Following the shock announcement that UK justice minister Mike Freer is quitting frontline politics after being subjected to a campaign of death threats and intimidation, the MP cited his pro-Israel views as a contributory factor. Freer represents Finchley and Golders Green, an area with a large Jewish population, and he has been an outspoken defender of Israel. Freer has been especially targeted by the group Muslims Against Crusades.1
The subsequent political row, with its allegations of ‘Islamophobia’ regarding comments made by Lee Anderson, but also involving Rishi Sunak, clearly illustrates the inordinate difficulty of drawing attention to militant Islam in Britain. Fear of the ‘Islamophobia’ label seems likely to continue stifling necessary discussion.
The tension aroused by these recent examples has been a long time a-brewing, a trouble based on an extreme version of Islam (some would say Islam in its true form is inherently extreme).
Homegrown extremism
According to Robin Simcox, in his alarming 2020 report, Understanding and Defeating Islamism in the United Kingdom (thoroughly researched and copiously referenced)2, “The United Kingdom has been a hub for Islamist activity for decades. It has been a base for fundraising and recruitment for terrorist causes across the world, while British citizens have swelled the ranks of Islamist groups.” He describes how nearly 1,000 British passport holders travelled to Syria to fight for ISIS, and British subjects have engaged over the years in jihadist causes in Bosnia, Kashmir, Chechnya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen.
... the Islamist threat to the U.K. today is largely homegrown
Simcox highlights how this turned inward on July 7, 2005, with the suicide bombings on London’s public transportation network, carried out by British citizens recruited by al-Qaeda. He describes the various methods employed by Islamists – rather than the creation of an Islamic state in the U.K., various groups began to focus on Islamizing the individual and then the community. However, they did not abandon the long-term vision of a sharia-governed caliphate just because they were not operating in a Muslim-majority country.
And so, the Islamist threat to the U.K. today is largely homegrown. Almost 75% of Islam-related offences occurring in Britain are committed by U.K. nationals and those holding dual nationality. What started as a foreign ideology, brought in primarily via the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, today has a distinctly British face.
As an example, Simcox showcases Shakeel Begg, an imam at the Lewisham Islamic Centre (the mosque attended by the two Islamic converts who stabbed Lee Rigby to death). Begg was described in a 2016 High Court ruling as “an extremist Islamic speaker who tells Muslims that violence in support of Islam would constitute a man’s greatest deed.” Yet, Begg is considered a mainstream figure in certain circles. He succeeded in establishing himself within a network of local interfaith and community groups, and has had close contact with schools, local authority groups, police groups and chaplains. He was even invited to speak at a ‘Lewisham Labour Against Racism’ rally alongside a Labour MP in 2018.
Begg was described in a 2016 High Court ruling as “an extremist Islamic speaker who tells Muslims that violence in support of Islam would constitute a man’s greatest deed.”
Simcox believes that engaging with Islamists — rather than defeating them — was the U.K.’s major mistake in the past. “It should not be a mistake that the U.K. continues to make”, he insists. Yet, even last November, the government’s ProtectUK scheme stated, in promoting security for mosques, that people should promote the scheme “to Mosques and Muslim community centres in your local area and networks who have experienced hate crime, or feel they are vulnerable to it.” Note the scope of provision for merely feeling vulnerable – and the absence of any limitation due to Islamist actions.
Journey across Muslim Britain
London born Ed Husain, University professor and former advisor to Tony Blair, is author of the 2007 book, 'The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, and Why I Left It'. In a more recent study, ‘Among the Mosques; a Journey across Muslim Britain’ (2021), he visited mosques in cities like Manchester, Blackburn, Rochdale, Keighley, Birmingham and East London in order to understand “Islamic penetration” in the country. He reveals, for example, how parts of Blackburn are “no-go areas” for white men, while “ultra-orthodox parents” in Bradford make children live under “Taliban-like rules”.3
Husain describes how northern towns such as Bolton, Dewsbury and Blackburn are like “a different universe”, noting how a Muslim can spend months with no contact whatsoever with mainstream ‘white’ Britain’ in certain parts of the north. Blackburn has the highest Muslim population outside of London, and is the global hub for radical Islamist groups like the Deobandis, who inspired and created Islamic terror outfits such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Deobandis are thought to control nearly 50% of the mosques in the UK.4
Parts of Blackburn are “no-go areas” for white men, while “ultra-orthodox parents” in Bradford make children live under “Taliban-like rules”
Husain has explained that the primary objective of his survey of Muslim communities in Britain was to see if there was a sense of “belonging here”.5 To the contrary, what he found were examples of Sharia courts operating in various parts of Britain, and terror-inciting literature in numerous mosques (not least the Manchester mosque attended by the suicide bomber responsible for the Ariana Grande concert massacre of May 2017). Husain claims that multiculturalism has failed in large parts of Britain and instead there are substantial monocultures in those areas.
The enemy within
During the current Gaza-Israel conflict, British mosques in such areas have been hotbeds of anti-Jewish incitement, several examples of which were shown on Talk TV late last year in such places as Liverpool, Birmingham, Northampton and Ilford (East London). The incitements quoted appeared in prayers led by imams. From various mosques came calls to kill Jews, “and do not leave any of them alive. Make them captive to the Muslims”. Not uncommon were calls, as from a mosque in London, to : “curse the Jews and the Children of Israel. Oh Allah, curse the infidels and tear apart their unity …. ruin their houses and tear apart their homes … from London to Liverpool.” 6
The sheer savagery of such desires is deeply disturbing, not least as they bring to Britain the mentality of what we have long seen preached in the mosques of Gaza and the TV propaganda of Fatah and Hamas. It is such preaching that led to the unspeakable barbarism of the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ massacres and hostage-taking of October 7th. There can be no doubt but that we have some dangerous enemies within our nation.
As Bible-believing Christians, we know that there is a profound spiritual battle raging, a battle that seems to be intensifying as the years roll by.
Being prayerful and watchful
Whilst it seems likely that many UK Muslims would feel disquiet or disgust at the above examples, it is deeply worrying that no clear disavowals are yet being made publicly (though fear may be a factor here). For most of Britain’s population, reasonable fear and consequent watchfulness regarding Islamist actions seem entirely prudent. Expression of these should not be confused with active prejudice or dislike of Muslims in general, resulting in the greatly over-utilised charge of ‘Islamophobia’.7 Fear of such misunderstanding can lead us to avoiding discussion of a very real problem that, left to itself, seems likely to grow.
As Bible-believing Christians, we know that there is a profound spiritual battle raging, a battle that seems to be intensifying as the years roll by.
It behoves us to be particularly watchful and to remind ourselves often that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph.6:12).
Endnotes
1. Mike Freer quits: Rishi Sunak 'extremely saddened' and blasts 'vitriolic hatred' targeted at London MP | Evening Standard 01 Feb 2024; accessed 11 Feb 2024
2. SR226_0.pdf (heritage.org) 01 Jun 2020; accessed 09 Feb 2024
3. BBC World Service - HARDtalk, Author and Former Islamist - Ed Husain 30 May 2018; accessed 09 Feb 2024
4. Author reveals how mosques in UK enforcing radical Islam among Muslims (opindia.com) 06 Jun 2021; accessed 09 Feb 2024
5. Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain - Why Prof. Ed Husain is Worried. (youtube.com)
6. https://www.facebook.com/TalkTVUK/videos/exclusive-antisemitic-hate-speech-calling-for-jewish-deaths-preached-in-several-/ 23 Nov 2023; accessed 09 Feb 2024
7. ‘Islamophobia’ is in fact a misleading term, as it focusses more upon a person’s feeling, rather than on attitude and action. According to the NHS, "A phobia is an overwhelming and debilitating fear … They develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger about a situation or object” (Overview - Phobias - NHS (www.nhs.uk) accessed 13 Feb 2024.
