“Again and again we are told that terrorism is associated with poverty and the basic, Qur’anic education provided by madrasas. We are told that the men who carry out this work are evil madmen with whom no debate is possible and who, according to Frank Field on last week’s Question Time, ‘aim to wipe us out’. All links with Iraq and Afghanistan are vehemently denied.

“In actual fact, al-Qaida operatives tend to be highly educated and their aims clearly and explicitly political. Bin Laden, in his numerous communiques, has always been completely clear about this. In his first public statement, ‘A declaration of war against the Americans’, issued in 1996, he announced he was fighting US foreign policy in the Middle East and, in particular, American support for the House of Saud and the state of Israel. His aim, he stated, is to unleash a clash of civilisations between Islam and the ‘Zionist crusaders’ of the west, and so provoke an American backlash strong enough to radicalise the Muslim world and topple pro-western governments.

“Bush has fulfilled Bin Laden’s every hope. Through the invasion of secular Ba’athist Iraq, the abuses in Abu Ghraib, the mass murders in Falluja, America – with Britain’s obedient assistance – has turned Iraq into a jihadist playground while alienating all moderate Muslim opinion in the Islamic heartlands and, crucially, in the west. Of course, we must condemn the horrific atrocities these men cause; but condemnation is not enough. Unless we attempt to understand the jihadis, read their statements and honestly analyse what has led these men to blow themselves up, we can never defeat them or even begin to drain the swamp of the grievances in which they continue to flourish.”

William Dalrymple in the Guardian, 20 July 2005

Don’t fear preachers, Ken tells the capital

By Isabel Oakeshott

Evening Standard, 20 July 2005

Londoners should not get too worked up by radical Muslim clerics living in the capital, Ken Livingstone suggested today.

The Mayor attacked the media for highlighting the activities of preachers such as Omar Bakri Mohammed, who blames the British public for the bombings. Mr Livingstone claimed it was “utter nonsense” to focus on such individuals and stressed that high-profile figures such as Bakri have only a handful of followers.

The Mayor’s comments are likely to be rejected by police and intelligence services, who will point out only small numbers are needed to carry out attacks.

Today the Mayor said: “I do regret the fact that the British media, or some of them, pick on the most minority strand amongst the Muslim community – people whose followers are numbered in tens, not even hundreds, and elevate them to the front page as though these are leading figures of the Muslim community in Britain.

“We have three-quarters of a million Muslims in this city of London, and yet the same three or four totally unrepresentative individuals are always stuck on the front page of the papers. Some of them are serial fantasists. I mean, it’s utter nonsense.”

He spoke out amid mounting calls for Charles Clarke to deport Bakri. Today the Home Secretary was explaining to MPs his proposals for dealing with foreignborn extremists in Britain and will reveal plans for anti-terror laws agreed with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

But ministers admit they do not know how to deal with foreign clerics who won the right to stay in Britain many years ago and now have families here.