hypochondriac

What are your thoughts on this?

No one has asked you to.b I'm not either. You did however appear to broaden the issue by saying that the problem was extremism when I was highlighting the problem of Islamic extremism which is the cause of the majority of terror related problems in the UK. It sounds like do actually agree though so that's good.

It's a ten year old joke from a dead comedian.

Obviously the primary focus in the immediate aftermath of a terror attack should be on the community that's been terrorised.

As long as we agree that it's not unusual to want a proportional focus to be on the Islamist extremists who represent the biggest threat by far then we don't have an argument.

Whilst it is obviously silly to be scared of an entire religion and everything associated with it, police have arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of planning a terror attack so it's not yet certain this was a lone Islamist nutter.

OK I'll reword it for you. You'd be stupid to have your focus fixed largely on the overwhelming threat. Obviously I didn't mean only focus on Islamic extremism to the exclusion of all other extremism.

Accepting that we have a specific problem with Islamic extremism that takes up significantly more time and resources to combat than any other type of extremism is not fearing all Muslims.

Why do the raw numbers matter? There's enough Islamist nutters and people in this country who support them that it's a problem that takes up 75% of MI5 resources. That's a significant Islamist extremist problem that's significantly larger than every other form of extremism.

What are you talking about ? Of course you should look at the 25% as well but three quarters of your work should be on the bit causing three quarters of the problems. There really shouldn't be an argument with that. The religion should be irrelevant.

Of course having your focus primarily on the largest threat does not mean ignoring other terrorist activities from other extremist ideologies.

How about the focus on the form of extremism that the director of MI5 states makes up roughly 75% of their workload? I'd suggest that given that startling statistic you'd be stupid to have a focus anywhere else.

Why are you posting about something that never happens then ? We have load of examples of terrorist attacks happening in the UK motivated by extremist Islam. We have zero to my knowledge happening to advance the cause of extremist atheism so the fact that it's feasible that someone could be motivated by that is of no relevance. Its factually accurate to say that we have a problem with extremist Islam in this country and we should take steps to deal with it. The fact there are other extremist ideology with different motivations committing terror attacks at a lower rate is also something that needs combating but it's a different thing. Highlighting the serious problem with extremist Islam is not suggesting that only religious extremism exists or that the only problem we face is Islamism.

It's a significant enough number that according to different sources, 60-70% of terrorist attacks or plots and convictions over the past couple of decades had Islamist links or motivations. It's significant enough that a number of people have died in high profile terror incidents in recent memory.

"If people can take an extreme stance on the name of their god, they can surely take it in the name of no god." Where are the terror attacks committed in the name of no god? When Jews are murdered or people blown up in order to advance the cause of atheism then it would probably be worthy of discussion.

Fair enough .

And if a significant number of these extremists claim to be following Islam and claim to be committing their acts in the name of that religion that isn't noteworthy or worth thinking about ?

My point was that your suggesting that atheist extremist ideology is leading to terror attacks at the same frequency as those committed in the name of extremist Islam which is clearly untrue. If we have Christian extremists murdering Jews and blowing themselves up at pop concerts or on the tube in the name of Jesus then I can assure you I'd be equally fixated on that particular group.

I didn't say either of those things. I said that the UK has a problem with extremist Islam. I have huge disagreement with some of the mainstream views of those who practice Islam because they are bigoted and wrong. Nowhere have I said I'm scared or prejudice towards all Muslims, simply that there are too many in this country with objectionable views and too many that are extremist. By refusing to acknowledge the real problem with the extreme interpretation of Islam (and actually some of the problems with more moderate versions as well.) you will never be able to reduce the problem. Pakistani rape gangs happened at least in part because people were too scared to call put the ideology that viewed English girls as fair game because they weren't Islamic which included branding sone of these girls like pieces of meat. Their interpretation of their religion gave the a pass to do this on a huge scale and people covered it up. Similarly with Islamist terrorist attacks.

No one is murdering Jews or blowing themselves up at pop concerts in the name of atheism. Even if there is an isolated case of a terrorist atheist it rather pales in comparison compared to the rate and number committed in the name of extremist Islam.

No one has ever said that. We have a big problem with extremist Islam in this country and in many other countries too. That doesn't mean there aren't other forms of extremism. Why not just be honest? You know we have a big problem with it. It's not going to make you islamophobic for pointing out the obvious.

Who has ever suggested that extremism is only ever in the name of religion?

What relevance does guns murders in America have to do with terrorist attacks in the UK? It's not some nebulous extremism. The stats clearly show that we have a problem with nutters who believe an interpretation of Islam that is extremist. The inability to call that out for what it is has already done a lot of harm. Yes there are other extremist threats from elsewhere too but to deny that Islamism isn't a huge issue is just perverse.

The fact you don't know the religion of the other group tells it's own story. We have a problem with extremist Islam in this country that's just a fact.