Saturday 18 July 2009

Ibrahim conviction

Just a quick comment on the Isa Ibrahim conviction on terrorism charges. Good to see the media recognising the role of the local Muslim community in bringing him to police attention. Although he lived in Westbury-on-Trym, as befits a public schoolboy, Ibrahim started attending a mosque in my constituency shortly before his arrest. I'm told he was encouraged to attend there by a relative, who was concerned about his increasingly radical views and hoped the mosque would act as a moderating influence. The mosque elders were also concerned, and when he appeared at the mosque with burns on his hands, saying he'd been playing with chemicals, they shopped him. This is the first conviction on terrorism offences in the UK as a result of intelligence provided by British Muslims, and serves as further proof that the extremists are very much in the minority.

7 comments:

Roadkill said...

Although very sad for the lad and his family it is great to see a community such as this rejecting extremism.

Difficult choices but thank you.. they may have saved lives....

force12 said...

Not good enough. How many are keeping quiet over, if not actually encouraging, their kids to indulge in behaviour like this. Bet Alan Johnson doesn't give two hoots.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200489/Christian-teacher-tells-race-slurs-pupils-aged-8.html#ixzz0LacDndKH

Whatever faith you have Kerry, political and otherwise, is totally blind.

Leroy said...

Hooray for the East Bristol Muslim community! May I just say that as a White Christian resident of Easton/Whitehall area, I feel totally safe and welcomed when around my British Asian & African Muslim neighbours. I wish the same could be said about the white British people that we encounter going about our everyday business...

Bristol Dave said...

I expect the other reason why they shopped him is because he was clearly an absolute fruitcake - good on them.

Laban said...

It's very good that they did. It'll be even better when someone gets shopped who isn't a white convert with pierced eyebrows and a narcotics habit ...

Kerry said...

Not quite sure he could be classed as a white convert - his father is Egyptian, Ibrahim is his real surname. And the path from hard drugs to Islamic extremism isn't unheard of within the South Asian Muslim community either. One of the issues I've discussed when I've visited prisons/YOIs is the danger of prisoners being radicalised whilst incarcerated.

Kerry said...

Should just add a correction to this - the family were Christian, he was a convert.

I accept the point that maybe it would be easier for the community to shop someone who was an outsider, but I totally reject the insinuation that they wouldn't have done it had it been someone who was 'one of them'.