Actions on Terrorism

Given the two London and the Manchester attacks, it may have occurred to some of the quicker thinkers in the media that tackling Islamic terrorism with candles and prayers, flowers, tears and teddy bears, may not be enough.  Three changes of attitude are required.

The first is to publicly destroy the myth that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, when it is patently obvious that it does.  The media’s dereliction of duty to accurately inform the public on the intimate relationship between Islam and terrorism is an appalling indictment of its role in a free society.

The second is long overdue, but suicide terrorists should be tackled by removing one of the two principal factors (duty and reward) that impel them towards slaughter.  By public proclamation beforehand, reward could be nullified by designating them non-Muslims, having disobeyed certain Koranic imperatives.  Their bodies will thus not receive Islamic burial rites, they will be cremated without ceremony and their ashes discarded. 

For the third change, we can safely assume that all contacts linked to such extremists will be examined closely.  This should, if it doesn’t already, apply to their family members and acquaintances.  They have, after all, a responsibility to report extremists to the authorities, and if they fail in this duty they should be considered culpable and prosecuted.

This requires an exercise of willpower over objections from Muslims and their clerics, which has the advantage of showing a bit of backbone.  For just the once.

Meanwhile, anyone thinking that this is as bad as it gets should search YouTube for Channel 4’s Dispatches series “Undercover Mosque”.  This outstanding programme shows better than any other media exercise the profound and growing danger that the Western world has to fear from Islam.