The Labour MP, Stephen Timms, stabbed by a young Muslim student at his constituency surgery and interviewed by the Evening Standard today, has expressed his bewilderment at her actions. “My real worry about it all is that a very bright young woman with everything to live for ... should throw it all away by attempting to kill the local MP," he said.
Many people will share those concerns, not just about the offender, Roshanara Choudhry, who is now in prison, but about many young Islamic extremists who grow up in Britain but seem remote from our values.
The immediate cause of Miss Choudhry's radicalisation has now been addressed. She had been watching and reading the aggressive Islamic rhetoric of a Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, and it persuaded her of the necessity to take direct action against politicians such as Mr Timms, who supported the Iraq war and, in her view, thereby participated in the persecution of Muslims. [Evening Standard] Read more
