Author: Martin Bentham
Publication: London Evening Standard
Date: April 27, 2011
URL: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23944762-being-too-pc-led-us-to-shelter-terrorists-says-ex-minister.do
A former Labour minister admitted today that
political correctness had led Britain to offer shelter to violent extremists.
Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister,
said Tony Blair's government and other administrations had been afraid to
criticise the conduct of radical preachers and others because they feared
being accused of racism.
He said the policy had been pursued even though
there was plenty of intelligence about the "evil" intent of such
extremists and that it was only reversed after the 7/7 bombings. Mr Howells
also said that he had been unable to find a single imam willing to say publicly
that suicide bombers would go to hell. He further criticised a reluctance
in Muslim communities to condemn the "murderous actions" of terrorists.
His comments came as a leaked diplomatic cable,
published today by WikiLeaks, revealed Britain had been warned years before
the London bombings to stop giving asylum to "very dangerous" terrorists.
The cable, sent by a former military attaché
to the Algerian embassy in Washington on July 12 2005, told US diplomats that
Britain had allowed extremists to raise money for terrorist causes.
"Did the English consider the risks of
allowing Londonistan to develop?" the cable states. "The British
thought that sheltering terrorists was a good solution, but they did not realise
that one can never align oneself with the devil, and they did precisely that
for years and years."
In a BBC interview today, Mr Howells admitted
that the criticism was justified.
