Terrorism in Britain 'mostly home grown'

The Centre for Social Cohesion has compiled profiles of 124 individuals convicted of Islamic terrorism offences since 1999. It found that 69 per cent of offences were perpetrated by individuals holding British nationality. Robin Simcox, co-author of the report, said their aim was to “focus the government’s counter-terrorism efforts.” “There are clear trends emerging with those involving themselves in terrorist activity in the UK,” he added. “It is crucial that this is recognised and then acted upon by the relevant authorities.” His comments follow private remarks by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, that the country faces “eye-watering cuts” in counter-terrorism funding that could hand an advantage to al-Qaeda.Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “The report proves how great a threat violent Islamism poses to the world – and the fact that Britain is at the centre of this global struggle.”

The Social Cohesion report outlines the links individuals had to terrorist groups, their nationality and ethnic origin, their age, hometown, occupation and education, which other radical Islamists they were connected to and what legislation the government used to jail them. The report also shows how Britain’s links to violent Islamism are almost two decades old by profiling almost 100 other offences committed abroad since 1993 that are connected to Britain, including terrorist convictions, terrorist training, suicide attacks, and extraditions. The survey found almost half (46 per cent) of offenders had their origins in south Asia including 28 per cent who had Pakistani heritage - of whom at least 80 per cent were British nationals. Six of the eight major plots in Britain, 75 per cent, contained individual members who had trained in Pakistan and four of the leaders of those plots were directly linked to one or more Pakistani based terrorist groups. The next most common origin for offenders was Somalia, accounting for 6 per cent, demonstrating a growing threat from East Africa.