is this a war? Britain still hasn't quite decided

From the desk of Anshel Pfeffer:

''The reaction in Britain to two car bombs in London and a third up north baffles most Israelis, and not only Israelis. There is no rush to the scene by senior politicians; the cabinet doesn't change its agenda but instead goes ahead with a planned debate on constitutional reform; and the new prime minister makes do with a short statement, not mentioning the suspected perpetrators.

''Indeed, it was only two days after the car bombs were found in central London that Gordon Brown acknowledged to the BBC that it's "clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaida."

''Even after the third incident at Glasgow Airport, the Scottish justice minister thought it important to quickly point out that the suspects were "not Scottish." And all the time, Londoners went on with life as usual and the passengers at Glasgow waited patiently for their delayed flights to be rescheduled.

''It's not as if anyone had expected London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the man who justified Palestinian suicide bombers since they "only have their bodies to use as weapons," to suddenly transform himself into Rudy Giuliani. Yet, from here, it's hard to fathom why, despite the fact that this weekend's failed attacks occurred just a week before the second anniversary of the 7/7 suicide attacks on the London public transport system that killed 52 commuters, Britain still hasn't quite decided whether it's at war.

''Some old-timers, and those old at heart, like to see this as a 21st Century model of the stiff upper lip: "Don't you know that the blitz was 10,000 times worse, and we still kept on." Another standard explanation is the one that sees all of Britain's shortcomings in the war on terror stemming from a craven attitude towards Muslim extremists on the part of the government, media, academia, police and even the Prince of Wales. They are all deemed to be to blame for the growth of "Londonistan."

''And now that there are three million rapidly radicalizing Muslims in the Kingdom, few politicians are brave enough to take on a community that, come the next elections, will control the outcome in a string of marginal constituencies. But this, too, is an oversimplified view of the problem.'' <<Read Full>>

 

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Douglas Murray: Britain should be seen more 'succesfull'

One of the things that Britain must prepare for is the fact that future attacks on Britain will, at some point, be more ‘successful’ in the eyes of the terrorists than the attacks last week. It is at that stage that Britain faces one of its most decisive moments, and it is as well to prepare for it now.

The question is, will future attacks be blamed – as the thwarted attacks already have been by Matthew Parris and others – on the foreign policy of this country? Will the Matthew Parris-types in Britain succeed even if the evidence once again points to terrorists radicalised at some pre-Iraq date? In other words, will we blame ourselves, or will the public and our politicians still have the sense to react with a unanimous and indignant ‘How dare you’? <<Quick Read>>

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Radical Islam advances on two fronts

From the desk of Bret Stephens: 

''In radical Islam, the vision is advanced along two tracks: as a war for supremacy within the community, and as a war for supremacy without. It may be futile to speculate about what precisely drove the jihadis to strike at this particular moment: It could have been in reaction to the knighthood awarded to novelist Salman Rushdie; it could have been a send-off to the detested Bush poodle Tony Blair; it could have been an invitation to the cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown–stuffed with opponents of the war in Iraq and Israel’s war against Hezbollah–to draw the same lesson Spaniards did from the Madrid train bombing and withdraw their forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Whatever the case, it stemmed from a generalized hatred of a civilization that can’t quite decide what to say or think about the niqab.

''In this battle, radical Islamists will almost certainly lose: Britain has nearly four decades of experience combating, and defeating, vastly more competent terrorists. The country is much less sure-footed when it comes to fighting the battle against radical Islam on the first track.

''Consider the case of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation). Banned in Germany for anti-Semitism and in much of the Middle East and Central Asia for advocating the replacement of existing governments with an Islamic caliphate, Hizb ut-Tahrir nonetheless has no proven links to terrorism and is not listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. In Britain it disseminates “its thoughts through discussion with the masses, study circles, lectures, seminars [and] leaflet distribution,” as it explains on its regularly updated Web site, hizb.org.uk. It sees no distinction between “political” and “traditional” Islam. Not surprisingly, it is at the forefront in opposing efforts to curb the use of the veil.''<<Full Read>>

 

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July 02, 2007

Three threats to Europe's future

''There are three threats to Europe’s future. The first comes from demographic decline. Europeans are simply not reproducing, for reasons that are unclear. They seem to care more about the ozone layer and carbon emissions than they do about the continuation of their own societies. Or perhaps bringing up children interferes with what they conceive to be the real business of life: taking lengthy annual holidays in exotic locations and other such pleasures.

''The second threat comes from the presence of a sizable and growing immigrant population, a large part of which is not necessarily interested in integration. As the population ages, the need for immigrant labor increases, and among the main sources of such labor are North Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. When I recently drove to Antwerp from the South of France, I thought I had arrived in Casablanca. There are parts of Brussels where the police are enjoined not to be seen eating or drinking during Ramadan. Similar accommodations are occurring all over Europe: in the Central Library in Birmingham, for example, I found a women-only table occupied exclusively by young Muslims dressed in the hijab. (They were the lucky ones, members of liberal households that allowed them out on their own.)

''The third threat comes from the existence of the welfare state and the welfare-state mentality. A system of entitlements has been created that, however economically counterproductive, is politically difficult to dismantle: once privileges are granted, they assume the metaphysical status of immemorial and fundamental rights. The right of French train drivers to retire on full pension at the age of 50 is probably more important to them than the right of free speech—especially that of those who think that retirement at such an age is preposterous. While Europe mortgages its future to pay for such extravagances—the French public debt doubled in ten years under the supposedly conservative Chirac—other areas of the world forge an unbeatable combination of high-tech and cheap labor. The European political class, more than ever dissociated from its electorate, has hardly woken up to the challenge.'' <<Full Report>>

Palestine is a failure with a thousand fathers

''And make no mistake: No matter how much diplomatic, military and financial oxygen is pumped into Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, it's oxygen flowing to a corpse. Palestine has always been a notional place, a field of dreams belonging only to those who know how to keep it. Israelis have held on to their state because they were able to develop the political, military and economic institutions that a state requires to survive, beginning with its monopoly on the use of legitimate force. In its nearly 14 years as an autonomous entity, the PA has succeeded in none of that, despite being on the receiving end of unprecedented international goodwill and largesse.

''Hamas's seizure of the Gaza Strip this month--and the consequent division of the PA into two hostile, geographically distinct camps--is only the latest in a chain of events set in motion when Israel agreed, in September 1993, to accept Arafat and the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. An early indicator of what lay ahead took place on July 1, 1994, when Arafat made his triumphal entry into Gaza while carrying, in the trunk of his Mercedes, four of the Palestinian cause's most violent partisans. Among them were the organizers of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the 1974 Ma'alot school massacre. If ever there was an apt metaphor for what Arafat's rule would bring, this was it. '' <<Quick Read>>

 

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