While Britain Slept

By Chuck Colson, Christian Post Guest Columnist Monday, July 10, 2006

On July 7, the United Kingdom observed the first anniversary of the bus and Underground attacks in London that claimed fifty-two lives. One year later, according to the NEW YORK TIMES, "Britons are still asking what inspired the onslaught by British-born Muslims and whether the dark undercurrents of July 7, 2005, could resurface in a new attack."

If they really are asking whether such an attack could happen again, there's a new book they ought to read. It is titled LONDONISTAN, by British journalist Melanie Phillips. It is Phillips's response to what she calls Britain's state of denial regarding the threat posed to the nation by radical Islam.

As the title suggests, the Islamists Britain should be worried about are already residing in the United Kingdom. Phillips cites British security experts' estimates that "no fewer than 1,200 Islamist terrorists are biding their time within British suburbs."

To put that in perspective, that's sixty times as many as were needed to pull off September 11, and this in a country with one-fifth the population of the United States. Many of these terrorists, like the July 7 bombers, were born and raised in Britain. These are the kind of numbers that ought to cause Britons to lose sleep.

How did this happen? Phillips cites what she calls Britain's "dirty little secret": During the 1990s, Islamist radicals were "given free rein in Britain" as part of a "gentlemen's agreement." This agreement said that if the Brits left them alone, the Islamists would not attack their hosts. This created what Phillips calls "Londonistan" and turned Britain into the "hub of al-Qaeda in Europe."

This "intelligence debacle" was accompanied by a "cultural pathology" caused by a "profound loss of cultural nerve" among Britain's elites. Their "systematic onslaught . . . against the country's own identity and values" has left Britain increasingly unable to confront and condemn Islamist radicals, even when these radicals threatened basic democratic values.

The other factor that gave rise to "Londonistan" was the elites' "refusal to acknowledge that Islamist extremism is rooted in religion." They ignored "the statements and signs that show unequivocally that the aim is to Islamicise the West." Instead, they convinced themselves that the Islamists were motivated by issues like the Palestinians or Iraq.

Phillips calls the result of this denial "utterly appalling": Thirteen percent of British Muslims regard the July 7 bombers as martyrs, and "between seven and 16 percent think suicide attacks on British targets can be justified."

It's difficult to imagine a clearer example of the threat posed by a destructive worldview. I don't mean Islam - I mean the cultural relativism and secularism of Western elites. It's not surprising that a post-Christian elite could not appreciate how seriously other people take their religion.

The question is: Will America follow in Britain's footsteps? Not if Christians make it clear what the war against Islamic extremism is all about. Not if we keep our elites from slipping into the kind of denial that made July 7 memorable for all the wrong reasons.

_________________________________________________

From BreakPoint®, July 10, 2006, Copyright 2006, Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with the permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or distributed without the express written permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. “BreakPoint®” and “Prison Fellowship Ministries®” are registered trademarks of Prison Fellowship Ministries.