Britain Fights Home-Grown Islamists - The Labour government unveils a new antiterror strategy

Britain Fights Home-Grown Islamists. WSJ Editorial
The Labour government unveils a new antiterror strategy.
WSJ, Mar 26, 2009

The only good news from a British security report published this week -- that al Qaeda is "likely to fragment" -- comes with a scary caveat: Islamist splinter groups will continue Osama bin Laden's work and could prove just as dangerous, if not more so.

The possibility of a WMD attack against Britain has never been as grave as it is today, the government report warned: "Changing technology and the theft and smuggling of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive materials make this aspiration more realistic than it may have been in the recent past."

This dire outlook may have triggered the long overdue policy change in London's antiterrorism strategy, announced Tuesday by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. The new objective is to address the real root cause of Islamist terrorism -- its ideology. Ms. Smith promised that the government would "challenge" Muslims in Britain who may not support violence but who reject "our shared values" -- such as democracy and the rule of law -- and promote hatred toward women, homosexuals and other religions and ethnicities. While not criminalizing such ideology, Ms. Smith said, "we should all stand up for our shared values and not concede the floor to those who dismiss them."

This may sound like common sense, but it's actually a dramatic change from past British policy. Until now, the Labour government has "engaged" nonviolent extremists, believing they could help in the fight against violent extremists. To justify this approach, the government dumbed down the definition of "moderate" Muslim to include those who claim to reject terrorism but still support a global caliphate, oppose democracy and justify suicide bombings outside Britain as "resistance." The assumption was that only "moderates" who hold such radical views possess the credibility to dissuade young Muslims from the path of jihad.

The consequences of this policy have been predictably devastating. "The effect has been to empower reactionaries within Muslim communities and to marginalize genuine moderates," according to a study published this month by the think tank Policy Exchange. "The link between non-violent and violent extremism is habitually underplayed." Policy Exchange also found that the government spent almost £90 million over the past three years on nonviolent radical Islamic groups, "underwriting the very Islamist ideology which spawns an illiberal, intolerant and anti-Western world view."

Hazel Blears, secretary of state for communities and local government, has long pushed for changing this approach and seems to have made a start. This week she suspended ties with the Muslim Council of Britain -- once the Labour government's favorite Muslim organization -- because its deputy secretary general, Daud Abdullah, signed a declaration in Istanbul last month that calls for jihad against Israel and any country supporting it, which could include Britain.

The Labour government shares much of the blame for making radical Muslim views respectable in the eyes of British Muslims who may have otherwise shunned them. In the process, it has endangered Britain's national security and that of its allies. Most of Britain's 2,000 terror suspects are home-grown and U.S. officials have warned that British Islamists entering the U.S. under the visa-waiver program pose a severe threat to homeland security.

The threat of a terror attack against Britain, including during next week's G-20 financial summit in London, is "severe," Home Secretary Smith said this week -- meaning "it's highly likely" and "could happen without warning."

The break from the policy of courting radical Muslims is long overdue. Britain, and its allies, will be safer for it.