Counterterrorism Concerns in the UK

In today's Telegraph, Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command discusses his major worries across the pond:

. . . The abortive Glasgow bomb resulted in talk of an alleged "doctors' plot" among NHS professionals. Did this show that elements of the Muslim middle classes are at least as vulnerable to the call of radicalism as marginalised figures in the ghettoes?

"Middle-class bombs will kill just as well as working-class bombs," he retorts. "It show the dangers of profiling or stereotyping. What we've seen are people from all social classes, all educational standards and a whole host of nationalities. The only thing they have in common is a sense of grievance."

What about studies by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre — which consists of representatives from 11 Government departments and agencies — on radicalisation in prisons and universities?

"I'm very worried in both these cases. There is a prison population of 80,000. Muslims are around eight per cent of that, even though they number around three per cent of the general population.

"A tiny proportion of that eight per cent have been convicted of anything to do with terrorism. So I do worry about the pernicious influence of extremists."

He goes on to say there are two conflicting approaches. "Either you put them all together and you end up with a 'university of terror' or you disperse them and run the risk of such influences being spread everywhere." What about the threat of radicalisation in mainstream universities? He says: "We have seen significant members of terrorist networks in full-time education. It's still present and it's of great concern – but we need more study." . . .

Read the article. As to the issue of the Doctor's plot, recent research shows confirms neither socio-economic status nor degree of education correlate with whether a Muslim will become a terrorist. On a related note, the NYPD looked at the radicalization process in great detail in its report issued earlier this year. They also concluded that, because of the subtelties associated the radicalization process, it was difficult to develop a profile of the typical terrorist beyond exposure to and immersion in Salafi jihadi Islamist ideology.