Cox on British Islamism

"Islamist groups are using our institutions to recruit young people, and preventing any critical analysis of Islam. We need to wake up, draw a line in the sand, and say enough is enough - Britain's cultural and spiritual heritage are under threat."

Thanks go to Cranmer for pointing out an Ynetnews report of these comments by the indomitable Baroness Cox, co-author of The West, Islam and Islamism. Speaking about radicalised British Muslims, the threat to Israel, and the 70,000 capacity mega-mosque in east London, Baroness Cox also quoted a senior British bishop as saying that "most of our educational institutions have been infiltrated." That this is even a problem—let alone one as great as that posed by Communists in our universities throughout much of the last century—seems to have gone unnoticed by the vast majority of our elected politicians. Labour, seemingly oblivious, continues to bend over backwards to appease the Muslim Council of Britain while the leader of the opposition recently suggested that it is a "lazy use of language" to describe the threat from radical, militantly ideological versions of Islam as "Islamist."

Lest any of us need reminding that this ideological struggle is not merely an intellectual debate but also poses a threat to national security, Cox cites the case of Salah Idris, a shareholder in two high-tech security firms that provide security for the British parliament, the Royal Courts of Justice, UK military bases, and eleven nuclear installations—also the owner of a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory destroyed by America in 1998 after it was linked with al-Qaeda activity. Yet Cox claims, "When we brought this matter to the attention of the authorities, we were told there was no cause for concern."

As I wrote a couple of months ago in The Rise Of Islam, "We all need to understand Islam and the differences between moderate Islam and fundamentalist Islam, or Islamism" and it is therefore crucial that the media becomes a positive force for change in inter-religious relations and starts giving a prominent platform to experts such as Baroness Cox who actually understand the threats that we all face in twenty-first century Britain.