Douglas Murray: Islamists are very clear about what they want – we just aren’t listening
Theresa May and other politicians stress we will never give in. And they are right to do so. But beneath the defiance lie deep, and deeply unanswered, questions. Questions which publics across Europe are increasingly dwelling on, but which their political representatives dare not acknowledge.How can you claim to fight jihad while promoting the PLO?
Exactly a year ago, Greater Manchester Police staged a carefully prepared mock terrorist attack in the city’s shopping centre to test response capabilities. At one stage an actor playing a suicide bomber burst through a doorway and detonated a fake device while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘Allah is Greatest’). The intention, obviously, was to make the scenario realistic. But the use of the jihadists’ signature sign-off sent social media into a spin. Soon community spokesmen were complaining on the media. One went on Sky to talk about the need ‘to have a bit of religious and cultural context when they’re doing training like this in a wider setting about the possible implications’.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan was hauled before the press. ‘On reflection,’ he admitted, ‘we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam. We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused.’ Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, followed up: ‘It is frustrating the operation has been marred by the ill-judged, unnecessary and unacceptable decision by organisers to have those playing the parts of terrorists to shout “Allahu Akbar” before setting off their fake bombs. It didn’t add anything to the event, but has the potential to undermine the great community relations we have in Greater Manchester.’ Perhaps when the blood has been cleared from the pavements of Manchester, someone could ask how many lives such excruciating societal stupidity – from pulpit to police force – has saved, or ever will save?
In Piccadilly Gardens, at lunchtime on the day after the attacks, crowds of people listened to a busker play the usual post-massacre playlist: ‘All You Need is Love’ and ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.’ But just like the renditions of ‘Imagine’, the buskers are wrong. We need to do more than imagine. We need more than love. Everything is not all right. We need to address this problem, and start at the roots. Otherwise, our societies will continue to be caught between people who mean what they say and a society which won’t even listen. And so they’ll keep meeting, these two worlds.
On Monday night, Ariana Grande was in her traditional suspenders, singing: ‘Don’t need permission / Made my decision to test my limits / ’Cause it’s my business, God as my witness… / I’m locked and loaded / Completely focused.’ Outside, waiting, was someone who was really focused. It is time we made some effort to focus, too.
How can we fight jihad in the West while spending our entire diplomatic capital on creating a state for the trailblazers of that jihad? How can we reward jihadists for their supremacist ideology? When the president talks about making “a deal,” that means creating a Jew-free state in Judea (the irony!), where Jews must be uprooted from their homes and their cemeteries disinterred (this was done during the Gaza pullout). At the same time, Arabs would still be allowed to live in the remaining microscopic Israel. In fact, the reason there are demographic issues in the so-called West Bank in the first place is because every time Arabs illegally occupied it, they killed or expelled all the Jews. Yet when Jews liberated it, they didn’t return the favor. Thus they had to start from zero every time. Why should we reward the evil supremacist ideology by allowing them to achieve the fruits of their supremacism?Col Kemp: Manchester bombing attack on the innocent MUST be the final straw in battle against terror
President Trump is definitely in a better place than the past president when it comes to identifying the evil losers. But until he turns to Abbas and the PLO leadership and calls them evil losers, he will continue promoting willful blindness towards the actual evil we are fighting. It’s not too late for him to abandon the mistakes of the first few months and finally stick a fork in the PLO jihad. That would drain the ultimate swamp championed and idolized by the worst elements of the American and global political establishment.
If the Manchester attacker was Palestinian and the victims Israeli, the terrorist's family would receive a stipend from Mahmoud Abbas. pic.twitter.com/gmTqzYwZwY
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) May 23, 2017
The government must make MI5’s job easier, by reducing the number of terrorist suspects in this country.
All non-British citizens involved in extremism must be deported – that includes those preaching, financing, supporting or preparing for terrorism. Dual citizens must be stripped of British citizenship and deported.
Those who leave the UK to murder, rape and torture with the Islamic State or other jihadist groups must not be allowed to return. They are the most dangerous – blooded in battle and trained in sophisticated acts of mass violence.
Internment must be seriously considered for British citizens who cannot be deported or prosecuted yet intelligence shows are involved in terrorism.
These are draconian measures and they may well infringe the human rights of terrorists. But better that than to leave them free to violently deprive innocent British men, women and children of their lives.
How many more scenes of carnage on our streets must we endure, with teenage boys and girls ripped apart by explosives and shrapnel designed to cause maximum death, wounding and disfigurement, before we take serious action?