I wonder if the continentals have the same banal reluctance to call terror Islamist as the UK politicians? Apparently this same misconstrued fear of ‘racism’ means the grooming gang problem here is still not being fully faced up to. Unless of course it is the usual problem caused by politics: if we appear to criticise a demographic they won’t vote for us – such a patronising view.
Their cowardice is akin to complicity. When we have actors calling for Shakespeare’s texts to be cancelled for their ‘misogyny’ we know we are in an era of peak stupid for you can bet that the same actor would be horrified if the blatant misogyny of the Koran was called out.
It’s more than that. Calling Islamist terror and violation by their proper names would unravel the “narrative” with which the current elite deceives the public and comforts itself; a sentimental fable in which humans have no background, no loyalties and in which they would mingle in rainbow coloured joy, but for the divisive influence of “fascists”. Like all reversions to childish naivety, this fable is profoundly narcissistic, for the “fascists” in question are only ever identified among the “host” communities of the west; never, but never from other societies – not even when they murder Christians or mutilate girls or keep women concealed and locked up. This same narcissistic left can witter on about “Handmaids’ tales” in the face of persistent Islamic misogyny; it can “demand” acceptance of millions of migrants or refugees – they no longer even pretend to distinguish – whilst letting all non-European societies off the moral hook entirely. So Afghans are expected to be housed in Dover, not Teheran, for example. It is, in a way, a form of “white supremacy”, found exclusively on the left and composed of extreme moral vanity. And it is destroying the west.
Well stated. It is truly a cancer, one that takes decades to metastasize. What is it about the stated goal of a global caliphate does the West not understand?
In the Netherlands where I live it has mostly the case.
Galeti Tavas
2 years ago
“the bloated cottage industry of which I am a part was more comfortable gorging on year-old events 3,600 miles away at the US Capitol building than discussing threats closer to home.”
There is something about Secret Police. Their work is gaining confidence, in lulling people into being overly comfortable, and then collecting damaging information. Spying, eavesdropping, watching wile hidden, recording, studying; I mean, well and good, I suppose, in times and places, sometimes morality is relative, ethics situational I guess…. But it is a type. I could not do it. So much literature is of them, Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn: SAVAK, Stasi, ISI, CIA with Air America and Iran/Contra, Dulls Brothers, USSR and CCP, and every tyrant – even democracy. Louis the XIV, Henry the VIII had secret police much feared….
But it is what a secret Police is, FBI, CIA, M-I5, and the dozens and dozens of other organizations we never even hear of. What? A Million employees in the ‘counter terrorism’ industry in UK and USA? And Biden said the Islamist Terror time is past, that ‘Domestic Terrorism’ is now the greatest danger in the West. To make it clearer we go back to the quote at the top – and what we hear on the MSM, and from the leadership – that it is the conservative Right who are the worry, the suspicious. 5Th Column never existed in the West, but it seems now it may be suspected, and ‘The Usual Suspects’ to be rounded up.
If the West would just eject everyone needing deporting almost all fear of domestic Islamic Terror would go away. Why Not do that? Do that instead of becoming a Police State watching for problems instead of just preemptively deporting them.
In my days I have seen a lot, enough I fear the Growth of our own Secret Police directed internally more than any external fear. I know how they need results, they are political, and they are not as good at justice as should be. Thought crime, Political Prisoners, Political Crime, making examples of…… I find the secret Police very scary, even as I am totally innocent of anything – it is just, well, scary. I have read so very many books, fiction and non-fiction – seen a lot of the world, and had encounters that were uncomfortable.
David McDowell
2 years ago
It’s not ignoring the threat. It’s pretending the threat doesn’t exist because it’s impossible to avoid it while relying on immigrant labour.
It would be perfectly possible to allow immigrant labour only from non-Muslim countries. Whether any politician has the cojones to enact this is another matter.
Michael Askew
2 years ago
According to Statista, Islamists have murdered 58,552 people in Nigeria since 2011. Our fixation with our own back yard can blind us to the sufferings of the innocent elsewhere.
I disagree. If every country, including Nigeria, did fixate on their own back yard and minimized their own terrorist problems, then there would be less suffering of innocents globally.
Peter Francis
2 years ago
During the Cold War, there used to be a ritual played out when a Soviet spy ring was uncovered. A number of Soviet diplomats would be expelled. Not all those expelled were the ones actually doing the spying, rather they simply made up the number of expulsions, which was intended to reflect the gravity of the espionage. I do not recall anyone bleating about the human rights of expelled Soviet diplomats.
Maybe a policy that could be re-jigged to deal with violent jihadism?
If you are implying that a number of immigrants would be deported every time there was an event, I would like to know how that would be productive. It certainly would not be in line with the values and the morals that all of us claim to uphold.
The values and morals that all of us claim to uphold…….
If you mean religious tolerance, women’s equality, gay rights and so on, then mass immigration of people from fairly backward muslim countries is a strange way to secure those values.
I am not implying that. It would mean the expulsion of those who are both (a) known security risks and (b) either dual nationals or have a claim to other nationalities.
Excellent and thought provoking article. I just hope our political leaders understand and deal properly with this existential challenge.
GA Woolley
2 years ago
‘Say and do whatever is necessary to get close enough to my enemies to destroy them.’ ‘Do not use violence until you are strong enough to overcome my enemies.’ Nothing new in their thinking; they have just learned to go back to it. And the ‘moderate’ Muslim criticism of Islamic terrorism is not based on principle, but on its tactics and timing.
No one is claiming that every Muslim is a terrorist but a very small number of violent extremists can cause great harm. For every person willing to commit violence there are many more who endorse the same views. Even so, we are not talking about a small number. There is polling on this topic and the findings are concerning. According to Pew (2013), more than 20% in Egypt, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Palestinian Territories agreed that “suicide bombing in defence of Islam is often or sometimes justified.” More than 10% in Jordan, Tunisia, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, and Kosovo agreed. Sure, a majority do not support violence but that is hardly reassuring. When 13% of Pakistanis surveyed agree that “suicide bombings in defence of Islam is often or sometimes justified”, you’re talking about potentially 30M people. https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-2013-2/
There is an ‘official’ narrative which suggests that no muslims are terrorist BECAUSE of islam: that the minority who support terrorism do so for reasons unconnected with islam, and that the majority who do not practice terror do not tacitly support the political gains for islam arising from extremism. This a very naive and dangerous policy to foist on the populace. I never understand the fear of the establishment about saying or ascribing anything negative to islam, yet have no problems in demonising communism, for example.
There is the potential for every Muslim to become a terrorist and a greater potential for them to support and condone terrorism. It is built into their sacred texts. Mohammed said “I have been made victorious by terror”.
Every good Muslim is supposed to imitate Mohammed. They might imitate him by pretending to be peaceful when in the minority (the Meccan texts of the Quran) and pretending to be friendly; but the quran tells Muslims not to take unbelievers as friends but only to feign friendship. It is a mistake to regard Islam as just a religion. It is a totalitarian political movement with religious aspects attached. Anything goes which will promote Islam, including lying about the aims and methods of Islam.
The very use of the word “Islamist” shows the desire of the West to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that the threat is much smaller than it really is. The proper word is Muslim or Islamic.
The extent to which particular Muslims are a threat depends largely on which teachers they listen to, for their knowledge of their own texts can be very poor. If they have “compromising” teachers, they may be relatively harmless. But their children may actually read the texts or come under the influence of imams who stress the violent texts.
So few understand the level of the existential threat that exists. Churchill was correct.
Malcolm Knott
2 years ago
Perhaps we spend too much time trying to figure out what drives these murderers. Let’s just say they are dangerous psychopaths, or whatever, and get on with the more important task of stopping them in their tracks.
The sad thing is that we already know what drives them. It would simply be too inconvenient for our government officials to do anything about it.
Sort of like the police, who can’t do anything UNTIL the crime is committed.
Douglas McNeish
2 years ago
The extent to which the Human Rights Industry is infiltrated and co-opted by the unholy alliance of leftist SJW’s and jihadists will determine the chances of turning back the tide of the Islamisation of Europe.
Terence Fitch
2 years ago
Importing misogynistic millions who have no sympathy with the secular post Enlightenment ambiguous West. What could possibly go wrong?
Dustshoe Richinrut
2 years ago
No mention of the pandemic lockdown possibly playing a role in dampening things down a bit?
Also, there’s the football this year. People from all walks of life look forward to these things, especially now that the razzmatazz and jollity associated with the event will be coming from the ME. Can’t see the event coming from Mexico City anymore. The last time it was staged there was in ‘86 (and I recall in nearly every match broadcast the John 3:16 banner hung behind the goal area; I recall too the wondrous 1970 event; but now the place is just too risky). It’s not exactly like they won’t have the TVs switched on in the prisons of Europe. They will. And everybody will be cheering on a good show. So there is that. Element. You know.
Returning to Europe? This reminds me of a particular scene in the movie Catch Me If You Can, the (true) movie about the pursuit of the artful con man played by Di Caprio, chased by the good cop character played by Tom Hanks, set in 1960s America. It’s Christmas Eve night, the overworked Hanks character is alone in his office, at his desk, trying to figure out where the fugitive is, when the con man Abnegale (the di Caprio character) unexpectedly rings his desk telephone and then proceeds to taunt the Hanks character about his constantly futile or thwarted efforts to catch him. Then the Hanks character sits up, a smile creasing his face, as he tells Abnegale that he now knows why he rang. “Why?” “Because it’s Christmas Eve and you got nobody else to call!”. Abnegale slams his phone down, chastened, ashamed. Hanks laughs his head off.
So yes, they return to Europe because there’s nowhere else to go.
The movie had a pleasant ending though.
Maybe there’s hope.
“Can’t see the event coming from Mexico City anymore. The last time it was staged there was in ‘86 (and I recall in nearly every match broadcast the John 3:16 banner hung behind the goal area; I recall too the wondrous 1970 event; but now the place is just too risky). “ The World Cup in 2026 will have games hosted in Mexico City
Kiat Huang
2 years ago
To understand the scale of the underlying terrorist problem, can we learn from the statistical analysis from similar active/non-avtive ratios in public life, such as the number of complaints to the BBC?
If my memory serves me correctly it was reliably estimated that for every complaint the BBC recieved there were, on average, 100 others who felt the same, but who, whatever the reason did not at, at that time, complain.
Is it possible that for each terrorist attack in the UK by someone claiming to be in the name of some community X, Y or Z (e.g. neo-nazi, Islam, etc), that there are hundreds or even thousands in that same community who fully support that attack, but do not have the motivation too actually do it themselves at that time?
Given how the practice of attacking innocent civilians is so naturally abhorrent and limited by the authorities, when there are such sporadic attacks, is this evidence of a far greater and wider pressure within that community (than it would publicly admit) to do so?
Is there deep, credible research into the underlying support and tolerance within the various communities X, Y, Z,… for their respective practices, that are utterly incompatible with British laws and norms: such as honour killings, racist grooming/paedophile gangs, shariah law, gang violence, knife crime, anti-Semitism and other racially motivated attacks, etc?
I would expect responsible, competent government to understand the scale of the problems it has to deal with and to be able to effectively inform it’s population every step of the way until solved.
“I would expect responsible, competent government to understand the scale of the problems it has to deal with and to be able to effectively inform it’s population every step of the way until solved.”
….stated with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Kiat Huang
2 years ago
There are European countries that experience hardly any internal terrorism: Switzerland and Hungary come to mind. What are they doing right?
rick stubbs
2 years ago
Let just say that this strategic view of how rad Islam may adapt to past mistakes is among the best takes I have seen. As are Duffy’s other takes on the situation in France and the attempts, often misguided, to counteract what is the most difficult and dangerous internal threat in Europe.
I wonder if the continentals have the same banal reluctance to call terror Islamist as the UK politicians? Apparently this same misconstrued fear of ‘racism’ means the grooming gang problem here is still not being fully faced up to. Unless of course it is the usual problem caused by politics: if we appear to criticise a demographic they won’t vote for us – such a patronising view.
We mustn’t forget to call out the cowardice of state broadcasters around both of these scenarios.
Their cowardice is akin to complicity. When we have actors calling for Shakespeare’s texts to be cancelled for their ‘misogyny’ we know we are in an era of peak stupid for you can bet that the same actor would be horrified if the blatant misogyny of the Koran was called out.
It’s more than that. Calling Islamist terror and violation by their proper names would unravel the “narrative” with which the current elite deceives the public and comforts itself; a sentimental fable in which humans have no background, no loyalties and in which they would mingle in rainbow coloured joy, but for the divisive influence of “fascists”. Like all reversions to childish naivety, this fable is profoundly narcissistic, for the “fascists” in question are only ever identified among the “host” communities of the west; never, but never from other societies – not even when they murder Christians or mutilate girls or keep women concealed and locked up. This same narcissistic left can witter on about “Handmaids’ tales” in the face of persistent Islamic misogyny; it can “demand” acceptance of millions of migrants or refugees – they no longer even pretend to distinguish – whilst letting all non-European societies off the moral hook entirely. So Afghans are expected to be housed in Dover, not Teheran, for example. It is, in a way, a form of “white supremacy”, found exclusively on the left and composed of extreme moral vanity. And it is destroying the west.
The current malignant cancer eating away at Western civilisation beautifully expressed and summarised. Thank you Simon Denis.
Well stated. It is truly a cancer, one that takes decades to metastasize. What is it about the stated goal of a global caliphate does the West not understand?
Nabil Qu’reshi’s book, ‘Answering Jihad,’ analyses this problem.
In the Netherlands where I live it has mostly the case.
“the bloated cottage industry of which I am a part was more comfortable gorging on year-old events 3,600 miles away at the US Capitol building than discussing threats closer to home.”
There is something about Secret Police. Their work is gaining confidence, in lulling people into being overly comfortable, and then collecting damaging information. Spying, eavesdropping, watching wile hidden, recording, studying; I mean, well and good, I suppose, in times and places, sometimes morality is relative, ethics situational I guess…. But it is a type. I could not do it. So much literature is of them, Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn: SAVAK, Stasi, ISI, CIA with Air America and Iran/Contra, Dulls Brothers, USSR and CCP, and every tyrant – even democracy. Louis the XIV, Henry the VIII had secret police much feared….
But it is what a secret Police is, FBI, CIA, M-I5, and the dozens and dozens of other organizations we never even hear of. What? A Million employees in the ‘counter terrorism’ industry in UK and USA? And Biden said the Islamist Terror time is past, that ‘Domestic Terrorism’ is now the greatest danger in the West. To make it clearer we go back to the quote at the top – and what we hear on the MSM, and from the leadership – that it is the conservative Right who are the worry, the suspicious. 5Th Column never existed in the West, but it seems now it may be suspected, and ‘The Usual Suspects’ to be rounded up.
If the West would just eject everyone needing deporting almost all fear of domestic Islamic Terror would go away. Why Not do that? Do that instead of becoming a Police State watching for problems instead of just preemptively deporting them.
In my days I have seen a lot, enough I fear the Growth of our own Secret Police directed internally more than any external fear. I know how they need results, they are political, and they are not as good at justice as should be. Thought crime, Political Prisoners, Political Crime, making examples of…… I find the secret Police very scary, even as I am totally innocent of anything – it is just, well, scary. I have read so very many books, fiction and non-fiction – seen a lot of the world, and had encounters that were uncomfortable.
It’s not ignoring the threat. It’s pretending the threat doesn’t exist because it’s impossible to avoid it while relying on immigrant labour.
It would be perfectly possible to allow immigrant labour only from non-Muslim countries. Whether any politician has the cojones to enact this is another matter.
According to Statista, Islamists have murdered 58,552 people in Nigeria since 2011. Our fixation with our own back yard can blind us to the sufferings of the innocent elsewhere.
I disagree. If every country, including Nigeria, did fixate on their own back yard and minimized their own terrorist problems, then there would be less suffering of innocents globally.
During the Cold War, there used to be a ritual played out when a Soviet spy ring was uncovered. A number of Soviet diplomats would be expelled. Not all those expelled were the ones actually doing the spying, rather they simply made up the number of expulsions, which was intended to reflect the gravity of the espionage. I do not recall anyone bleating about the human rights of expelled Soviet diplomats.
Maybe a policy that could be re-jigged to deal with violent jihadism?
If you are implying that a number of immigrants would be deported every time there was an event, I would like to know how that would be productive. It certainly would not be in line with the values and the morals that all of us claim to uphold.
The values and morals that all of us claim to uphold…….
If you mean religious tolerance, women’s equality, gay rights and so on, then mass immigration of people from fairly backward muslim countries is a strange way to secure those values.
I am not implying that. It would mean the expulsion of those who are both (a) known security risks and (b) either dual nationals or have a claim to other nationalities.
Sometimes there just has to be a reaction, no?
Excellent and thought provoking article. I just hope our political leaders understand and deal properly with this existential challenge.
‘Say and do whatever is necessary to get close enough to my enemies to destroy them.’ ‘Do not use violence until you are strong enough to overcome my enemies.’ Nothing new in their thinking; they have just learned to go back to it. And the ‘moderate’ Muslim criticism of Islamic terrorism is not based on principle, but on its tactics and timing.
Are you really suggesting that every Muslim is a terrorist? That the majority are? That a plurality are? That there is a large portion who are?
No one is claiming that every Muslim is a terrorist but a very small number of violent extremists can cause great harm. For every person willing to commit violence there are many more who endorse the same views. Even so, we are not talking about a small number. There is polling on this topic and the findings are concerning. According to Pew (2013), more than 20% in Egypt, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Palestinian Territories agreed that “suicide bombing in defence of Islam is often or sometimes justified.” More than 10% in Jordan, Tunisia, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, and Kosovo agreed. Sure, a majority do not support violence but that is hardly reassuring. When 13% of Pakistanis surveyed agree that “suicide bombings in defence of Islam is often or sometimes justified”, you’re talking about potentially 30M people.
https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-2013-2/
There is an ‘official’ narrative which suggests that no muslims are terrorist BECAUSE of islam: that the minority who support terrorism do so for reasons unconnected with islam, and that the majority who do not practice terror do not tacitly support the political gains for islam arising from extremism. This a very naive and dangerous policy to foist on the populace. I never understand the fear of the establishment about saying or ascribing anything negative to islam, yet have no problems in demonising communism, for example.
Or Christianity!
There is the potential for every Muslim to become a terrorist and a greater potential for them to support and condone terrorism. It is built into their sacred texts. Mohammed said “I have been made victorious by terror”.
Every good Muslim is supposed to imitate Mohammed. They might imitate him by pretending to be peaceful when in the minority (the Meccan texts of the Quran) and pretending to be friendly; but the quran tells Muslims not to take unbelievers as friends but only to feign friendship. It is a mistake to regard Islam as just a religion. It is a totalitarian political movement with religious aspects attached. Anything goes which will promote Islam, including lying about the aims and methods of Islam.
The very use of the word “Islamist” shows the desire of the West to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that the threat is much smaller than it really is. The proper word is Muslim or Islamic.
The extent to which particular Muslims are a threat depends largely on which teachers they listen to, for their knowledge of their own texts can be very poor. If they have “compromising” teachers, they may be relatively harmless. But their children may actually read the texts or come under the influence of imams who stress the violent texts.
So few understand the level of the existential threat that exists. Churchill was correct.
Perhaps we spend too much time trying to figure out what drives these murderers. Let’s just say they are dangerous psychopaths, or whatever, and get on with the more important task of stopping them in their tracks.
The sad thing is that we already know what drives them. It would simply be too inconvenient for our government officials to do anything about it.
Sort of like the police, who can’t do anything UNTIL the crime is committed.
The extent to which the Human Rights Industry is infiltrated and co-opted by the unholy alliance of leftist SJW’s and jihadists will determine the chances of turning back the tide of the Islamisation of Europe.
Importing misogynistic millions who have no sympathy with the secular post Enlightenment ambiguous West. What could possibly go wrong?
No mention of the pandemic lockdown possibly playing a role in dampening things down a bit?
Also, there’s the football this year. People from all walks of life look forward to these things, especially now that the razzmatazz and jollity associated with the event will be coming from the ME. Can’t see the event coming from Mexico City anymore. The last time it was staged there was in ‘86 (and I recall in nearly every match broadcast the John 3:16 banner hung behind the goal area; I recall too the wondrous 1970 event; but now the place is just too risky). It’s not exactly like they won’t have the TVs switched on in the prisons of Europe. They will. And everybody will be cheering on a good show. So there is that. Element. You know.
Returning to Europe? This reminds me of a particular scene in the movie Catch Me If You Can, the (true) movie about the pursuit of the artful con man played by Di Caprio, chased by the good cop character played by Tom Hanks, set in 1960s America. It’s Christmas Eve night, the overworked Hanks character is alone in his office, at his desk, trying to figure out where the fugitive is, when the con man Abnegale (the di Caprio character) unexpectedly rings his desk telephone and then proceeds to taunt the Hanks character about his constantly futile or thwarted efforts to catch him. Then the Hanks character sits up, a smile creasing his face, as he tells Abnegale that he now knows why he rang. “Why?” “Because it’s Christmas Eve and you got nobody else to call!”. Abnegale slams his phone down, chastened, ashamed. Hanks laughs his head off.
So yes, they return to Europe because there’s nowhere else to go.
The movie had a pleasant ending though.
Maybe there’s hope.
“Can’t see the event coming from Mexico City anymore. The last time it was staged there was in ‘86 (and I recall in nearly every match broadcast the John 3:16 banner hung behind the goal area; I recall too the wondrous 1970 event; but now the place is just too risky). “
The World Cup in 2026 will have games hosted in Mexico City
To understand the scale of the underlying terrorist problem, can we learn from the statistical analysis from similar active/non-avtive ratios in public life, such as the number of complaints to the BBC?
If my memory serves me correctly it was reliably estimated that for every complaint the BBC recieved there were, on average, 100 others who felt the same, but who, whatever the reason did not at, at that time, complain.
Is it possible that for each terrorist attack in the UK by someone claiming to be in the name of some community X, Y or Z (e.g. neo-nazi, Islam, etc), that there are hundreds or even thousands in that same community who fully support that attack, but do not have the motivation too actually do it themselves at that time?
Given how the practice of attacking innocent civilians is so naturally abhorrent and limited by the authorities, when there are such sporadic attacks, is this evidence of a far greater and wider pressure within that community (than it would publicly admit) to do so?
Is there deep, credible research into the underlying support and tolerance within the various communities X, Y, Z,… for their respective practices, that are utterly incompatible with British laws and norms: such as honour killings, racist grooming/paedophile gangs, shariah law, gang violence, knife crime, anti-Semitism and other racially motivated attacks, etc?
I would expect responsible, competent government to understand the scale of the problems it has to deal with and to be able to effectively inform it’s population every step of the way until solved.
“I would expect responsible, competent government to understand the scale of the problems it has to deal with and to be able to effectively inform it’s population every step of the way until solved.”
….stated with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
There are European countries that experience hardly any internal terrorism: Switzerland and Hungary come to mind. What are they doing right?
Let just say that this strategic view of how rad Islam may adapt to past mistakes is among the best takes I have seen. As are Duffy’s other takes on the situation in France and the attempts, often misguided, to counteract what is the most difficult and dangerous internal threat in Europe.