I read the news today, oh boy. 4000 potential jihadists in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Malik Faisal Akram, the Texas synagogue terrorist, lived in Blackburn, England.

How many other potential jihadists might be there?

Studies have shown that Muslims in Britain are far more antisemitic than the larger population. Only 32% of British Muslims have a positive view towards Jews, as opposed to 74% of the entire British population.

What about extremist antisemitic attitudes? A 2017 study shows that 8% of British Muslims believe the Holocaust is a myth, as opposed to about 2% of the general British population. 

Akram identified as a Deobandi Muslim, one of the most extreme Islamist groups in Britain. He is also a member of Tablighi Jamaat, an extremist Muslim movement popular in Pakistan.  

11% of all British Muslims identify as Salafis, Barelvi or Deobandi Muslims, the three most extreme groups there. This roughly tracks with the percentage of British Muslims, 13%, who said that in at least some circumstances, Muslims who leave the religion should get the death penalty. 

As of 2017, 30.9% of all residents in Blackburn were Muslim - about 46,000. Blackburn has the second highest population of Muslims in England, second only to London, and from all indications it is far more extremist than the larger Muslim population. White men fear entering sections of town they call "no-go" areas, and extremist literature is easily found in bookstores there. Blackburn is considered the global hub for Deobandis and members of the Tablighi Jamaat. The Central Masjid of Blackburn is openly associated with Tablighi Jamaat. It has a booklet discouraging women from praying in mosques. The Blackburn Markaz mosque attracts over a thousand people every Thursday night.

Remember the convoy of cars in London last May where they shouted out, "'Fuck the Jews... Fuck all of them. Fuck their mothers, fuck their daughters and show your support for Palestine. Rape their daughters and we have to send a message like that. Please do it for the poor children in Gaza."? The four arrested for that incident are from Blackburn.

From all indications, Blackburn's Muslims are more extremist than those in Britain as a whole. If 20% of them are extremists (and it seems that in Blackburn, that is a conservative estimate) that would be about 10,000 in Blackburn alone. This includes women, children and the elderly, so while the number of extremists who could become jihadists in Blackburn might not quite reach the number of holes counted in the Beatles' song, it might be close to that figure of 4000. 

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