The problems of Britain's burgeoning Islamist extremism have been blamed on many factors. Most recently a report by the Policy Exchange think-tank entitled Living Apart Together claimed that multiculturalism is to blame. Published on Monday, a poll in the report found that nearly a third of Muslims aged 16-24 thought that anyone who left Islam should be "executed".

 On the same day, David Cameron, head of the Conservative (Tory) party argued in a speech in Birmingham: "So multiculturalism has come to mean an approach which focuses on what divides us rather than what brings us together.... It lies behind mistakes like the police allowing some of the protestors against the Danish cartoons last year to publicly incite violence."

 The Tory party produced a report on Tuesday, entitled Uniting the Country in which the Muslim Council of Britain, which has been deferred to by the Blair government, was blamed for allowing "hardline members... to dominate policy and crowd out more moderate voices." Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, criticized the MCB for its support of the Islamist Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 FSM has already mentioned the "Engaging With the Islamic World Group", headed by Mockbul Ali, which has been in existence since 2003. Mockbul Ali argued for the granting of a UK visa to Qaradawi, even though this individual has issued a fatwa authorizing the murder of Israeli civilians. The website of the group claims its two main aims are:

 • To increase understanding of and engagement with Muslim countries and communities and to work with them to promote peaceful, political, economic and social reform.

     • To counter the ideological, and theological underpinnings of the terrorist narrative, in order to prevent radicalization, particularly among the young, in the UK and overseas.

 To this end, and with no benefit to Britain, EWIG paid for Qaradawi, his wife, and other Islamists to attend a conference in Istanbul in 2006. 27-year old Mockbul Ali was a student Islamic extremist before becoming employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

 EWIG came into existence as a result of Blair's multicultural policies. It aims to remove the causes of radicalism. MI6 (offshore intelligence) works closely with EWIG, but a leaked memo from William Ehrman, the head of the FCO intelligence branch, sent to Sir David Omand at MI6 in 2004, suggests that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had bizarre plans. They planned to spread anti-Western propaganda on the internet, as a means of gaining the trust of Islamists. The letter naively suggests that their agents could consequently argue against violence. The growing "Islamization" at the FCO has created alarm in some circles, but even after 7/7, the policies have continued.

 Taxpayers' money is wasted on promoting "moderate" Islam on a government-sponsored website called the Radical Middle Way, while extremists are watching jihadist videos on sites run by Islamists based in Britain, such as Mohammed al-Massari. On the "Radical Middle Way" website, there is a page dedicated to Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 Swiss citizen Tariq Ramadan came to Britain in 2005, where he became based at St. Andrews College, Oxford University. A month after the atrocities of 7/7, the government decided, instead of cracking down on Islamism in Britain, to consult with Muslims. The 13 Muslims who were invited to take part in the "Working Group on Tackling Extremism" included three extremists. These were Inayat Bunglawala of the MCB, Tariq Ramadan and Abdul Hadi. Inayat Bunglawala has formerly praised Osama bin Laden as a "freedom fighter", and has called Omar Abdel Rahman "courageous". He is also virulently anti-Semitic. In 2004, Abdul Hadi was part of a conference at Birmingham's notorious Green Lane mosque, where speakers urged Muslims to hit girls who did not wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf.

 Tariq Ramadan is still denied entry to the USA, as he has donated money to charities which support terrorism. According to Jean-Charles Brissard at Terror Finance.org, Ramadan has links to at least six terrorists or terrorist entities. In 1991 in Geneva he and his Islamist brother convened a meeting with Ayman Al Zawahiri (now deputy leader of Al Qaeda) and Omar Abdel Rahman.

 The Working Group on Tackling Extremism's main recommendation was to urge the government to abandon Holocaust Memorial Day, a deliberate anti-Semitic attempt to belittle the lives of 6.5 million Jews slaughtered by Nazis. The group felt the emphasis on Jews made Muslims "feel excluded".

 Bunglawala, Iqbal Sacranie (who thought death was too good for Salman Rushdie) and now the new leader of the MCB, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, have all exhibited extremist tendencies, while claiming to be "moderate". The unelected MCB has influenced the elected government's policies in a way which was previously unheard of. Only now are politicians prepared to condemn Blair's unofficial Muslim policy-makers.

 For almost two decades, radical Islamists have been free to preach in Britain, even if their messages have been inciting hate and terrorism. The most well-known of these are Omar Bakri Mohammed (founder of UK Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Muhajiroun) and Abu Hamza al-Masri, former imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque. The problems created by Abu Hamza, whose preachings have influenced numerous terrorists, are a prime example of the refusal by UK authorities, particularly MI5 and the police, to take Islamism seriously.

 Hamza had married a British national in May 1980, while she was legally married to someone else, and had falsely declared on a birth certificate that he was the father of his wife's child. Arrested as an illegal immigrant in December 1980, he should never have been allowed to stay in Britain, but the authorities turned a blind eye (no pun intended).

 Hamza and his group the Supporters of Shariah openly campaigned to gain funds for terrorism abroad. This activity became illegal in Britain only in late 2001. The UK authorities had thus assisted the flourishing of terrorism abroad, as long as it did not happen on UK soil. Other sponsors of terrorism were allowed to send funds to Hamas, such as Mohammed Sawalha, who is director of the charity Interpal, still legal in Britain although designated as a terrorist entity by the US Treasury in 2003.

 Hamza had gone to Bosnia and to Afghanistan in the 1990s. At the Al Qaeda-run Darunta training camp near Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, he had lost both hands and one eye in a bomb-making experiment which went wrong.

 In the 1980s, imams at different mosques had reported Hamza to the police, citing his bullying behavior. Using these tactics, he took over the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London when he returned from Afghanistan. One of the mosque's management team, Abdulkadir Barkatullah, reported him to the police seven times, but no action was taken.

 An MI5 "spy" was placed at Finsbury Park Mosque, an Algerian called Reda Hassaine. The spy was at the mosque from July 1999 to November 2000, as an agent for MI5 (homeland intelligence) and Scotland Yard's Special Branch. He claimed: "I told them Abu Hamza was brainwashing people and sending them to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, that he was preaching jihad and murder and that he was involved in the provision of false passports. I told them he was a chief terrorist... The MI5 officer told me Abu Hamza was harmless and that MI5 thought he was a clown."

 In 2003, when the mosque was eventually raided by police, Hassaine was proved right. Three starting pistols, which could easily be reassigned to firing live rounds, a stun gun, knives, CS gas and chemical and nuclear warfare protective suits were recovered. Also, hidden behind ceiling tiles, dozens of forged documents were discovered, including driving licenses and passports. The details were not revealed publicly until February 7, 2006, after Hamza was convicted of inciting murder.

 Intelligence agencies from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands had reported that Hamza was head of a terrorist organization. The French and Algerian authorities had even planted spies in the mosque to document his activities, but British authorities did nothing. Egypt (his home country) wanted Hamza back to stand trial, and offered a prisoner exchange. This too was ignored.

 In 1998, Hamza was involved with the kidnapping of 16 tourists in Yemen. He bought a satellite phone and gave 500 pounds' worth of airtime to the kidnappers. Though the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham intercepted and monitored these phone conversations, nothing was done. 12 Britons, two Australians, two Americans, as well as their 4 Yemeni drivers, were taken hostage in Abyan, Yemen, on 28 December 1998. Within two days, three Britons and one Australian were dead.

 Abu al-Hassan (the kidnappers' leader) told Abu Hamza he had hoped the tourists would be mainly Americans, and was disappointed to have only two. The British cleric urged against harming the hostages and Abu al-Hassan agreed, saying that they wanted to exchange them for nine Islamists who were under arrest.

 Because phone-taps are not acceptable in a UK court of law, no action was taken. But the FBI, state Sean O'Neill and Daniel McGrory, authors of the The Suicide Factory, are not so cautious. They have said that if they succeed in gaining the extradition of Hamza, they will employ the phone-tap evidence from GCHQ in their prosecution. Following the Yemen kidnap, Hamza's house was searched in March 1999, where documents including the 11 volume Encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad. This terror manual was returned to Hamza, though in his 2006 trial he was convicted for its possession.

 Hamza is wanted on an extradition order by the US for a plot to set up a terror training camp in Dog Cry Ranch, Bly, Oregon in 1999. Another UK national, Haroon Rashid Aswat, is awaiting extradition to the US for the same offense. The vagaries of Britain's legal system do not encourage easy extraditions. Aswat was arrested in July 2005 in Zambia, but has been battling through the courts to avoid being sent to the US. Another terrorist who is wanted by the US is Babar Ahmed, who also has fought extradition. Ahmed had a website in which he encouraged jihadists to go to Iraq to fight coalition forces. On November 16 2005, Ahmed's extradition was approved by the Home Secretary, but he remains in the UK.

 Abu Hamza lost his appeal against his prison sentence on Wednesday, hopefully clearing the way for his extradition. The extradition process in Britain is a shambles. French Islamist Rachid Ramda escaped to Britain illegally in 1998, after carrying out bomb attacks in Paris. He remained in jail in the UK for 10 years. His extradition to France was finally approved in November 2005, and he went to France on December 1, being finally jailed on March 30, 2006.

 Home Office incompetence has also caused the collapse of an Italian terror trial. A Libyan in UK custody, Farj Hassan Faraj, was wanted to stand trial in Milan. Because he was detained in Britain with no extradition made, his detention passed a three year deadline required under Italian law, and the trial was abandoned. A member of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Abid Javaid, is even employed by the Home Office, in its Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

 Threats of terror plots in Britain are escalating. In August, the Home Secretary John Reid announced that there were seventy terror plots in Britain. $332 million, or 87% of the total budget of MI5, is spent each year on tracking Muslim terror suspects.

 Britain's climate of political correctness has allowed this culture of extremism to flourish. In July last year, Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, said that there were 1,200 Islamist terror suspects being watched by police and MI5. These came from a pool of 400,000 Islamist "sympathizers". In November, the outgoing head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, warned that there will be a "generation" of Muslim terror.

 Instead of abandoning the multicultural ethos that has allowed extremism to multiply, the current authorities are still encouraging it. The Muslim Council of Britain - whose leaders support Islamism and the terrorism of Hamas - has long campaigned against terrorism raids, claiming that they are "victimizing" Muslims.

 As of September 25, a team of four Muslim "leaders" has been established. Before London's Metropolitan Police can embark on any terror raids, they must first consult these leaders, and provide them with evidence. In a so-called democracy, unelected religious leaders are now allowed a veto over who gets to be arrested in a terror raid.

 The man who approved this measure is Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who notoriously lied about the shooting of an innocent Brazilian electrician in the aftermath of 7/7. Blair announced that the "terror suspect" had jumped over a subway barrier and had fled, leading to police shooting him. When the truth emerged, that the electrician had not fled, and been shot seven times in the back of the head while he entered a train, Blair ensured that the woman who leaked the truth was punished.

 Days after the announcement that Muslims were to be consulted before any terror raids, Ian Blair announced that none of the Islamists who had heckled and threatened Catholic worshippers at Westminster Cathedral would be prosecuted. On Sunday September 17, former member of Al-Muhajiroun Anjem Choudary had said that the Pope should be executed for "insulting" Islam.

 Earlier last year, Choudary organized an illegal demonstration outside the Danish Embassy on February 3, 2006, where placards were held up. These carried slogans such as "Behead those who insult Islam", "Europe. Take some lessons from 9/11", "Europe you will pay. Demolition is on its way", "Europe you will pay. Your extermination is on its way," "Slay those who insult Islam," "Butcher those who insult Islam." No-one was arrested at the time, even though the incident caused national outrage, and questions were raised in Parliament. Choudary received a trivial fine for mounting the demonstration.

 The climate of political correctness has led to a situation where Islamists can openly call for death and murder, and escape punishment. Even though the climate of terrorism is increasing, with a recent plot revealed in which a Muslim soldier was targeted for kidnapping and beheading, Zarqawi-style, political correctness and the appeasing of groups like the MCB is considered more important than dealing with extremism proactively.

 The future leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown, has said that he wishes to make criticism of Islam an offense. Gordon Brown announced on January 7 this year that if he becomes prime minister, he will break away from Blair's approach to the "war on terror". Already, Brown has cut back funds to the army, preferring instead to donate $910 million to Pakistan, knowing that the majority of this money will fund madrassas, where Islamism is preached.

 Brown is not alone in his apathy towards the war on terror. On Tuesday January 23, Sir Kenneth Macdonald stated that there is "no war on terror". Such an opinion would be easy to dismiss, were it not for the fact that Macdonald is the Director of Public Prosecutions.

 He told the Criminal Bar Association: "On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'. The fight against terrorism on the streets of Britain is not a war. It is the prevention of crime, the enforcement of our laws and the winning of justice for those damaged by their infringement."

 When prosecutions are not sought for Islamists' blatant infringements of the laws of incitement and treason, or "glorification" of terrorism, Macdonald's comments are hollow platitudes.

 Macdonald warned against Britain opting out of the European Convention of Human Rights, even if the "life of the nation" was threatened. With Macdonald also being the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, and terror raids in London being subject to Muslim "consultation", it appears that British authorities have little willpower to address the real problems of terrorism.

 The US should seriously consider whether its unfailing trust in Britain as an ally should be taken for granted. Britons can enter the United States for short visits without visas under the Visa Waiver Program, introduced in 1986.

 Technically, those entering the US need to have a clean criminal record, but flights arriving in the US are vulnerable. On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid, a petty criminal from London, who had already served time in prison, boarded Miami-bound American Airlines Flight 63 in Paris. During the flight, he attempted to set off a "shoe-bomb", but was overpowered by passengers.

 On August 10 2006, airports in Britain were paralyzed after it was announced that 21 Muslims had been arrested. These had allegedly planned to set off explosives on board US-bound flights. The plot had involved liquid explosives, echoing the earlier Operation Bojinka, a plot hatched by terrorist Ramzi Yousef. The plot had only been uncovered due to cooperation between Pakistani, American and British intelligence agencies.

 Now is not the time to deny there is a "war on terror". Should Gordon Brown lead Britain, a country that is riddled with Muslim extremists, his openly-stated opposition to the "war on terror" and his love of multiculturalism will cause the worst possible threat to US security.