The last couple of weeks have been traumatic for Muslims and non Muslims. A state of panic and fear has swept though communities with the tragic attacks in Manchester and London. The loved ones of victims are mourning and people are trying to rationalise why somebody would commit such dreadful acts. 

The questions are many and confusion plagues people’s minds of these events. Therefore is incumbent for society to start understanding the correct narrative and apply it to the reality they live in today. 

Three individuals have been identified as perpetrators of the London attack. Seven people were killed and 48 injured when these men hit pedestrians on London Bridge before getting out and stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. 

One of the perpetrators was known to the MI5 and was known to police and security services. An investigation into him began in 2015, when one man called the terrorism hotline after concerns. He also featured in a Channel 4 documentary, The Jihadis Next Door, broadcast last year.

Italian police confirmed that the second attacker was stopped at Bologna airport in March 2016 when he was on his way to Turkey, due to concerns he might travel to fight in Syria.

Material about the Daesh group was found on his phone.

‘Enough is Enough’ is what Theresa May said about the action in London. However, it is Theresa May that has grossly disappointed the people of this country, London and Manchester. The Prevent agenda was promoted to ‘prevent’ violent acts, however in the space of 2 weeks, these attacks have shown how the strategy has miserably failed. 

Instead of preventing violent acts, the Prevent agenda has been busy engineering  suspects of peaceful Muslims. Locals authorities, Schools and the NHS have been trained in an agenda which criminalises Muslim thought, instead of targeting people who will commit violent acts.  

The MI5 and MI6 knew the suspects of both Manchester and London. However for some very strange reason the perpetrators were able to obtain vans, buy materials for bomb making and everything else to commit atrocities. Everything points to an intelligence service that requires an investigation of their activity and why they are so incapable in keeping people safe. 

A summary of a sophisticated analysis by the MI5, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism. The MI5 report written 9 years ago, made some very interesting observations. Conveniently, every government since has ignored it.

It says that the ones that commit violent acts:

• lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices.
• Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. 
• Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. 

Therefore, is it Islam that radicalises these men to commit violent acts, or is it something else? 

The Government obviously does not value the Muslim voice, but surely it should read it’s own intelligence reports?

In fact the government is adamant, that the responsibility lies with the the community. 

Flippant comments by Sajid Javid earlier in the week tried to shift the state responsibilities on to the Muslim community.  He said:

“That’s why, although we all share the responsibility for tackling terrorism, there’s a special, unique burden on the Muslim community.”

It is the role of the British Government to stop terror attacks- not the Muslim community. The burden is not on the Muslims who have done nothing to contribute to violence.  

‘Enough is Enough’ of the Government blaming the Muslim community, for its failings. The government has developed weak and discriminatory policies that have achieved absolutely nothing- except fear and suspicion of Muslims.   

It is not Islam or Muslims that encourage these actions. Rather, the British Government needs to take a good look at itself if it wants to answer why London and Manchester have taken place. British foreign policy will be a good starting point, however it remains a taboo. 

The Government has failed, Prevent has failed, the MI5/6 failed and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan failed. 

The British Government has failed both Muslims and non Muslims. It cares for neither. The ‘unique burden’ and blame remains with the British Government and it’s foreign policy- not the Muslim community in Britain.