Century of Jihad Read Free Page B

smell of petrol fumes assailed their nostrils.

    Ed was 50 years of age, 5’11, of stocky build and with a rugged look about his face. His thick crop of red hair made him stand out in a crowd. He had been in the Metropolitan Police for thirty years and a detective engaged in counter terrorism for many years now. Ed was a seasoned officer of the old school. He believed in investigating crime and arresting criminals heedless of any political dogma; that justice should be blind. He had sound intuition and a dogged determination. An honest and hard working cop who just wanted to get on with the job.
    Ed had been brought up in a fairly conventional Irish Catholic background in his home city of Glasgow. His parents insisted on regular church attendance on Sundays and other designated Holy Days. As a child he used to dread these attendances; standing, kneeling and sitting. The congregation choreographed, as if by some unseen hand. During the sermons, as the priest spouted fire and brimstone, his mind would wander to some far distant place. In church and at home he heard enough to understand the malign influence religious scriptures could have. More to the point, how people would use religion and interpret its scriptures to their own ends. This understanding had helped him in his early days as a young detective attached to Special Branch in Northern Ireland.
    ‘You know, Stuart, there’s a fundamental lack of appreciation of the influence of religious beliefs, or nationalism, amongst most of the English. Except when it comes to football. Beliefs which are so fundamental to people’s lives throughout the world. As a Scot, you know what I mean! This lack of appreciation is a serious chink in the nation’s armour, especially when combined with the institutionalised desire to appease, which prevails amongst the nation’s ruling elite.’
    Stuart groaned inwardly. He could feel his sense of hearing switching off as Ed’s voice droned in the background. Ed was well known for his rants. The terrorist threat, the education system, the state of Scottish football. You name it, Ed had strong opinions.
    Political correctness, or thought control as he called it – the subject of many a rant – had in fact had no apparent influence on his thinking and he wasn’t scared to voice his opinions.
    Ed was now in full flow. ‘This combination only serves to encourage extremists. The mindset, ‘I don’t support terrorism but I can understand the reason behind it’ forms the bedrock on which extremists flourish, whether in Northern Ireland or amongst the Islamic community. Government in Westminster claiming only a small part of a community supports violent action doesn’t wash when opinion polls taken within that community show a large group of people having an understanding of the motives behind such action. This was the case amongst many in the Catholic population of Northern Ireland and now it is happening once again, this time on the British mainland. While it is essential that people in our line of work understand what lies behind the terrorists’ warped vision, all too often when members of the public say they ‘understand’, it results in a place of sanctuary for psychopaths. The misguided policies, long favoured by the ruling elite, of a multicultural society where immigrants have been allowed to settle but not integrate, along with mass immigration, have led to significant and growing numbers of Brits supporting many of the policies of, if not voting for, fringe political parties – some of which harbour potentially dangerous individuals. There is a growing feeling among many, not just amongst the Muslim community, of disenfranchisement from the decision-making process. This is hardly surprising when eighty per cent of the laws in the country are introduced by the unelected European Commission in Brussels – an organisation favoured by the British political elite because it allows them to strut around on the world stage as part