Schools Threat as Wales Is 'Target for Extremists'
EXPRESS: COUNTER terror experts are targeting schools feared to have been ¬infiltrated by Islamic fundamentalists using Wales as a base for recruitment.

The move comes after the country was identified as having a “very real” threat of terrorist activity.

Experts fear that extremists view Wales as a safe haven compared with London for would-be terrorists.

A leaked “restricted report” called the Wales Contest plan exposes growing radicalisation in Cardiff and proposes extra training in how to spot extremism for staff at schools “identified as having increased risks” of radicalism.

In December 2010, Cardiff brothers Abdul Miah, 25, and Gurukanth Desai, 30, along with Omar Sharif Latif, were arrested after planning a Mumbai-style attack on the London Stock Exchange. They were eventually jailed for a total of 40 years.

Last year Idris Faridi, 32, of Roath, Cardiff, was jailed for nine months after a “terrorist’s manual” called 39 Ways To Serve And Proceed In Jihad was discovered on his computer’s hard drive. He had applied to work at the Millennium Stadium during the Olympic Games.

A Welsh Government spokesman said last night: “In Wales, we work with a wide range of partners from across the public sector to raise awareness of issues relating to extremism and to improve community cohesion.

“As in England, this work includes education sessions for teachers and staff, undertaken by police ‘engagement officers’, which enables any potential issues to be identified and dealt with quickly.” » | Marco Giannangeli & James Fielding | Sunday, April 28, 2013

HT: Robert @ Jihad Watch »

We're Being Played for Suckers
THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE: Muslim extremists funding anti-Western hatred on taxpayer's dime

Let’s just be honest with ourselves.

For all our military and economic might, for all our history of cultural and geopolitical dominance, Western civilization has grown fat, complacent and suicidally weak-willed. Not to mention morally adrift, civically indifferent and financially myopic.

Our southern border remains porous while we consider legalizing illegals and having them invite their relatives to join them. Our legal immigration and visa system may be in worse disarray, as we let in people willy-nilly, especially students, including those from countries that hate us. Then we have no idea where those people go or how long they stay.

Even more than a decade after 9-11, our intelligence community couldn’t spot a budding terrorist – the older brother in the Boston bombing – although the Russians, hardly our best friends, warned us about him several times. And even though the guy was promoting jihad on the Internet.

And when it turns out that some of our guests wish us dead – and actually see to it – some Americans instinctively blame America. Meanwhile, our government still considers a radical Muslim attack at Fort Hood to be “workplace violence.”

Does that sound like a civilization on the rise? » | Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff | Friday, April 26, 2013

Saudi Columnist Princess Basma bint Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Speaks Out against Islamic Extremism

Saudi Columnist Princess Basma bint Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Speaks Out against Islamic Extremism

Islamic Extremists in London

Baroness Warsi and the 'Extremist'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Party chairman, faces fresh questions over her business partner.

The peer is under investigation over her undeclared links to Abid Hussain, a relative by marriage with whom she is involved in a catering business.

However, there were calls last week for the inquiry, ordered by David Cameron, the Prime Minister, to be widened after Mr Hussain admitted that he had been involved in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist party that the Conservatives had pledged to ban.

In his first public statement, Mr Hussain said that he had attended its meetings, although he said he had never been a “member”, and had not told Lady Warsi about his involvement.

She has previously said she was unaware of his activities.

There were also questions over one of the trips to Pakistan by Lady Warsi on which she was accompanied by Mr Hussain. » | Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor | Saturday, June 09, 2012

Cameron Calls on Islam to Embrace Democracy and Reject Extremism

THE GUARDIAN: • Major speech in Jakarta will praise example of Indonesia • 'Democracy and Islam can flourish alongside each other' • Extremists are 'dangerous foe' to the whole world

Democracy and Islam can flourish together, David Cameron will declare on Thursday as he uses a landmark speech in Indonesia to tell the Muslim world that it can reject a "dead-end choice" between extremism and dictatorship.

In one of his most significant speeches on Islam, the prime minister will say that the world can defeat extremists, who are a "dangerous foe" on a par with supporters of slavery.

Cameron will hail the "extraordinary journey" undertaken by Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, since the end of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 as an example of the "inspirational path" countries can follow.

"What Indonesia shows is that in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, it is possible to reject this extremist threat and prove that democracy and Islam can flourish alongside each other," the prime minister will tell students at Al-Azhar University in Jakarta. "That's why what you are doing here is so important, because it gives heart to those around the world who are engaged in the same struggle." » | Nicholas Watt | Thursday, April 12, 2012

My comment:

David Cameron is doing what all politicians do these days: They deny the true nature of Islam. Like most politicians, David Cameron has neither studied Islam nor lived in a Muslim-majority country, yet he is sure of his facts, it seems: Islam is compatible with democracy.

This is wishful thinking. Islam at its core is undemocratic. And for many reasons. First among them is that Islam denies the separation of mosque and state, or religion and politics. The separation of the two is the sine qua non of a properly-functioning democracy.

Then there is the fact that democracies are ever-changing. New laws are made in response to changing circumstances, changing needs. Muslims believe in Allah’s law, Islamic law, Shari’ah law. Shari’ah law is based on the Qur’an and the Ahadith, or Hadiths – the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Islamic law is unchanging by definition. It would be heresy to change Allah's injunctions.

Living according to Shari’ah law is close to a Muslim’s heart. That’s why so many countries are in the process of introducing Islamic law after the Arab Spring, and it’s why Iraq introduced Shari’ah law at the first opportunity. Does David Cameron think that Shari’ah law is compatible with democracy then? Further, if Islam were really compatible with democracy, why has democracy not been the political norm for Islamic countries till now?

Since 9/11, all Western politicians have been in denial about the nature of Islam. They keep on repeating the same old canards, namely that Islam is really a ‘religion of peace’ and that extremists have got it wrong. In other words, the extremists misunderstand their own religion. Whereas, in actual fact, the extremists want what they consider to be pure Islam – Islam unadulterated by Western values. But this is something which our politicians cannot countenance, for were they to do so, they’d be forced to do something meaningful about it. That would take great strength and resolve. One could even say that it would bring the house of cards down, because ‘our house’ in the twenty-first century is built increasingly on the myth of multiculturalism. They’ve all bought into this, so they’ve got to try and make it work. One day, they might be forced to change course. God only knows what it will take to bring that about though! – © Mark

Islam: The Enemy of Democracy and Freedom » | Mark Alexander | Friday, April 20, 2007

David Cameron: I Will Banish Extremists from Britain

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE: Hate preachers will not reach these shores and campuses will be safe, says David Cameron

A Conservative government would ban extremist Islamist groups, refuse visas to hate preachers and insist that universities identify and root out radicals promoting violence, antisemitism and other racial intolerance on campus.

In an exclusive interview with the JC, Conservative leader David Cameron said his party would "drain the poison" of extremism. He said recent visitors to Britain such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the influential Egyptian cleric who supports suicide bombing against Israeli targets, and Ibrahim Moussawi, Hizbollah's "media relations officer", would never again be allowed into the country.

He also confirmed that a Tory government would ban the virulently anti-Zionist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which calls for the re-establishment of the caliphate (Islamic state).

While defending the principle of academic freedom, he said universities had a responsibility to root out extremism, even if this meant fingering individual students for their beliefs: "That means making clear to university authorities and student unions that they need to help identify those who are vulnerable to influence from extremists or show they are willing to promote hatred, just as they would in relation to any other suspected crime," he said. » | Martin Bright | Thursday, March 11, 2010

So that was then, and this is now. You’ve been in power for two years. So how are we doing on the banishing front, Mr. Cameron? Not too well by the looks of things. You haven’t been able to get rid of Abu Qatada, and they don’t come much more radical than he is. Or were these just empty words, Mr. Cameron? – © Mark

You could take some lessons from Sarkozy, Mr. Cameron. He doesn’t seem to have any problem banishing the preachers of hate »

BBC Tells Its Staff: Don’t Call Qatada Extremist
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The BBC has told its journalists not to call Abu Qatada, the al-Qaeda preacher, an “extremist”.

In order to avoid making a “value judgment”, the corporation’s managers have ruled that he can only be described as “radical”.

Journalists were also cautioned against using images suggesting the preacher is overweight.

A judge ruled this week that the Muslim preacher, once described as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, should be released from a British jail, angering ministers and MPs.

Adding to the row, Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, yesterday insisted that Qatada “has not committed any crime” and said his release has nothing to do with the European Court of Human Rights.

A British court has called Qatada a “truly dangerous individual” and even his defence team has suggested he poses a “grave risk” to national security.

Despite that background, BBC journalists were told they should not describe Qatada as an extremist. The guidance was issued at the BBC newsroom’s 9.00am editorial meeting yesterday, chaired by a senior manager, Andrew Roy.

According to notes of the meeting, seen by The Daily Telegraph, journalists were told: “Do not call him an extremist – we must call him a radical. Extremist implies a value judgment.” » | Neil Midgley and James Kirkup | Tuesday, February 07, 2012

9/11 Anniversary: The End of Islamic Extremism Is Far from Nigh
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: It is often described as the day that changed the world but, in fact, 9/11 only brought home to the West what had been simmering, and sometimes breaking out violently, in different parts of the world for nearly half a century.

The effects on America and Europe were nothing short of traumatic. There was an immediate questioning of a growing “globalism” and the emergence of a siege mentality. Heightened security has eased people’s minds, but there still lurks a basic anxiety about when, and where, the next attack will be.

Siren voices sometimes ask us to believe that 9/11 was caused by the pathological actions of a few, and that all Muslims should not be blamed for acts of terror. It is true that there are many moderate Muslims who condemn unequivocally what has been done in the name of their religion and assert that Islam had nothing to do with it. But we still need to ask how terrorism on such a vast scale was possible.

Apologists, both Western and Muslim, claim that Islamist extremism and terrorism have been bred by resentment of Western power. The military dominance of Israel, the roots of the Kashmir dispute, the megalomania of the Shah of Iran, and Suez are all seen to be examples of Western hubris and ill-will towards the Muslim world.

We can acknowledge that these have contributed to anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, but it would be a serious mistake to believe this provides a complete account of the extremism and the terror that has resulted from it.

At the heart of extremism is an ideology, a world-view – and not just concerning the perceived wrong done to the Muslim Umma (or people). Such an ideology expects Islam to dominate rather than to accept a subservient place in world affairs. It promotes pan-Islam and the ultimate rejection of nation-states, even Muslim ones. It may be that some extremists chatter about an Islamic state, in this part of the world or that; however, its ultimate aim is a single Islamic political, social, economic and spiritual entity.

For many, the restoration of the Caliphate is integral to this project and, given past history, we should not be sanguine that Western powers will not collude with it if they believe it promotes a temporary self-interest. Such a vision of pan-Islam is not restricted to the Muslim world as it is now but also includes lands “lost” to Islam whether that be India, Palestine, East Timor, South Sudan or the Iberian countries. » | Michael Nazir-Ali*, former Bishop of Rochester | Sunday, September 11, 2011

*Michael Nazir-Ali is now President of OXTRAD, the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue

Spies in Schools to Hunt Fanatics

THE SUNDAY EXPRESS: EXPERTS in Islamic extremism have been drafted in by Education Secretary Michael Gove to identify dangerous radicals in schools.

The counter-intelligence advisers, who worked for many years at the Home Office, have the most detailed knowledge of terror networks around the globe and their affiliates in the UK. They will work with a new Government unit to prevent extremism and will hunt down Muslim radicals hijacking learning and grooming school pupils from primary level onwards to create the terrorists of the future.

Intelligence sources have become aware that extremists are increasingly using schools and after-school clubs to brainwash children against the West.

Mr Gove said: “The due diligence unit will monitor applications for new schools and arrangements in existing schools so there’s no risk of extremism taking hold.

“We want to help local authorities and others deal either with governors trying to hijack a school or extremists setting up free schools. Whether it’s religious extremism or political extremism, that power will be there.” » | Hilary Douglas | Sunday, June 12, 2011

RE Teacher Gary Smith’s Muslim Attackers Jailed

BBC: Four Muslim men who assaulted a religious education teacher because they did not approve of him teaching Muslim girls, have been jailed.

Gary Smith, 38, was beaten as he walked to Central Foundation Girls' School in Bow, east London, last July.

The gang left him unconscious after attacking him with a metal rod and a brick, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

The four all pleaded guilty to GBH with intent and given an indeterminate jail sentence with a minimum of five years.

Simon Alam, 19, of Whitechapel, Azad Hussain, 26, of Wapping, Sheikh Rashid, 27, of Shadwell, and Akmol Hussein, 26, of Bethnal Green, all in east London, were all jailed on Thursday.

Judge John Hand QC said he believed the four remained a danger to the public because of their extreme religious beliefs.

Addressing the defendants one by one, he said: "Your belief is that you carried out a duty to your God and you did so with no mercy.

"If you think that people around you in society present an insult or threat to God then you will not hesitate in attacking again in the way that you have acted." » | Thursday, May 26, 2011

Saudis, Emiratis Were Funding Extremists
US cable says Gulf countries fund Pakistani militancy - Pakistan newspaper

University Campuses Are 'Hotbeds of Islamic Extremism'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers say.

Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers said yesterday.

Academics are turning a blind eye to radicals because they do not want to spy on students, a report claimed.

Despite "damning evidence" of a serious problem, little progress had been made in tackling the unsustainable situation, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security said.

They urged the Government to tackle the issue on campuses with "utmost urgency".

Such extremism "endangers our security at home and has international implications that are serious enough to threaten our alliance relationships", said the group, which includes the former home secretary Lord Reid.

Secret files obtained by The Daily Telegraph and WikiLeaks disclosed this week that at least 35 terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay were indoctrinated by extremists in Britain.

The leaked documents, written by senior US military commanders, illustrated how Britain effectively became a crucible of terrorism over the course of two decades. » | Duncan Gardham | Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Islamist Extremism: So Did We Cure the Problem?
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: This week's disclosures from WikiLeaks confirm that Britain was a breeding ground for Islamist terrorism. But, 10 years after 9/11, we still pander to extremism, says Andrew Gilligan

The East London Mosque, the largest in Britain, hosted a "live telephone Q&A" with the world's most dangerous al-Qaeda preacher, advertised with a poster showing Manhattan in flames. At the North London Mosque, equally important and well-known, one of the trustees is a supporter, and former leader, of a terrorist organisation. According to the BBC, he "is said to have masterminded much of [its] political and military strategy" from his perch in London.

Over the last few days, the Guantanamo Bay files leaked to this newspaper have shown in compelling detail how Britain became a global hub of terror, with at least 35 inmates of the detention camp radicalised here in the years before 9/11. Yet the two examples I give do not come from the leaked files. They are much more recent. The people who run those two mosques have been in no way troubled by the authorities. In fact, they have been helped by them. At the North London Mosque, the radical activist was actually installed by the police – and remains a trustee. And in the financial year to 2010, the year after it hosted that session with the fundamentalist preacher, the East London Mosque received £660,000 of taxpayers' money – some of it from a Home Office fund for "preventing violent extremism".

There is a reason why Britain, in the words of one French official, is and remains the "Pakistan of the West", an incubator, entrepot and exporter of Islamic radicalism. There is a reason why, according to MI6, we face a "unique" threat from home-grown extremists. There is a reason why Britain is the only country in the Western world to have been subjected to a successful suicide terror attack by its own citizens. These things have happened, in part, because the last government, and Britain's security establishment, got its policy just about as wrong as it was possible to get. We were harsh where we should have been liberal – and liberal where we should have been harsh.

Control orders, the push for three months' detention without charge, random and blanket stop-and-search, and Britain's complicity in torture did little or nothing to restrain terrorism. But they undermined the rule of law for which we are fighting, angered middle-of-the-road Muslims and gave the extremists priceless fuel for their favourite narrative, "Islam under attack". » | Andrew Gilligan | Tuesday, April 16, 2011

Turning a Blind Eye to the Blood-thirsty Clerics
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Pakistan is being swamped by a rising tide of religious hatred, while its political leaders remain silent, writes Praveen Swami.

Fewer than a thousand people made their way to Islamabad’s Khatun-i-Fatima church yesterday to mourn the passing of Shahbaz Bhatti: diplomats and journalists far outnumbered the politicians who claimed to have been proud to have called Pakistan’s assassinated religious minorities minister a friend.

Yusuf Raza Geelani, prime minister of Pakistan, fondly recalled spending time with Mr Bhatti in the church at Christmas, and promised to bring his assassins to justice, but had not one word to say about the cause his colleague died for. Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, was unable to attend.

Mr Bhatti is the second politician to have been killed in recent weeks for demanding amendments to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. His colleague Salman Taseer, the governor of the province of Punjab, was shot dead by one of his own guards in January. Incredibly, Mr Taseer’s assassin was showered with rose petals by lawyers when he was first brought to face trial, while clerical groups organised giant protests to applaud his actions.

Pakistan’s political establishment, though, has been silent in the face of a rising tide of religious hatred. The battle over the blasphemy laws is just one part of a larger war over religion and identity that is threatening the foundations of the nuclear-armed state – but its leaders seem to have neither the will nor the ability to drag it away from disaster. Continue reading and comment >>> Praveen Swami | Saturday, March 05, 2011

Wherever you find Islam, you find bloodshed! – Mark

This comment also appears here

Germany: Islamic Extremism Behind Shooting of U.S. Airmen
Mar 3 - German state prosecutors said on Thursday they suspected the gunman who killed two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt airport on Wednesday was likely motivated by radical Islam. Jon Decker reports

U.S. Must Reject Extremist Islam at Home
CNN: America should listen to David Cameron right now.

This past weekend, the British prime minister spoke to the issue of radical Islam and the cultural-political concessions to it in Great Britain. His major theme, at a speech delivered in Munich, Germany, can be summed up by what he said to many young Muslims who "find it hard to identify with Britain ... because we have allowed the weakening of our collective identity."

"Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream," failing to provide those cultures with "a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong," he said.

Cameron also said his nation has tolerated these segregated communities "behaving in ways that run counter" to British values.

Cameron was quite right in what he said about Britain, and it is equally true here in America. "(W)hen a white person holds objectionable views, racism, for example, we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn't white, we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them," he said. >>> William J. Bennett, CNN Contributor | Wednesday, February 08, 2011

Multiculturalism: Sadiq Khan Smears David Cameron
MAIL ON SUNDAY: A major row over Islamic extremism erupted last night after Labour accused David Cameron of being a far-Right ‘propagandist’.

Sadiq Khan made the incendiary remark in response to an outspoken speech by the Prime Minister attacking ‘state multiculturalism’, calling for a stronger British identity and signalling a crackdown on Muslim groups.

Mr Khan, the Shadow Justice Secretary, infuriated Downing Street by claiming that Mr Cameron was ‘writing propaganda for the English Defence League’. The EDL is an anti-Islamist street protest movement that numbers BNP supporters among its members.

Labour MPs then weighed in by accusing Mr Cameron of inflammatory timing for making his speech on the day when the EDL was marching in Luton.

But Tory Chairman Baroness Warsi described Mr Khan’s remarks as an attempt to ‘smear’ the Prime Minister as a Right-wing extremist.

‘This is outrageous and irresponsible,’ she said.

‘David Cameron has made it clear he wants to unite Britain around our common values, and he has done so in measured language.

'It is right that we make it clear: extremism and Islam are not the same thing. Mr Khan ran Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign. He must apologise and Mr Miliband needs to disown his colleague’s baseless accusation.’ Fury as Labour ‘smears’ David Cameron after he attacks multiculturalism >>> Glen Owen | Sunday, February 06, 2011

Cameron Warning To Extremists
David Cameron has told a security conference in Munich that multi-culturalism in the UK has failed and the time has come to get tough with extremists. Sky's Peter Sharp reports


Cameron Extremism Speech Applauded
Sky's Europe Correspondent Alex Rossi says David Cameron's speech in Munich signalling a crackdown on extremism reflects a growing concern among EU leaders that multi-culturalism is failing