British Muslims are key in fight against Islamist extremism

‘Extremism’s root is a world view that pits them against us’

- Fiyaz Mughal

THE suspect in the killing of Sir David Amess is one Ali Harbi Ali. The 25-year-old allegedly stabbed the much-loved local MP 17 times. The suspect then apparently waited for the police to arrest him.

Ali’s family had settled in the UK after fleeing war-torn Somalia in the 1990s and he had been referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme.

We know that our security services have 3,000 to 4,000 people under active surveillance because they are deemed to be a terrorist threat and national security risk.

Yet these individuals do not just wake up and decide that they are going to espouse extremist rhetoric.

The material that they come across online is carefully crafted to develop a worldview that Europe and America are against Islam and Muslims, and seek to subjugate and change the faith.

The rhetoric places “constant conflict” in the minds of readers, with the West being portrayed as decadent, godless, materialistic, in violation of God’s word and seeking to take resources from so-called “Muslim lands”.

MUCH of this sort of rhetoric intersects across the Islamist extremist networks and less extreme ones too.