Terrorism

It’s hard to hold anyone responsible for anything today in British politics. That’s because no sooner have the facts emerged than everybody in Westminster has played another game of musical chairs. If the word ‘amusing’ can be used in the same paragraph as ‘attempted beheading’ allow me one amusing example. Last month, a 30-year-old asylum seeker from Sudan allegedly attempted to behead a local man on the streets of Belfast. The attack was apparently caught on video. Everyone was geared up to make their points. The left was preparing to argue ‘So you’re saying all asylum seekers are beheaders, are you?’, while the right was gearing up to say: ‘We must hold people accountable.

Strange things are happening with Dr. Sebastian Gorka. In a clip that circulated widely yesterday, the deputy assistant to the President was asked by Breitbart's Alex Marlow whether he thought right-wing terror is currently a threat in the US. Gorka brought up Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes – unprompted – claiming they had lauded Sharia law and said Muslim states were better than America. “I’m not sure that Nick Fuentes or Tucker Carlson are conservatives... If you remove those individuals and you understand that they're not conservatives, what's left?” Judging by those comments, it seems that Gorka, as Trump’s senior director of counterterrorism, regards the two podcasters as domestic security threats.

As the appalling story of Sunday’s anti-Jewish mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach continue to unfold, and 16 people are now dead, there have been few glimmers of light in the darkness. The men identified as the shooters are a father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24. The father was shot and killed by police last night, and the son was overpowered and taken into custody. The New South Wales police commissioner says little is yet known about the pair, but Sajid Akram was a licensed gun owner, with six guns in his possession. Old social media posts have also emerged of Naveed Akram being praised for his Islamic studies in 2022.

When I was a Prevent counter terror officer a decade ago our case load was largely focused on Islamist terrorism – clear, defined ideological extremism. Today the picture looks very different. The majority of cases involve ‘mixed, unclear or unstable ideologies’ or a simple 'fixation with violence'. In other words, many people being referred no longer seem to have any specific ideology. The programme is looking at behaviours that are 'violence-oriented', which risks blurring our understanding of the real terror threat in the UK. According to the Home Office, there were 8,778 referrals to Prevent in the latest reporting period, up roughly 27 per cent on the previous year. At first glance these numbers appear to show a surge in radicalisation and extremism.

I was on my way to synagogue yesterday when I got news that was surprising and unsurprising at the same time. That there had been an attack at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur was a shock, but only the location and the timing. The fact that terror had struck our community felt like the confirmation of our worst fears – and something that was grimly predictable.  For as long as I can remember, Jewish life in the UK has been closely guarded and protected. My childhood synagogue in the leafy London suburb of Surbiton was behind locked gates with security guards posted outside when anyone was in the building. My Jewish newspaper office today has similar protections and an address we’re told must never be made public.

Charlie Kirk, conservative commentator and essential piece of the Trumpworld media ecosystem, is dead, allegedly at the hands of an individual whose inner life has, needlessly, been the subject of conservative speculation for the past few days. Seemingly, every faction of the American right has their own explanation as to how this young man might have been inspired to commit such an atrocity. Many of these are myopic but perhaps have a kernel of truth to them. Others are plainly wrong. The worst of them play right into the hands of the left, and deserve serious reconsideration. Details about Tyler Robinson, the suspected gunman, continue to pour in.

Will Saudi Arabia ever be held to account for the 9/11 terror attacks? For decades, the Kingdom has successfully parried lawsuits in the United States accusing it of providing logistical and financial support to a network of Islamic extremists who launched a global terror campaign, culminating in the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Those attacks occurred 24 years ago and since then survivors and victims of the 9/11 hijackings have had to counter not only vigorous Saudi denials mounted by their well-funded American legal team but also repeated attempts by the US government to thwart the lawsuits. But there are signs the pendulum has begun to swing the other way. On August 28, US District Judge George B.