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UK home secretary Sajid Javid promises ‘no safe spaces’ for Islamic terrorists
Delivering a major speech on security, Javid said security agencies had foiled 25 Islamist plots since June 2013, 12 of them since March 2017. He also said Muslims were the biggest victims of Islamist terrorism.
British home secretary Sajid Javid on Monday said Islamist terrorists are the “biggest” threat, and promised they will have “no safe spaces” under his watch, whether online or offline.
Delivering a major speech on security, Javid said security agencies had foiled 25 Islamist plots since June 2013, 12 of them since March 2017. He also said Muslims were the biggest victims of Islamist terrorism.
Recalling a conversation he had with his daughter after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, Javid said: “I know they are not true Muslims. But there’s no avoiding the fact that these people they self-identify as Muslims.
“Let me be very clear. Muslims are in no way responsible for the acts of a tiny minority who twist their faith. And I know that there is no such thing as a single, homogenous Muslim community. Muslims live and thrive in all walks of British life and society.”
Setting out new counter-terrorism measures, Javid said security agencies were handling over 500 live operations involving roughly 3,000 individuals. Besides, he said there were over 20,000 individuals who had been investigated and may again pose a threat.
The biggest threat, he said, emanated “from Islamist terrorism – including al-Qaeda, but particularly from Daesh (Islamic State)”, but added that extreme right-wing terrorism was also an increasing threat.
“(There’s) one other thing that Islamists and the far right have in common… As a home secretary with a name like Sajid Javid — I’m everything that they despise. So the way I see it, I must be doing something right,” he said.
Setting out his no-safe-spaces approach, he said: “Ultimately, our approach is about ensuring that there are no safe spaces for terrorists. No safe spaces internationally in which terrorist ideology can develop and from where complex attacks can be launched.
“No safe spaces in the UK for terrorists to spread their vile views, or for them to plan and carry out attacks. And no safe spaces online for terrorist propaganda and technical expertise to be shared, and for people to be radicalised in a matter of weeks.”
On security and intelligence links with the European Union after Brexit, Javid said EU members states were opposed to the European Commission’s plans to limit security cooperation with the UK after Brexit.
He suggested that limiting security cooperation could increase the chances of a terror attack in Europe, and expressed confidence that the UK would get a deal to maintain security cooperation, despite the commission’s stance.
