"UK home to 23,000 Jihadis"

[user666999]

This is the title from a Times article today. Bloody hell. This is a shockingly high number. I find this really scary. There really needs to be some major plan rather than just more waffle from this useless Government. I just don't see how this genie can be put back in the bottle and I think things will only get worse.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/huge-scale-of-terror-threat-revealed-uk-home-to-23-000-jihadists-3zvn58mhq

If you are constantly fed a negative story about a group by the media, then you are going to form a negative impression.

Muslims, like other groups who parts of the media take umbrage to, have been 'othered'. When people become 'other', it's easier to not care too much about them.

The IRA bombers were pretty shit Catholics. And I'm origin the IRA was not just Catholic - it's amazing what you learn preparing to teach the poetry of WB Yeats.

@twelly you don't deal with it by delivering more recruits to the extremists through persecution of innocent members of a religious group.

twelly yes the country is at threat of terrorism absolutely. Yes there needs to be something done to combat this by our governenment.

But history should ALWAYS be listened to. We can't repeat mistakes of the past.

you don't deal with it by delivering more recruits to the extremists through persecution of innocent members of a religious group

And you don't deal with it by having a media that constantly 'others' members of that groups and portrays them as a mass and in a negative way. That can only drive alienation.

But history should ALWAYS be listened to. We can't repeat mistakes of the past

There's a reason people study history. Even recent history teaches us so much about handling terrorism within a country and how it can be fuelled.

@Orlantina agreed. Several editors should really be prosecuted for incitement to religious hatred (yes, that is a crime).

Maybe you should tell that to some people on here

Orlantina I agree with a lot of what you are saying but I am unclear how me posting a statement saying that Islamist extremists do not represent all Muslims is not me telling that to some people on here.

I have also challenged at least one pp directly on a generalisation of Muslims.

you don't deal with it by delivering more recruits to the extremists through persecution of innocent members of a religious group

Is anyone suggesting this, on this thread (other than people who have had their posts deleted)?

From what I have read on Twitter, some of the strongest voices urging greater action are from Muslims.

Agreed that alienation is to be avoided, but the debate has been shut down so frequently that anyone who voices a view regarding the risks or taking action is tagged as racist, they have an opinion which is not racist - in effect they are silenced and this led to the ukip support as in the ballot box people felt empowered. Agreed that this may not happen at the forthcoming election but that is due to the firmer line taken by the concervatives

its scary that there are 230000 who are known about to be a risk in this country, not counting the ones who have gone, who may return.

Something needs to be done, going on this way is just not working. I have so far dodged two terror attacks and its scary to know that this is the way that the world is, but im also very sad that racism is as rife as it ever was.

I dont think any religion is without its negative and or violent messages, which is why so many wars have been created by such, but there are many, many religious people who dont stage terror attacks in the name of their religion. We shouldnt be blaming the whole of the Islamic faith because of a few idiots.

I didnt think that i would ever say this, I agree with the speech that Donald Trump made last week, they are losers and I honestly believe thats how terrorists should be described, as to take away the infamy from them.

Young Muslim woman speaking on BBC question time a few days ago.

m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_5927d146e4b01b9a5937df7f

but the debate has been shut down so frequently that anyone who voices a view regarding the risks or taking action is tagged as racist

No - the debate has been about the actions some want to take could easily make things much much worse and lead to fundamental loss of human rights and the rights of a trial etc.

Some people don't seem to understand that the actions they want to take will drive more people into the hands of the recruiters.

Masjid Nawaz, a Muslim, talking on LBC yesterday about the Didsbury mosque

www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/maajid-nawaz/maajid-nawaz-refuses-to-praise-didsbury-mosque/

@twelly some of the suggestions on this thread have indeed been islamophobic.
What further action would I take? Increase funding to education, security services and the police. Reform the Prevent strategy in consultation with leaders from various groups. Investigate further how the internet can be policed when material is held on servers outside of our jurisdiction (that's one for the UN by the way).

I agree that some actions may be counterproductive but people are entitled to their views and shutting down a debate with racist allegations renders people powerless.

I agree that some actions may be counterproductive but people are entitled to their views and shutting down a debate with racist allegations renders people powerless

Do you think someone saying that all people with a Muslim sounding name should be banned from public events is a sensible approach?

twelly but when some people do say something which is racist (like on this thread) you can't expect people to not call a spade a spade.

Douglas Murray and Haras Rafiq, a Muslim, discussing the Manchester bombing.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=bKsjsYcrP0o

Why are people allowed an opinion that Islam is a terrible, horrible, violent religion but I'm not allowed the opinion that a person is racist.

Orlantina - have you ever lived in an area with a large Muslim community? Because parts of my family in other parts of the U.K. do, and they've faced some very real hatred. Just for being white women and failing to do things like cover up!

It's not just the right wing press that "others". It's elders in communities judging the western way of life and making their children see it as immoral; it's conservative imams refusing to modernise and assimilate; it's angry young men who feel they belong neither here nor there talking to each other and whipping each other into hatred. I have friends who lecture in London universities who are shocked by what people dare to say aloud in the common room. So what is going on behind closed doors? What went on behind the Manchester scum's closed doors that his brother was also planning an attack and that his sister tried to justify it?

It's wrong to demonise but it's also wrong to keep insisting that it's only a tiny problem. It needs absolutely everyone from all areas of life to pull together and repeat, to governments, to preachers, to sons, sisters, etc etc etc: STOP FUCKING KILLING PEOPLE, YOU TWATS.

@Leanback strange isn't it. But the Gordon Brown was hauled over the coals for calling a bigot a bigot.

doctor anti-political correctness does not extend to my use of 'racist' apparently

@Sionella and in the case of the Manchester bomber his mother and Imam reported him to the authorities.