1,000 Page Study on Extremist Convictions Cannot Be Dismissed
The Sunday Times reported on a Henry Jackson study that has listed data showing that about a tenth of all Britain’s Islamist terrorists come from just 5 council wards in Birmingham. It states that women’s involvement in Islamist terror plots is low, though this has trebled over a period of time from 1998-2016.
The report is to be launched this week by Britain’s anti-terrorism chief, Assistant Commissioner, Mark Rowley. It covers 269 convictions or suicide bombings and over 400 offences and makes the point that terror and support networks provide inspiration and ready made support for individuals looking to conduct violence in the name of extremist groups. Obviously, one of the most well known networks that worked for decades with impunity was Anjem Choudhary’s extremist network that preyed on young men and the more vulnerable they were, the more his group preyed on them.
Produced by the Henry Jackson society, the report seems to indicate that clustered segregated neighbourhoods, allied to deprivation and networks of support for extremism, make up the majority of the phenotype of cases which have ended up in the courts. The report is a detailed analysis that will need to be reviewed to ensure that professionals and specialists working in this area, understand the rich and accurate picture around Islamist extremism and violence. If we are to separate this from Muslims, the vast and overwhelming majority of citizens who are peaceful and who follow Islam as a central part of their lives, then we must fully understand the core environmental factors that raise succeptibility in some to extremism and violence. This report does make for intriguing reading.