‘People are being sucked into extremism online’

‘Vocal’ thugs are normalising antisemitism, says terror chief

- BY MICHAEL KNOWLES Home Affairs Editor

DONALD Trump has threatened a peace deal with Iran with a decision on the nuclear deal that Tehran has denounced the latest US air strikes.

(Photo: Getty Images)

ANTISEMITISM is on the rise as more people fall under the influence of “vocal” violent extremism driven by social media, a counterterrorism police chief has warned.

Islamist clerics and far-right thugs are exploiting Britain’s “polarised communities” to poison the minds of vulnerable people, says Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of counterterrorism policing.

And he believes some extremists are becoming so influential there is a reluctance to speak out against them.

This creates the growing risk that jihadis and far-right lunatics fantasising about attacks could exploit a “permissive” environment to carry out an atrocity, he says.

Mr Taylor told the Daily Express: “We are seeing, not just within counterterrorism policing but policing more broadly, far more polarised communities. And what that means is those voices that would have once been at the extremes are normalised.