Jihadi threat requires move into ‘private space’ of UK Muslims, says police chief

I don’t normally link to the Guardian, a left wing newspaper I find particularly patronising and treasonous. But in this case they are the source of the interview with the remaining (other ‘most senior’ officers having been sacked/imprisoned for corruption) most senior Muslim police officer. That he fears for his own children shows how serious the situation is.

Islamist propaganda is so potent it is influencing children as young as five and should be countered with intensified monitoring to detect the earliest signs of anti-western sentiment, Britain’s most senior Muslim police chief has warned.

Scotland Yard commander Mak Chishty said children aged five had voiced opposition to marking Christmas, branding it as “haram” – forbidden by Islam. He also warned that there was no end in sight to the parade of British Muslims, some 700 so far, being lured from their bedrooms to Syria by Islamic State (Isis) propaganda.

In an interview with the Guardian, Chishty said there was now a need for “a move into the private space” of Muslims to spot views that could show the beginning of radicalisation far earlier. He said this could be shown by subtle changes in behaviour, such as shunning certain shops, citing the example of Marks & Spencer, which could be because the store is sometimes mistakenly perceived to be Jewish-owned.

Chishty said friends and family of youngsters should be intervening much earlier, watching out for subtle, unexplained changes, which could also include sudden negative attitudes towards alcohol, social occasions and western clothing. They should challenge and understand what caused such changes in behaviour, the police commander said, and seek help, if needs be from the police, if they are worried.

Chishty is the most senior Muslim officer in Britain’s police service and is head of community engagement for the Metropolitan police in London. He said Isis propaganda was so powerful he had to be vigilant about his own children. But some will argue that his ideas walk a fine line between vigilance in the face of potent extremist propaganda and criminalising thought.

Scotland Yard has recently said police are making nearly an arrest a day as they try to counter a severe Islamist terrorist threat. . .

The propaganda of Isis was so powerful, the officer said, that he feared his own children might be vulnerable. He said his message to fellow Muslim parents was: “I am not immunised.” “If I feel the need to be extra vigilant, then I think you need to feel the need to be extra vigilant,” he said.

He said he had heard of cases of children seemingly influenced by Islamist views in stable families in which the parents or guardians had moderate views.

In the example of primary school children defining Christmas as “haram”, he insisted this was “factual” and said that while it may not be a police matter, parents and family needed to ask how children as young as five had come to that view, whether it be from school or their friends. Chishty said: “All the ugly bits of the problem, which are uncomfortable, you have to … deal with them properly, as a state, as a nation, as a community.”

And it would help if when a police and crime commissioner reports that girls as young as 5 years old have ambitions to be jihadi brides, such that their parents are now under investigation, the worthies on the local council don’t shriek ‘scaremongering’. Remember Rotherham.

From The Portsmouth News and the Southern Daily Echo.

TWO girls in Southampton as young as five have expressed a desire to running away to join Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria, according to Hampshire’s police chief. Counter-extremism officers have spoken to the parents of four girls across Hampshire after the children’s comments about becoming jihadi brides were made to authorities. They were approached after it was suspected they had been exposed to radical views in line with those of the militant regime.

Speaking to a newspaper police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes said he was aware of two cases in Southampton and another two eight-year old girls in Portsmouth. “It was picked up that they were making comments around jihadi brides or some sort of comments that indicated that they were getting concepts about jihad. At that young age, the expectation is that it is coming from adults. Their families were approached by the constabulary, and they are being worked with now to try and understand the situation. It is a safeguarding issue primarily. . .”

Leader of Portsmouth City Council Donna Jones called the comments ‘dangerous’ and has sent a letter to the Home Office to complain about Mr Hayes, saying he needs ‘enhanced training’ over issues with national security.”We have forged strong links with residents, community leaders and organisations and work is under way to raise awareness of hate crime and extremism, “

Meanwhile, Polly Honeychurch, headteacher of Cottage Primary School – which has a large percentage of Muslim pupils – says she is ‘incensed’ by the remarks. “Sixty per cent of my school pupils come from ethnic backgrounds, and a large proportion of those are Muslim. About half of my Muslim pupils are girls. I haven’t heard a single five or six-year-old Muslim girl saying they want to be a Jihadi bride. . .I am very aware of the Portsmouth Muslims who have been killed in Syria and aware of the families who have been charged with terror offences. . . What Mr Hayes said is scaremongering. We need people to understand different faiths and where people come from.”

Like I said, remember Rotherham.