Latest news with #MohammedSidiqueKhan
The Independent
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
We must act to stop radicalisation through smartphones, terror watchdog says
Society is "grasping at straws" in its approach to young people being drawn into extremism via smartphones, the terror laws watchdog has warned. Jonathan Hall KC, speaking ahead of the 20th anniversary of the July 7 attacks, stated that current extremist recruitment methods are "a million miles" from those used before 2005. Suicide bombers Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19, set off bombs on three Tube trains and a bus, killing 52 people in the single worst terrorist atrocity on British soil. Ringleader and recruiter Khan appeared to be a pillar of the community, steering local youths away from crime and drugs by organising outdoor activities and helping to set up a gym in a mosque basement, but was in reality a fanatic. Mr Hall told the PA news agency the wide availability of smartphones has transformed radicalisation since then. 'The principal distinction from the era of 7/7 is the smartphone era,' Mr Hall said. 'That has changed the landscape. It has led to a different model of radicalisation. 'With 7/7 the indications were that Mohammad Sidique Khan was grooming people, there was a youth club, they went and did rafting together. 'Those sorts of outdoorsy, in person, group grooming activities, those feel a million miles away from the online world of radicalisation. 'I'm not aware of any sane person who seeks to argue the current wave of very young people becoming involved in terrorism, or extreme violence where it's not ideological, that that's not related to the internet and to the ready availability of smartphones. 'There's a very live debate about the ethics, the legality and the practicalities of which response is best. 'But we are absolutely grasping at straws and struggling, at the moment, as a society to work out what the correct response is. 'No one in their right minds would allow their children to allow a stranger into their bedroom, but that's what we've done with phones.' The attacks exposed the deadly threat from homegrown terrorists with 'appalling clarity', Mr Hall said. 'What 7/7 did, is it revealed with appalling clarity that our fellow citizens are willing to kill us. 'That very unsettling insight is as true today as it was back then, except you now have to bring in British citizens who have been inspired by extreme right-wing ideology to join the predominant Islamist threat. 'But that was the real kicker from 7/7. I think it really brought home this idea of the homegrown threat.' Commander Dominic Murphy said July 7 was 'a seminal moment' for counter-terrorism policing, leading to a series of changes that continued after the five terror attacks in the UK in 2017. He said that while Islamist groups are still the main threat to the UK, right wing terrorism is a growing problem, and there is concern that younger people are being drawn into extremism. In 2024, 39 of the 248 people arrested for terrorism offences were aged 17 and under, while children aged 11 to 15 made up the largest proportion of those referred to anti-extremism scheme Prevent (2,729 out of 6,884). 'Islamist remains our main threat. We do see a growing right-wing terrorist problem,' Mr Murphy said. 'We're increasingly seeing younger people involved in that right-wing threat as well, which is deeply concerning for us. 'But of course, we also see people that don't have a clear or fixed ideology. 'We can't say clearly that they're an Islamist terrorist, we can't say clearly that they ascribe to a right-wing ideology. 'Nonetheless, they're consuming large amounts of violent media online, and they might have a mixed or unclear ideology – that means, of course, we still need to be concerned about the threat to the public. 'It's diversified a lot even since 2017 and I think the online environment and the world environment adds a whole new layer of challenge to the threat that we face.'
Arab News
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief
LONDON: British foreign policy, including the Iraq War, contributed to motivations for the attacks in London on July 7, 2005, a former counterterrorism chief has said, warning that the atrocity left a 'soul-destroying' legacy of hate. Neil Basu's remarks were made to The Guardian ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks, which were carried out by Islamist extremists and left 52 people dead and more than 750 injured. British foreign policy has a direct effect on domestic security, said Basu, adding that one driver of the attacks was 'foreign policy and Iraq,' referring to Britain's central role in the conflict alongside the US. 'That does not excuse in any way what they did. That foreign policy decision has radicalized and made extremists of people who might not have been radicalized or extreme,' he said. In the wake of the attacks, the shock in Britain was compounded by the revelation that the group of suicide bombers had been supported by Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror group. 'All terrorists will have a freedom fighter story,' Basu said: 'Bin Laden would have had a freedom fighter story. We might think it's crap. We might think it's self-justification, but he will have had a story about liberating his lands from the great invaders.' The ringleader of the attacks was Mohammed Sidique Khan. The husband and father said in a self-recorded video before his death by suicide: 'We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you, too, will taste the reality of this situation.' Basu warned that the new threat level to the UK from terrorism is far higher than in 2005. 'There is no one path for any single individual to go down a terrorist route. There's a multiplicity of paths, and one of them is: 'I'm right, you're wrong.' Now that looks obscene to us … they are on God's side. We are on Satan's side,' he said. 'When terrorists hide behind a religion to commit an atrocity, people blame every follower of the religion and the religion itself. We ought to stop doing that.' As a result of that behavior on a national scale, people in Britain are suspicious of those who 'don't look like you, think like you, eat like you, worship like you,' Basu said. 'That has got worse, not better, and that has been caused exactly as terrorists want, by dividing a society by committing the shocking act.' The attacks also led to a reversal of decades of progress in race and religious relations, Basu said, highlighting a surging suspicion of Muslims in Britain in the decades since. The 'trajectory of tolerance' seen in the UK since the 1980s has been wiped out, he added, citing the July 7 bombings and 9/11 attacks in the US as crucial factors. 'That's what I think has been most soul-destroying … It has interrupted a trajectory of tolerance that I was becoming very familiar and happy with,' Basu said. 'It started with 9/11 … 7/7 accelerated that in this country. The relationship between races is worse today, or as bad today as it was in the 70s and 80s. That period of tolerance is over, and feels very much over.' For Muslims in Britain, the events of that decade led to wider damage within the community as members risked being tarred with suspicion by the public, Basu said. A cycle of hatred and intolerance had been set in motion as a result, he added, warning of surging right-wing extremism and racism. 'I look at the rise of extreme right-wing terrorism in this country … of right-wing, racist attitudes toward black and brown people, and I look at the rise in hate crime reporting … and can't help but think we've got a vicious cycle that started when certain vicious groups started killing people on western soil. I think they were intending to do that, and they have succeeded,' he said.
