Informed Comments

The recent comments by Khalid Mahmood are instructive:

"We have to recognise these people are in the equivalent of a religious cult. They are brainwashed. Many of them go into higher or further education where they have a thirst for knowledge and religion, and are seized on by these people. They are a cult in just the same way as some of these American cults that end up suffocating one another.

"The extremists have no negotiating demands. They are not like Hamas or the IRA. They don't have a foreign policy agenda save hate and some kind of revolution. These organisations are not just operating in Britain. They are in Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have been operating well before the invasion of Iraq. Many of the organisations that get hold of these youngsters are involved in criminal network though corruption or credit card fraud. We need more people to confront these organisations and challenge their thinking. It is too easy to go [with] the flow, so all Muslim leaders have a responsibility.

"We also have a big problem with much of the religious education that goes on in mosques after school. It is totally unregulated and much of it is of low quality. None of the teachers are subject to any normal child protection regulation, yet this is where many people's minds start to be shaped."

(Hat tip: DSTPW)