How exactly are the people in question “Britons” at all? Some or all were born there, and maybe a few like fish and chips or soccer, but in what way is their outlook on life in any recognizable sense “British”? These men are jihadis, plain and simple. Their outlook on life is an Islamic one that disdains national distinctions and non-Muslim jahili polities. But Andrew Mitchell has no conceptual framework in which he can fit such people except ones that are irrelevant for any useful analysis of their motives and goals. A massive paradigm shift is needed among the British and American governing elites, but no such thing is in the offing.
And meanwhile, what is being done in Britain itself to prevent Muslims and converts to Islam from being “radicalized” to the extent that they go to Somalia to wage jihad? Nothing much beyond outreach to stealth jihadi Islamic supremacist groups who pay lip-service to anti-jihad efforts while aiding and abetting such efforts inside mosques and madrassas.
“More Britons terror-training in Somalia: minister,” from the Associated Press, December 22 (thanks to Block Ness):
LONDON: Britain’s international development minister says there are now more people from the UK training for terrorism in camps in Somalia than anywhere else in the world.
Andrew Mitchell said Thursday that Somalia poses a major threat, which may now be greater than the risks once posed by camps in Pakistan’s border regions.
Mitchell said “there are probably more British passport-holders engaged in terrorist training in Somalia than in any other country in the world.”…