The East London Mosque (ELM) is an influential institution. Go to its website today and you see a September 2020 visit from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; a BBC documentary about the mosque; and a virtual interfaith iftar attended by various dignitaries, including multiple MPs. It has hosted a series of other high-profile figures in the past, including multiple Mayors of London. It was described by Ed Husain in his 2007 book The Islamist as a “strategically placed institution at the heart of the densest population of Muslims in Britain”. The ELM has also long been associated with South Asian...

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At 9 a.m. yesterday morning, a 21-year-old called Brahim Aouissaoui entered Notre Dame Basilica Church in Nice carrying a bag of knives. Just a few minutes later, three people had been stabbed to death. A 60-year-old woman — unnamed at time of writing — had been decapitated. The mayor of Nice subsequently said that “everything points to a terrorist attack.” Aouissaoui was shot by responding French police and is currently under arrest. Read more: https://spectator.org/murder-nice-basilica-macron/

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The Prevent strategy aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Many European countries run similar programmes, yet, arguably, none are as controversial as Prevent is in Great Britain. Critics say the policy fosters Islamophobia and stifles free debate and dissent; that the brand is so “toxic” that it has become counterproductive. But is Prevent as controversial as some campaigners would have us think? New results of a survey on how the public view Prevent would suggest that claims of racism and toxicity are overstated. The Home Office-commissioned research interviewed over 2,700 adults in England and Wales from five key...

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Over the weekend, CEG published a new report examining the terror threat Europe has faced over the fifteen-month period since ISIS relinquished control of the last part of its Caliphate in Syria in Iraq. The report, ‘Europe and the Fall of the Caliphate’, can be read here. Its findings were featured in this Sunday Telegraph story. The headline – ‘Jihadists attempted terror attacks every fortnight in Europe since ISIS fall, study finds’ – sums up one of the report’s key findings. Despite the fall of the Caliphate, Islamist plotting continues. For further proof of that, just at look at what has happened in Europe...

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On May 22, 2017, Salman Abedi carried out a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena that killed 22 and injured over 100 others. He was assisted by his younger brother, Hashem Abedi, who was jailed for 55 years for his involvement. The sentencing judge in that trial described the motivation behind the attack as “ to advance the ideological cause of Islamism”. This week, a public inquiry began investigating those deaths. The purpose of the inquiry is to determine what happened and to learn where mistakes were made to prevent it from happening again. As the chairman of the inquiry Sir...

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