Returning Islamists: For gods sake dont let them back into the U.K!

The summer of 2011 saw one of the most revolutionary periods of my lifetime. The first
revolutionary shot so to speak was fired in December 2010 in the first uprising which took place in
Tunisia. The Tunisian uprising sparked a domino effect within other Arabic nations, where we
witnessed citizens of these countries protest and even take up arms in the name of change. This
collective series of uprisings became known as the Arab Spring. Some advocated for Democracy,
while others like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt wanted to overthrow the regime for their own
stated agenda.

The Arab Spring as it is now referred to seemed like it could have been a tipping point for the
Middle East, as a younger generation, galvanised to organize through social media, fought to
overthrow the authoritarian dictatorships of the old guard in favour of a brighter future, one shaped
by western ideas of democracy and free markets.

The two main battlegrounds of these struggles became Syria and Libya. Libya had always had a
tumultuous relationship with the west and many western politicians were only too happy to see the
Gaddafi regime fall. The end of the Gaddafi regime was heralded in with those now iconic images of
the bloodied dictator being dragged from an underground sewer pipe and into the hands of the
baying mob. It became obvious after the fall of the regime that a vacuum would be created, and this
was indeed the case as many warring tribes fought for control of disputed lands and the first wave of
Islamists began to enter the country.

Libya was toppled relatively easy, but in neighbouring Syria the situation proved to be all the more
complex. The first uprisings of the Arab Spring had seemed to have been quelled in the other Arab
states by brutal state intervention, but in Syria, the embers of protest which had been sparked had
ignited into the fire of the Syrian civil war. The Free Syrian Army had become engaged in a fierce
battle with the security forces of the countrys long -term dictator Bashar-al-Assad. By 2012 the
country had become engaged in a full-blown civil war with thousands lying dead on each side and
some truly barbaric war crimes being committed by the Assad regime.

As much of the country descended into lawlessness, just like what occurred in Libya, a vacuum
began to develop in the country and a group was about to enter into this unoccupied space and
plant down their black flag making themselves forever infamous. In early 2014, beginning in
neighbouring Iraq which itself had become unstable following the western coalitions invasion of the
country in 2003, a new group began to fight for land in the battlegrounds of the Middle East. ISIS, or
ISIL as they were originally known began to fight with Iraqi security forces in Western Iraq in what
became known as the Western Iraq offensive. ISIS drove out Iraqi soldiers from the western
provinces and captured the city of Mosul, a city that would stand as one of the caliphates main cities
for over 3 years. Soon after this, the event which gave ISIS their early notoriety of the Sinjar
massacre took place. ISIS engaged on a bloody crusade, killing thousands of Yazidi men and taking
women and children as sex slaves.

ISIS continued to carve a trail of death and destruction across the Middle East and by December
2015 it held a large area of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria with a population of as many as 8 million
people, roughly the population of the city of London. The groups leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi
declared the Syrian city of Raqqa the caliphates de-facto capital. The establishment of a caliphate
also had another effect, through the use of social media, ISIS appealed to Muslims in western
countries to come and join them in the pursuit of Jihad. Many thousands of Muslims from European
countries made the journey to Turkey with the ambition of crossing the border into Syria and joining
fellow fighters in the newly established caliphate. From Great Britain alone, it is estimated that
roughly 850 people made this journey.

By November 2015, the horrors of the battlefield which was played out with a macabre daily
frequency in Syria and Iraq had surfaced on the shores of Europe for the first time. On the 13th
November 2015, beginning at roughly 9 o clock, a typical Parisian evening of people milling around
the restaurants and bistros, sipping a glass of wine or enjoying an evening meal was rocked by the
sound of gunfire and explosions. 3 Suicide bombers detonated devices at the Stade de France
stadium where France was playing Germany in a game of football, gunmen went on the rampage
through the streets of Paris, shooting diners indiscriminately with AK-47 rifles. The massacre ended
with the shooting of concert goers at the Bataclan theatre. When all was said and done, and the dust
had settled, 130 people lie dead and over 400 people were injured. After the bodies were cleared
away, and the outpouring of grief had overwhelmed us all, investigations showed that this attack
was co-ordinated by a man called Abdelhamid Abbaoud, a Belgian of Berber-Moroccan descent who
had left Belgium to fight for the Islamic State in Syria. The Paris attack was the beginning of a wave
of attacks that would rock Europe over the next 18 months leaving hundreds dead and many
hundreds more wounded.

2017 in Britain has been a particularly bad year. Starting back in March, British citizen and Muslim
convert Khalid Masood drove his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before his car came to
a halt, smashing into the fences erected around the Houses of Parliament. Masood then exited his
car and rushed the gates of the Parliament building, attacking police officer PC Keith Palmer, fatally
stabbing him before an armed officer could shoot Khalid Masood dead. Khalid Masoods brazen
attack on the centre of our Democracy had left 5 people dead and dozens more wounded, but
Britains year was about to get a whole lot worse.

In May, as youngsters left the Manchester Arena after listening to American pop-singer Ariana
Grande, a British citizen of Libyan descent, Salman Abedi, detonated a bomb he was carrying in a
rucksack, killing himself and 22 other people, many of which happened to be children. The scale of
the problem we were facing started to become apparent.

Less than one month later, 3 men, one of which was linked to Anjem Choudarys notorious Al
Mujaharoon group and even appeared on a Channel 4 documentary, went on a rampage across
London Bridge, running over pedestrians with a large rental van and then exiting the vehicle and
stabbing random people, eventually to be confronted by armed police in Borough Market and being
taken out with rapid efficiency. The attack lasted less than 8 minutes, in that time 8 people were
murdered and dozens more were seriously injured. If it wasnt for the rapid response of the
emergency services, it could have been a lot more.

Then, just recently, a man tried to detonate a bomb on a Tube train at Parsons Green tube station
in West London, thankfully the device failed to detonate properly, but this attack still injured 30
people. There have been other incidents this year, including a man who tried to attack officers with a
large sword outside Buckingham Palace while shouting Allah Akbar. It has been reported that the
security services estimate there are 23,000 suspected Jihadis in Britain today. It seems like it is not a
matter of if the next attack will happen but where and when.

While all of this was playing out on the streets of the UK, Iraqi and Kurdish armies backed by
Coalition airstrikes have been decimating ISIS on the battlefields. With the recent fall of Raqqa, ISISs
dream of a caliphate appears to be all but over. There is a big problem with this, one which is
becoming a source of debate in the UK. What do we do with the people who are going to return who
went to fight for ISIS? Some think we should let them back in. Lord Carlisle recently said that if they
were young and nave then they should be given a chance to be integrated back into society. Other
people have gone as far as to say that we should kill them.

So, what to do? I wouldnt like to say I am in the camp of no jury, no judge just straight to
execution, no matter how tempting that may be. We live in a society of laws and we must work
diligently to make sure that we dont compromise what we claim to stand for in the face of Medieval
barbarians. But let them back in? Reintegrate them? I am sorry, but I dont think that can work
either. These people who have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the caliphate have to be
understood for what they are. There may be some Liberal do-gooder who thinks that everybodys
soul is worth saving and this poor little mass murderer just needs a hug, and everything will be okay.
I wish that was the case more than anyone. But a truth about these people cannot be forgotten.
These people have more likely than not have participated in death, probably engaged in multiple
incidences of murder and they are now proficient in the use of weapons and explosives. We already
have 23,000 people in the UK that we cannot contain, do we need some of the most highly trained
terrorists on the planet to join this rabble? No, that is the simple answer to that.

Some say we should try to reintegrate them. They left in the first place to join the Islamic state
because British values werent exactly meeting their requirements. What makes anyone in their right
mind think that they are now going to be bowled over by the promise of a new iPhone 8 or whatever
materialistic thing we can think to offer? They rejected what we believe in once, why would they not
do it again?

So, then what, put them in prison? Okay, there is an argument for that, but what would we charge
them with? We would have a hard time proving what crimes they had committed over in the
caliphate. Its not like they exactly had CCTV over there in Raqqa, is it? We dont have treason laws in
this country anymore, so there is all the chance that we would struggle to be able to bring a credible
case against them that would stand up in a court of law. Even if we did, our prisons are full to
capacity, some jails in the UK are becoming as dangerous as U.S jails, I know because I have known
people that have been in them, and that is just considering the gang element. Many jails, like what
we are seeing across Europe are becoming terrorist training camps situated on our soil, donning the
royal crest of Her Majesty. If we place these highly dangerous individuals into these jails, do you
think they are going to reflect on the severity of their crimes and try to change their ways. These are
not your run of the mill criminal you are dealing with here, these are ideologically motivated people,
they have a fixed set of belief systems, thats what made them go to join the caliphate in the first
place. Why would they not try to recruit fellow inmates into their fold?

In conclusion I am left with one solution. We have to refuse these people entry back into our
country and take the unprecedented step of revoking their rights to citizenship. I know it sounds
draconian, but these are special circumstances we are dealing with. We are not winning this fight.
We can try to appease these terrorists and extremists, we can pass new laws to deter them. It hasnt
worked. We are still being attacked and are under the greatest threat we have ever been in this
country. We can stand around after another attack that has claimed more of our people and say this
will not divide us, and as noble a sentiment that is, we need to take action. These people have
rejected our way of life, we owe them nothing. Our political class have to remember that they owe
the citizens of this country who abide by the law and pay their taxes above and beyond anyone else,
no matter what your faith is, I include law abiding Muslims in that too. The next time one of us is
travelling on the tube or the bus, if we havent let these fighters back into our country we might just
be able to feel that little bit safer, but if we do let them back in, our government cant give us that
guarantee, and they will have wilfully put the citizens of the UK in greater danger than we already
are.

By Luke Moran

If you enjoyed reading this buy my book PC gone mad: How political correctness aided the rise of
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