ANALYSIS-Sweden blast prompts UK soul-searching on militancy

Thu Dec 16, 2010 3:16pm GMT
 

* UK struggles to revamp counter-terrorism policy

* Authorities uncertain who speaks for UK Muslims

* Muslim communities fear stigma from security moves

By William Maclean, Security Correspondent

LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Forget Yemen or Somalia. It is Britain and its ignominious record of violent Islamism that should be the focus of security concern after a suicide attack in Sweden by a man apparently radicalised in the UK.

So say critics of Britain's counter-terrorism policies, arguing Saturday's Stockholm attack shows the real threat facing Britain comes from long-standing official indulgence of anti-Western Islamist thinking among British Muslims.

"The Stockholm bomber is but the latest export from Londonistan -- and unless the Government gets up off its knees and changes its disastrous strategy, I very much fear he will not be the last.," wrote commentator Melanie Phillips, a trenchant critic of government policy.

Critics voiced similar unease after a botched attack on Detroit by a London-educated Nigerian on Dec 25 2009, an event that stirred fears that the British capital was resuming its 1990s role as Europe's Islamist hub.   Continued...

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