London murderers must be spared no mercy

This is the description of the courtroom narrative of the trial of two defendants accused of ramming a car into UK soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, southeast London and then mutilating his body and attempting to decapitate him, on May 22.  The defendants are:  “Mr. Adebolajo, from Romford, east London, [has] asked to be known as Mujaahid Abu Hamza in court, and Mr. Adebowale, from Greenwich, south-east London, wants to be known as Ismail Ibn Abdullah.”

Some people are calling for bringing back the death penalty for the two defendants.  It’s not an unreasonable demand.  The killers have a sketchy history with radicalism, the warning signs of which, according to some sources, were ignored.  Adebolajo was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while he attempted to cross the border to join the Somali terrorist group Al Shabaab.  He was eventually deported back to the UK.  Kenyan authorities believe that Adebolajo recruited his partner in crime, “after they were radicalized during weekly visits to a mosque in Mombasa” (Daily Mail UK, May 26).

Now, Western intelligence and counter-terrorism authorities are keenly aware of the dangers of radicalized Muslims heading to Somalia to join Al Shabaab, the same terrorist group that carried out Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall attack last September, in which 61 civilians were brutally killed.  The crucial question is how and by whom Western Muslims are getting programed in extremist ideologies, what’s referred to as “becoming radicalized”?  According to the Daily Mail, Kenyan cleric Sheikh Aboud Rogo in Mombasa funded the killers of soldier Lee Rigby.  The cleric himself was murdered last year.  It is believed that 2010 was a critical year for Al Qaeda cells in Mombasa, when they were very active and recruiting assertively.

A number of infamous clerics roam the streets, mosques, and cyberspace in the UK who spew hate speech and radical ideologies that have attracted some of the youth, including Adebolajo.

“He was a regular member of a small group of hardcore fanatics who regularly protested alongside some of Britain’s most notorious hate clerics.  He also has been filmed standing side by side radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary as the Al-Muhajiroun leader ranted on a megaphone during a 2007 demonstration in central London.

Al-Muhajiroun has been linked to a series of terror attacks through its former members and followers of Choudary and former leader Omar Bakri.  Adebolajo was seen preaching anti-Western rhetoric in Woolwich [as recently as last week]” (News.com.au, May 24).

The blatant irony and contradictions inherent in these extremists’ actions is that they rail against the West while living there and enjoying the freedoms and rights that Western societies grant to their citizens, immigrants, and refugees.  Yet, hatemongering extremists like Choudary and Adebolajo have complete disregard for the rights and freedoms that they audaciously exploit.  They also have complete disregard for the harm they do for the reputation of immigrants, refugees, and Islam.

For someone looking at the UK from the outside, it appears that these problems with extremist clerics and their dangerous minions are getting out of hand.  The nightmarish manifestation of this reality is the horrific death that the innocent soldier Lee Rigby suffered, and that many witnesses to his butchering will never be able to shake the indelible images from their minds.  These extremist clerics and their organizations need to have the hammer brought down hard on them, with swift action and no mercy.  They are dangerous, and they must be stopped.

Another ominous warning sign is the ongoing civil war in Syria, which is a major source of recruitment for jihadist fighters.  They are succeeding in rallying young would-be jihadists from all over Europe, Canada, and the United States, as well as from many other regions worldwide.  The lure for this too is ideological and religious radicalism, not unlike what happened with the rallying calls for the Mujahedeen (“Freedom Fighters”) to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan throughout the 1980s.

Western law enforcement and counter-terrorism authorities need to be keenly alert to these new realities and dangers in the form of radicalization of young, impressionable potential recruits.  As many countries learned after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, jihadist fighters returned home and turned their attention to launching new jihads against their own governments and people.  That seems to run in cycles, and now with the Syrian civil war raging, we can anticipate a similar post-conflict development once fighters return to their respective homes.

The core of the problem remains the extremist clerics proliferating throughout the world, thanks to online technology, satellite TV channels, and of course public speeches in streets, squares, and mosques that serve as tools for conveying their hate-filled messages.  

Consider this profile in the Independent (Nov. 25) of the extremist hatemongering cleric Anjem Choudary:

“Groups linked to Mr. Choudary have ‘facilitated or encouraged’ up to 80 young Muslims from the UK – and 250 to 300 people from across Europe – to join al-Qa’ida-linked forces fighting President Assad in Syria, the Hope Not Hate report suggests.

The investigation also highlights links between Mr Choudary’s al-Muhajiroun network and the perpetrators of several major terrorist attacks, including the 7/7 suicide bombings in London.

Mr. Choudary is known for his controversial statements and has developed a reputation as a pantomime villain, but Hope Not Hate said he should be considered a ‘serious player on the international Islamist scene.’

Despite two decades of activism, the 46-year-old Briton has only ever been fined £500 for organizing an illegal protest outside the Danish embassy in London over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. In January 2010, shortly before he became Prime Minister, David Cameron said Mr. Choudary needed ‘to be looked at seriously’ because he strays ‘extremely close to the line of encouraging hatred, extremism and violence.’  In June, the Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick told a Commons committee that they were ‘constantly assessing’ whether any of Mr Choudary’s ‘proclamations are breaking the criminal law’.”

And the Daily Mail (Nov. 25) says this about Choudary:  “Previously, the father-of-four from Leytonstone in East London has made statements about how he would like to see the Prime Minister David Cameron and the American President Barack Obama killed.”  Choudary is also alleged to serve as the main recruiter for jihadist fighters in both Somalia and Syria.

At what point will the authorities scratch their heads and say, “we saw the signs, but we failed to act”?  No doubt, at that stage it will be too late.  The likes of Choudary – and unfortunately there are many like him – must be shut down and their ideologies contained and fiercely countered.  Where are the moderate voices among Muslim communities in the West?  Why aren’t they calling out Choudary and his cohorts as hatemongers and countering their extremist ideologies with more wholesome, humane, tolerant, and reasonable interpretations of Islam?  Will it take more murders like soldier Lee Rigby’s in the streets of London to mobilize anti-extremist activism?

The London murderers of soldier Lee Rigby should be punished severely; they should be spared no mercy.  Their punishment should send an explicit message to the likes of Choudary and the radical followers of such extremists and hatemongers:  that their kind and their ideologies will not be tolerated in civilized society.

The price of silence is too high.  The price of the status quo and business as usual is extremely detrimental to the peace and security of society.

“Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous” – George Bernard Shaw.

Hayat Alvi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the US Naval War College.

The views expressed are personal.