A major new drive to tackle extremism within British society was demanded today by a former Scotland Yard counter-terrorism chief in a bid to prevent further attacks in the wake of the London Bridge murders.
Richard Walton says that “we can and must do more” to combat homegrown extremism as he warns that the majority of would-be Islamist terrorists were born and raised in this country.
His call follows the murder of 23-year-old Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt, 25, at London Bridge a week ago today by freed terrorist convict Usman Khan and comes amid an intense national debate about how to stop more lives being lost.
Mr Walton, who led the Met’s counter-terrorism command until 2016, said that one obstacle to progress was that “some Muslim organisations remain in denial about the nature of extremism in the UK”. He also accused them of engaging in “conspiracy theories”.
But, in an article for the Evening Standard, he warns that they are “misrepresenting the views of the majority of Muslims who... want to see extremism extinguished from the UK.”
