Alex Massie Alex Massie

What enemy within? Britain is not losing the battle against Jihadism.

To read Douglas Murray’s cover story from this week’s edition of the magazine (subscribe!) you might think the British government is not only losing the battle against Islamist extremism and Jihadism in this country but that it wants to lose that struggle. I think this is weak but pretty pernicious sauce.

But it is the sort of thing that will appeal to some. Especially those with a mania for betrayal. Only the strong and the vigilant and the this-is-how-it-is-chum brigade are tough enough to see the pathetic and craven weaklings currently staffing the government, the legal profession and the civil service for what they really are: the next worst thing to traitors.

It is a myth and a bullshit one at that. Like most such myths it is also self-serving, a kind of muscular preening that is as ridiculous as it is revolting. As a general rule, these are people who set fire to a tiny straw man and think they’ve knocked-out Sonny Liston.

You see – and must remember – there is always one person who understands the true nature of the threat. One person who gets it. One person who could make a difference if only he (or sometimes she) was not being let down, indeed betrayed, by everyone else. In this instance that One Saviour is Teresa May. The Home Secretary knows what needs to be done but is frustrated at every turn. The stench of weakness and betrayal is all around.

Because neither May’s colleagues in government, nor the civil servants who work for her, nor the courts can be trusted. You might think this an exaggeration. Douglas Murray is here to tell you it ain’t. You see:

At every turn, those who want not only to keep the people of this country safe, but to defeat this enemy, find people who are working against not just them, but all of us.

Really? And what is the evidence mustered to support this claim? Baroness Warsi spoke at a conference organised by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.

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