The British government, meanwhile, still clings to the witless and utterly unfounded notion that these people have been “radicalized” by forces that have nothing to do with Muslim communities in Britain, and that this “radicalization” can be prevented by government steps to “integrate” Muslims by giving them job opportunities. The longer their denial and willful ignorance continues, the worse conditions in Britain will become.
“1,500 Britons have fled to join ISIS in Syria – and 800 have successfully got in, Hammond admits,” by Jason Groves, Daily Mail, January 16, 2016:
Almost 1,500 British citizens have tried to enter Syria to join Islamic State and other terror groups, Philip Hammond said last night.
The Foreign Secretary revealed an estimated 800 people, mostly jihadists and family members, have successfully entered the war-torn country in the last four years. Roughly half are still thought to be there.
But Mr Hammond revealed that a further 600 have been stopped in the same period.
Some have been halted as they tried to leave Britain, while others have been seized on planes and trains arriving in Istanbul.
Of those captured abroad, some have been returned to the UK while others have been detained in Turkey for breaching laws forbidding illegal entry to Syria.
Turkey is the main route for British extremists trying to join the fanatics in Syria. Of the 50 British fighters known to have died, almost all arrived in Syria via Turkey.
Mr Hammond, who is visiting Turkey for talks on border control and dealing with the refugee crisis, said Islamic State’s recruitment drive was also being hit by the success of western air strikes on its ‘capital’ Raqqa, in northern Syria, and other strongholds.
‘Approximately 800 Brits have been to Syria, of whom half are still there,’ Mr Hammond said. But on top of that 800 we have stopped another 600.
‘There is evidence they are finding it difficult to recruit to the brigades in Raqqa because of the high attrition rate of foreign fighters. Not just those targeted in UK drone strikes, but US strikes against prominent targets, including foreign fighters.’
Mr Hammond’s comments come amid embarrassment for ministers and the police over the case of Siddhartha Dhar, a terror suspect who slipped out of Britain in September 2014 to join Islamic State (IS) while on police bail.
Scotland Yard was humiliated this month when it emerged Dhar – now known as Abu Rumaysah – was the prime suspect as the new ‘Jihadi John’ in the latest gruesome IS execution video….
David Cameron said this week he would now consider a change in law to make it a condition of police bail that terror suspects surrender their passports.