Two weeks ago, British police arrested Anjem Choudary, the country’s most publicly visible spokesman for jihad, on charges of recruiting for Islamic State. Applauding the step, Douglas Murray notes that Choudary is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg:
In July, two Pakistani clerics started a tour of the UK. Their seven-week expedition . . . goes on until September 4. . . . One of the first things that Muhammad Naqib ur Rehman and Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman did when they arrived in the UK was to meet with the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop welcomed them . . . and claimed that the meeting would strengthen “interfaith relations,” as well as address “the narrative of extremism and terrorism.” One wonders how far the archbishop got in this task?
If there is a “narrative of extremism and terrorism,” Rehman and Rehman can take some serious credit for the fact. Both men took an enthusiastic stand in Pakistan in support of Mumtaz Qadri, [a Pakistani citizen, executed in his own country for murdering a provincial governor who had the temerity to question blasphemy laws]. That is, they supported the murderer of a progressive Pakistani official. . . .
[One can even find video of] Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman whipping up the vast crowd of mourners after the funeral of Mumtaz Qadri in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. During his speech he repeatedly refers to Qadri as a martyr. Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral and afterwards rioted, chanting slogans such as “Qadri, your blood will bring the revolution” and “the punishment for a blasphemer is beheading.” . . .
Almost everyone in Britain is pleased that the loudmouth Anjem Choudary has gone to jail. [But] Choudary was—as a case—almost too easy. He was the most visible part of the problem. But he was not the greatest or deepest problem in this area. That problem is shown when two extremist clerics with pre-medieval views come to Britain [and] are welcomed by an ignorant British establishment. The problem is shown when they tour mosques . . . to packed houses because they have “hundreds of thousands” of followers of Pakistani origin in the UK. The problem is shown when you scratch the surface of one of the self-proclaimed “moderates” . . . and discover that he is happy to pal around with the people who threaten reformers and praise murderers.
That is the problem for British Islam in a nutshell. And that is a problem we still remain woefully unable to confront.
Read more on Gatestone: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8718/uk-choudary-islamist-clerics