In recent weeks, something extraordinary has happened in Gaza. Ordinary Palestinians have taken to the streets to protest against Hamas.
|  | ‘Hamas out’ protests spread across GazaRare demonstrations call for end to conflict with Israel |
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These are not abstract calls for regime change but acts of courage in the face of real danger. One man, Uday Al Rabbay, was reportedly butchered and had his body dumped outside his parents’ home for taking part in the protest. Yet, despite the risk, many Gazans are beginning to voice what has long been unspeakable – Hamas is not their saviour. It is their oppressor.
They live under a regime that hides weapons in schools and hospitals, diverts foreign aid, indoctrinates children, and rules by terror. For those under the rule of Hamas, brutality is neither distant nor theoretical. The revolution that many Gazans long for is not exclusively against Israel; it is also against the death cult that governs them.
Now compare that to Britain. Over the past eighteen months, including on October 7 itself, British streets have filled with protesters who celebrate the massacre of Israeli civilians as an act of “resistance”. In London, chants of “Zionists, out, out!” have been shouted in Arabic. These are not cries for justice. They signal allegiance to an ideology of annihilation.
The irony of this could not be more stark. As parts of the Muslim world turn away from Islamist extremism, Britain appears to be incubating it.
Saudi Arabia is quietly pursuing normalisation with Israel. Egypt, long familiar with the threat posed by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, has sealed its border with Gaza; the Muslim Brotherhood is banned in both Egypt and the UAE.
The UAE has also blacklisted several British-based charities linked to Islamist networks. Jordan has taken a firm stance against Islamist extremism, actively curbed radical preaching and maintained diplomatic ties with Israel, even in the face of domestic pressure.
| | British organisations deemed terror groups by the UAE for alleged links ...Yvette Cooper’s ‘sprint’ review will look at the rise of Islamist and far-Right extremism, taking over from Mich... |
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Yet here in Britain, Islamist ideology continues to be indulged. Islamist preachers operate with impunity. Prisons have become recruitment grounds. A sitting MP, Sir David Amess, was murdered by an Islamist terrorist and the political response was subdued. Even a Saudi religious leader has recently warned that Britain’s failure to tackle Islamist radicalism risks becoming a national security threat.
This problem has deep roots. In 1989, the Ayatollah of Iran issued a fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie over his novel The Satanic Verses. Rather than a united defence of free expression, many in Britain wavered.
Then Labour MP Keith Vaz joined a demonstration calling for the book to be banned. The Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that publishing it had been a mistake. Bookshops were attacked. Protesters burned the novel in Bradford. Some British Muslims marched not in solidarity with Rushdie but in support of the fatwa. It was the moment that exposed how vulnerable our liberal values were when confronted by religious intimidation.
More than thirty years later, has anything really changed? In 2022, Rushdie was nearly killed in a knife attack in New York. Too many people still hesitate to say what is obvious: Islamist extremism is not just an alternative viewpoint; it is a threat to the foundations of our free society.
| | Salman Rushdie attacker found guilty of attempted murderA jury also found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a second man who was on stage with Sir Salman a... |
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What is worse, this ideology is increasingly being enabled by liberal and progressive Britons who mistake moral posturing for solidarity. In their understandable eagerness to support Palestinians, they refuse to condemn the terrorists who oppress them. In doing so, these progressives provide cover for those who hate the very freedoms that they claim to support.
The new strongholds of Islamist extremism are not just in faraway training camps, but are to be found in British universities, online influencers, and naive street protesters. Unless we confront this honestly, Britain risks becoming not a bulwark against extremism but its heartland. DT.
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In recent weeks, something extraordinary has happened in Gaza. Ordinary Palestinians have taken to the streets to protest against Hamas.
‘Hamas out’ protests spread across Gaza
Rare demonstrations call for end to conflict with Israel
They live under a regime that hides weapons in schools and hospitals, diverts foreign aid, indoctrinates children, and rules by terror. For those under the rule of Hamas, brutality is neither distant nor theoretical. The revolution that many Gazans long for is not exclusively against Israel; it is also against the death cult that governs them.
Now compare that to Britain. Over the past eighteen months, including on October 7 itself, British streets have filled with protesters who celebrate the massacre of Israeli civilians as an act of “resistance”. In London, chants of “Zionists, out, out!” have been shouted in Arabic. These are not cries for justice. They signal allegiance to an ideology of annihilation.
The irony of this could not be more stark. As parts of the Muslim world turn away from Islamist extremism, Britain appears to be incubating it.
Saudi Arabia is quietly pursuing normalisation with Israel. Egypt, long familiar with the threat posed by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, has sealed its border with Gaza; the Muslim Brotherhood is banned in both Egypt and the UAE.
The UAE has also blacklisted several British-based charities linked to Islamist networks. Jordan has taken a firm stance against Islamist extremism, actively curbed radical preaching and maintained diplomatic ties with Israel, even in the face of domestic pressure.
British organisations deemed terror groups by the UAE for alleged links ...
Yvette Cooper’s ‘sprint’ review will look at the rise of Islamist and far-Right extremism, taking over from Mich...
This problem has deep roots. In 1989, the Ayatollah of Iran issued a fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie over his novel The Satanic Verses. Rather than a united defence of free expression, many in Britain wavered.
Then Labour MP Keith Vaz joined a demonstration calling for the book to be banned. The Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that publishing it had been a mistake. Bookshops were attacked. Protesters burned the novel in Bradford. Some British Muslims marched not in solidarity with Rushdie but in support of the fatwa. It was the moment that exposed how vulnerable our liberal values were when confronted by religious intimidation.
More than thirty years later, has anything really changed? In 2022, Rushdie was nearly killed in a knife attack in New York. Too many people still hesitate to say what is obvious: Islamist extremism is not just an alternative viewpoint; it is a threat to the foundations of our free society.
Salman Rushdie attacker found guilty of attempted murder
A jury also found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a second man who was on stage with Sir Salman a...