1 ‘Ealing Bomb Was Planned as Massacre’, Daily Telegraph, 4 August 2001, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1474414.stm.
2 Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer both studied at Leeds Metropolitan University. See Report of the Official Account of the Bombings in London on 7th July 2005, HC 1087 (London: HMSO, 11 May 2006), p. 36.
3 Bobby Sands, a member of the Provisional IRA, died while on hunger strike at Long Kesh prison, where he was serving a fourteen-year sentence for possession of arms. During his imprisonment, he succeeded in being elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, but never attended parliament.
4 A. Arnove, C. Firth and D. Horspool, The People Speak: Democracy Is Not a Spectator Sport (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2013), p. 51.
5 ‘Woolwich Attack: The Terrorist’s Rant’, Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2013, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10075488/Woolwich-attack-the-terrorists-rant.html.
6 Dominic Janes and Alex Houen (eds.), Martyrdom and Terrorism: Pre-Modern to Contemporary Perspectives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 199–220.
7 S. Kenna, ‘The Fenian Dynamite Campaign and the Irish American Impetus for Dynamite Terror, 1881–1885’, Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse, vol. 3, no. 12 (2011), retrieved from: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=602.
8 T. Suárez, State of Terror: How Terrorism Created Modern Israel (Bloxham: Skyscraper Publications, 2016), pp. 132 and 135.
9 The ‘Tebbit test’ takes its name from Conservative politician Sir Norman Tebbit, who in 1990 suggested that South Asians and Caribbean migrants were not loyal to the UK, and this was illustrated by the cricket team they supported. Tebbit argued most migrants failed his litmus test on loyalty because they were more likely to support the teams from ‘back home’ than root for England in a cricket match.
10 ‘National Archives: Britain Agreed Secret Deal to Back Mujahideen’, Daily Telegraph, 30 December 2010, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8215187/National-Archives-Britain-agreed-secret-deal-to-back-Mujahideen.html.
11 Raffaello Pantucci, ‘We Love Death as You Love Life: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists (London: C. Hurst & Co., 2015), pp. 45–6.
12 Award-winning documentary filmmaker Deeyah Khan explores this in Jihad: A British Story. The documentary was broadcast on ITV in June 2015.
13 ‘ “Ordinary Yorkshire Lad”, 17, Becomes Britain’s Youngest Suicide Bomber’, Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2015, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11674324/Ordinary-Yorkshire-lad-17-becomes-Britains-youngest-suicide-bomber.html.
14 http://www.egmontinstitute.be/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/egmont.papers.81_online-versie.pdf, pp. 4–6.
15 Akbar Ganji, ‘U. S.–Jihadist Relations (Part 1): Creating the Mujahedin in Afghanistan’, Huffington Post, 7 February 2014, available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akbar-ganji/us-jihadist-relations_b_5542757.html.
16 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228837/1087.pdf.
17 The issue came to the fore once again during my time in government in 2014, when some previously secret government documents were mistakenly published, leading to the disclosure that the Indian government had requested advice from the SAS in the months leading up to the raid. See: ‘Margaret Thatcher Gave Full Support Over Golden Temple Raid, Letter Shows’, Guardian, 15 January 2014, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/margaret-thatcher-golden-temple-raid-support-letter.
18 ‘Black Lives Matter Rallies Hundreds in Second UK Day of Protest’, Observer, 9 July 2016, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/09/black-lives-matter-rallies-hundreds-in-second-uk-day-of-protest.
19 Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, 2nd edn (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).
20 Quoted in Modern History Sourcebook: Maximilien Robespierre: Justification of the Use of Terror, available at: www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.html. See also Albert Mathiez, ‘Robespierre: l’histoire et la légende’, Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, vol. 49, no. 1 (1977), pp. 3–31.
21 Encyclopedia Britannica, ‘Maximilien Robespierre’, available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maximilien-de-Robespierre.
22 Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, pp. 1–42.
23 Ibid.
24 Sue Mahan and Pamala L. Griset, Terrorism in Perspective, 3rd edn (London: SAGE Publications, 2013), pp. 46–7.
25 Walter Laqueur, A History of Terrorism (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2001), pp. 50–51.
26 ‘The First Global Terrorists Were Anarchists in the 1890s’, New York Times, 29 April 2016, available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/opinion/the-first-global-terrorists-were-anarchists-in-the-1890s.html.
27 Constance Bantman, The French Anarchists in London, 1880–1914: Exile and Transnationalism in the First Globalisation (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013). pp. 143–4.
28 M. Radu, ‘The Problem of “Londonistan”: Europe, Human Rights and Terrorists’, 4 December 2002, in S. Gale, M. Radu and H. Sicherman (eds.), The War on Terrorism: 21st-century Perspectives (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2009), p. 139.
29 S. Kenna, ‘One Skilled Scientist Is Worth an Army – The Fenian Dynamite Campaign 1881–85’, 13 February 2012, available at: http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/02/13/one-skilled-scientist-is-worth-an-army-the-fenian-dynamite-campaign-1881-85/#.WEikZPmLRnJ. Martial Bourdin, a Frenchman and anarchist, was discovered in 1894 in a gruesome physical state in Greenwich Park on his way to the Royal Observatory, the target for the bombing).
30 ‘Ukrainian Student Who Murdered a Muslim Pensioner Before Planting Three Bombs Near Mosques Jailed for Life’, Daily Mirror, 25 October 2013, available at: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pavlo-lapshyn-jailed-life-after-2532574.
31 Neither Adebowale nor Adebolajo was convicted of terrorism offences; they were sentenced for murder. Lapshyn too was sentenced for murder. His bombing spree incurred charges under the Explosive Substances Act. He was charged with a section 5 offence under the Terrorism Act (preparing for acts of terrorism).
32 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Action_(UK).
33 ‘Daughter of Mohammed Saleem Criticises West Midlands Police’, BBC News, 24, March 2013.
34 It’s an issue I raised with David Cameron in his final days as prime minister in the days following Jo Cox’s murder – again at the hands of a far-right terrorist. I questioned the lack of a COBRA meeting, the lack of a focus on the motivation and ideology of the perpetrator, the lack of a serious response to the rising tide of far-right extremism and the failure of the broader ‘right-wing family’ to say ‘not in my name’. I warned him that the difference of approach was causing resentment amongst ordinary, so-called integrated, moderate Muslims. He acknowledged that I had made a valid point. It signalled a potential shift in approach. It’s a shame that a week later he had resigned as PM and a few months later had left parliament.
35 Bill Leckie, ‘Terrorism Is a Monster With More Than One Face’, Sun, 10 June 2013; ‘Top Cop Attacks Media Coverage of Mosque Bombings and Birmingham Mail’s Report of Crime Rise’, Birmingham Mail, 25 July 2013, available at: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/west-midlands-polices-dave-thompson-5319513; ‘Government Accused of “Double Standards” in Aftermath of Woolwich Murder of Drummer Lee Rigby’, Independent, 28 July 2013, available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-accused-of-double-standards-in-aftermath-of-woolwich-murder-of-drummer-lee-rigby-8735665.html.
36 ‘Helpful and Polite Loner with History of Mental Health Issues’, The Times, 17 June 2016, available at: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/helpful-and-polite-loner-with-history-of-mental-health-issues-3sqjj3qp2.
37 Juliet Samuel, ‘It’s Time to Call the Killing of Jo Cox What It Is: “An Act of Far-Right Terrorism’ ”, Daily Telegraph, 17 June 2016, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/17/its-time-to-call-the-killing-of-jo-cox-what-it-is-an-act-of-far/; Glenn Greenwald, ‘Why Is the Killer of British MP Jo Cox Not Being Called a “Terrorist”?’, The Intercept, 17 June 2016, available at: https://theintercept.com/2016/06/17/why-is-the-killer-of-british-mp-jo-cox-not-being-called-a-terrorist/.
38 Matthew Taylor and Daniel Nasaw, ‘Suspect in US Holocaust Museum Guard Killing Has Links to BNP’, Guardian, 11 June 2009, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/11/holocaust-museum-shooting-bnp-von-brunn.
39 ‘British Man Pleads Guilty in Trump Attempted Attack Case’, CBS News, 13 September 2016, available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/british-man-pleads-guilty-in-donald-trump-attempted-attack-case/.
40 Report of the Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, vol. 2, ch. 6, para. 8.45, p. 671.
41 A. Saeed, ‘Media, Racism and Islamophobia: The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media’, Sociology Compass, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 443–62.
42 Martha Crenshaw and John Pimlott (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 1998).
43 Magnus Ranstorp (ed.), Mapping Terrorism Research: State of the Art, Gaps and Future Direction (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 60. (The United States and Great Britain were committed to supporting the restoration of self-government for all countries that had been occupied during the war and allowing all peoples to choose their own form of government.) See: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/atlantic-conf; A. Cassese, Self-Determination of Peoples: A Legal Reappraisal (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 37.
44 ‘Iraq War Relative: Tony Blair Is “World’s Worst Terrorist” ’, Daily Telegraph, 6 July 2016; available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/06/iraq-war-relative-tony-blair-is-worlds-worst-terrorist/.
45 Speech by Alex Younger, head of MI6, 8 December 2016.
46 ‘Anger at Cherie “Sympathy” for Suicide Bombers’, Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2002, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/jordan/1397696/Anger-at-Cherie-sympathy-for-suicide-bombers.html.
47 Cited in D. E. Pressman, Risk Assessment Decisions for Violent Political Extremism (Public Safety Canada, 2009).
48 R v. Gul (Appellant) [2013] UKSC 64, 23 October 2013.
49 For more on this, see: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLawJl/2004/22.html; http://www.humanrightsvoices.org/eyeontheun/un_101/facts/?p=61; https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2013/10/23/supreme-court-considers-definition-of-terrorism/.
50 ‘Terror Detention Plans Outlined’, BBC News, 15 September 2005, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4247638.stm.
51 David Anderson QC, The Terrorism Acts in 2011, Report of the Independent Reviewer on the Operation of the Terrorism Act 2000 and Part 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (London: HMSO, 2012), para. 3.11, p. 37.
52 Mike Harris, ‘The Legal Definition of Terrorism Threatens to Criminalise Us All’, Independent, 24 July 2014, available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-legal-definition-of-terrorism-threatens-to-criminalise-us-all-9626325.html; https://terrorismlegislationreviewer.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Independent-Review-of-Terrorism-Report-2014-print2.pdf; ‘UK Definition of Terrorism ‘Could Catch Political Journalists and Bloggers’, Guardian, 22 July 2014, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/22/uk-definition-terrorism-political-journalists-bloggers-watchdog.
53 See: https://goo.gl/2dfUKQ. Also, Philip Johnston, Bad Laws: An Explosive Analysis of Britain’s Petty Rules, Health and Safety Lunacies, Madcap Laws and Nit-Picking Regulations (London: Constable, 2010), quoted in ‘The Police Must End Their Abuse of Anti-Terror Legislation’, Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2005.
54 ‘Terror Law Used for Iceland Deposits’, Financial Times, 8 October 2008, available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f86a290a-959a-11dd-aedd-000077b07658.html?ft_site=falcon&desktop=true#axzz4SvIIrmQd.
55 Lizzy Davies, ‘Olympics Spectator with Parkinson’s Wants “Exoneration” after Arrest’, Guardian, 8 August 2012, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/08/olympics-spectator-parkinsons-arrest-smiling.
56 ‘The Police Must End Their Abuse of Anti-terror Legislation’, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3620110/The-police-must-end-their-abuse-of-anti-terror-legislation.html.
57 Speech by Ronald Reagan at the National Conference of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, 30 March 1981.
58 Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000, quarterly update to September 2015, Home Office, 10 December 2015, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-quarterly-update-to-december-2015/; Operation of Police Powers Under the Terrorism Act 2000 And Subsequent Legislation: Arrests, Outcomes, and Stop and Search, Great Britain, quarterly update to December 2015, Home Office, 17 March 2016, available at: https://goo.gl/YzwXaG.
59 P. Hillyard, Suspect Community (London: Pluto Press, 1993).
60 ‘Deaths in the Northern Ireland Conflict since 1969’, Guardian, 10 June 2010, # https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jun/10/deaths-in-northern-ireland-conflict-data.
61 Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Terrorism Index 2015: Measuring and Understanding the Impact of Terrorism, p. 2; available at: http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2015.pdf.
62 Ibid., p. 5.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid., p. 68.
65 US National Counterterrorism Center, Annex of Statistical Information, 12 March 2012, p. 6. The report states that, where religious affiliation of victims of terrorism in the years 2007–11 is known, ‘Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 percent of terrorism-related fatalities’.
66 Ibid., p. 2.
67 Global Terrorism Database, University of Maryland, is an online database covering terrorism incidents from 1970 to 2015 with updates added annually. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), Global Terrorism Database [Data file] (2016), retrieved from: https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd.
68 See also: ‘Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks in America’, Washington Blog and Global Research, 13 June 2016, available at: http://www.globalresearch.ca/non-muslims-carried-out-more-than-90-of-all-terrorist-attacks-in-america/5333619.
69 Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Terrorism Index 2016, p. 4.
70 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, 2010 (European Police Office, 2011), p. 9.
71 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, 2011 (European Police Office, 2012), p. 8.
72 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, 2013 (European Police Office, 2013), p. 8.
73 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, 2015 (European Police Office, 2015), p. 8; EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, 2016 (European Police Office, 2016), p. 10.
74 Ryan Lenz with Mark Potok, Age of the Wolf: A Study of the Rise of Lone Wolf and Leaderless Resistance Terrorism (Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center, 2015), p. 4.
75 Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Terrorism Index 2015, p. 4.
76 M. Zenko and M. Cohen, ‘Clear and Present Safety: The United States Is More Secure than Washington Thinks’, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2012.
77 David Anderson, The Terrorism Acts in 2011, para. 2.29a, p. 27, available at: https://terrorismlegislationreviewer.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/report-terrorism-acts-2011.pdf.
78 ‘Horror in Paris: The Reason We Call It “Terrorism” ’, Washington Examiner, 14 November 2015; available at: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/horror-in-paris-the-reason-we-call-it-terrorism/article/2576350.
79 ‘Transcript of Today’s First Public Speech by a Serving MI6 Chief, Guardian, 28 October 2010, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/oct/28/sir-john-sawers-speech-full-text. accessed on: 4 August 2016.
80 It was a conversation that I naively tried to have after 7/7. It was an early lesson for me in politics that I was stupid to assume that the media would be interested in a broader discussion on terrorism rather than just a specific ‘Muslim politician’s’ response to 7/7. The example I used on TV was the decades-long war over Kashmir and the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris as enshrined in United Nations resolutions. Some British Indian members of my party took offence at my statement, threatened to withdraw support, including donations, and demanded an apology. The fighters were freedom fighters for Kashmiris under occupation but terrorists in the eyes of my British Indian colleagues. To this day I stand by the point I made: it is a fact that people in this country do not see conflicts around the world from the same perspective. The good guys and bad guys differ depending on individual political positions, ideology and history. But I was persuaded by Michael Howard to apologize and in typical political style I refused to apologize for what I had said but apologized for any offence I might have caused. A decade on from that attack it’s a shame politics is still not the right forum for such a discussion.
81 Seth G. Jones and Martin C. Lebicki, How Terrorist Groups End (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2008), available at: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG741-1.pdf.
82 J. Powell, Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflicts (London: Bodley Head, 2014), p. 10.
83 Ibid., p. 1.
84 Dan Lamothe, ‘The USS Cole Was Bombed 15 Years Ago. Now It’s a Floating Memorial to Those Lost’, Washington Post, 12 October 2015, available at: https://goo.gl/c4bHua.