Actions speak loudest to terrorists, Mr Brown

UK Telegraph ^ | November 15 2007 | Michael Burleigh

[knighthawk]

In Egypt, security is highly visible. Hotel entrances have metal detectors and soldiers perch behind armour-plated screens outside. At Cairo's Egyptian Museum and the Giza pyramids, there are scores of antiquities police as well as tough men in dark suits, from which pistol grips protrude.

Such a heavy presence was made necessary by the 1997 massacre at the temple of Pharaoh Hatshepsut in Luxor. A group of Islamists shot 58 foreign tourists, including large numbers of Swiss, and Japanese honeymooning couples.

The Egyptian authorities evidently "get" the scale of the terrorist problem in ways that were still not evident from the announcements made by Gordon Brown and his security supremo Admiral Lord West.

Before he had even risen to his feet, Brown had to have a word with the self-styled "simple sailor", who on the Today programme said he didn't see the need for more than 28 days' detention for terrorist suspects, only to think this might be a good idea an hour later.

As David Cameron archly acknowledged, many of Brown's recommendations were sensible, albeit long overdue and often filched from Tory policy.

Strategic infrastructure, public transport, sports grounds, shopping centres and places of mass entertainment should be inspected for their vulnerability to attack or be security-proofed while still on the drawing board.

The Prime Minister also made great play of the trebling of the national security budget from six years ago. But again, one wonders why he stressed the need to freeze the financial assets of terrorist sponsors, given that as Chancellor for the last decade he boasted of little else whenever this subject came up.

He also spoke about the creation of a 25,000-strong border agency, although he was evasive about whether it would possess the powers of the police.

There was tough talk about "rooting out terrorists", as if this was as simple as pulling a rotten tooth. The dread word "deportation" (surely a welcome prospect to any sincere Islamist fed up with life in Sodom-by-Thames) was touted, with a few figures rolled out to suggest that evil people are being expatriated.

In reality, all attempts to deport foreign nationals are aggressively frustrated by human rights activists exploiting the European Human Rights Act that his predecessor signed into law.

Toughness is not really Brown's thing; he prefers "values" and "hearts and minds". The most striking aspect of his proposals was the sheer number of agencies he was hoping to engage in preventative measures designed to pre-empt the radicalisation of young Muslims.

Charities, schools, prisons, local authorities, faith groups, governors of mosques, the Higher Education Funding Council, universities, FE colleges, public libraries, and even something called "Sport England".

It conjured up a vision of a vast army of the public sector; good, ready and willing to aid Ahmed or Ayman get over the murderous rage that seems to derange a minority of Muslim adolescents.

Some of the proposals were sensible, such as ensuring that foreign imams speak our language, or, emulating Dutch exemplars, attend seminaries in which they learn about Europe's Christian, Jewish and secular traditions, although Brown is conspicuously negligent of people of little faith or none.

But why is it only now, for example, that the Prison Service is being alerted to radicalisation of inmates, given the existence of excellent studies on this very theme by the Prison Service of Northern Ireland?

Mr Brown also intimated that he will be seeking to persuade senior media figures to tone down reporting that allegedly gives rise to "Islamophobia". This is sinister, especially since it will not be accompanied by attempts to inhibit the expressions of hatred or disgust that Muslims direct at Western society.

Nor did Mr Brown have anything to say about organisations such as Hizb-ut Tahir - which function as sectarian totalitarian parties bent on dominating institutions they manage to infiltrate - beyond the pathetic assurance that they would not receive grants from local authorities.

"Hearts and minds" cuts two ways. It is not just up to us to avoid giving egregious offence to Muslims.

There was nothing in Brown's speech about the plans to build a 25,000-capacity mega-mosque near the 2012 Olympic stadium in West Ham, which is intended to serve as a Muslim quarter for athletes and spectators during the Games, in flagrant violation of everything the Olympic Games represent.

And no categorical rebuttal of insidious attempts by Islamists to introduce Sharia courts, thereby sanctioning what would amount to exclaves outside the law.

Emollient vapidities do not conceal the fact that there are people in this country, with patrons and sponsors overseas, who despise our way of life and seek to change it for all time.

Nothing in Mr Brown's listing of initiatives by his client agencies began to address the existential crisis that implacable Islamism bodes. Ask the Egyptians; they know - and they have never heard of best practice.

[knighthawk]

Ping