“Britain’s most senior Muslim police officer, the less than inspiring Tarique Ghaffur, this week blamed ‘Islamophobia’ for creating a ‘generation of angry young people’. That hardly squares with what we know about the suspects.
“Never mind that modern Britain has as good a record of tolerance as any country on Earth. Such anti-Islamic prejudice as does exist is confined almost exclusively to a social underclass of illiterate yobs. [Surely a little harsh on Nick Cohen? – ed.] Are we really to believe the suspects being held by the police were so tormented by Islamophobia in the Acacia Avenues of the Home Counties that they saw mass murder as the only response?
“No. Mr Ghaffur was right about only one thing in his speech to the National Black Police Association on Monday: young people who turn to terrorism tend to be psychologically vulnerable and open to exploitation by fanatics. The greatest threat to Britain’s security comes from that handful of bigoted imams who spew anti-Western poison from their mosques. They have been tolerated for too long.”