THIS IS A RELIGIOUS WAR

“I think we all know that security measures alone are not going to deal with this. This is not an isolated criminal act we are dealing with – it is an extreme and evil ideology whose roots lie in a perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of the religion of Islam.” – Tony Blair, in the House of Commons today. This story about the young cricketer who became an Islamist murderer is, in its calm Englishness, one of the most terrifying things I have yet read. These kids were programmed zealots – “cleanskins” who could not be traced through the criminal justice system – and who only need the right mosque and al Qaeda contact to become mass murderers. I don’t think the full implications have even begun to sink in. If we think this couldn’t happen in the U.S. or indeed anywhere in the free West, we are sadly mistaken.