The UK has an Islamist problem - opinion

• Published date: 16 March 2024
• Author: JONATHAN SPYER
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

As a middle-sized European power, the UK has little influence on Middle East events in general and no influence at all on Israeli or Hamas decision-making. Demands for a 'ceasefire now' on the streets of London will therefore produce nothing on the ground in the Middle East

The demonstrations are significant, however, in that they showcase the arrival in British public life of a new political force: namely, a mass, Islamist-led street presence that seeks to enforce its will on the public space and intimidate its opponents.

Already in late February, the presence of an Islamist mob outside parliament forced the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, to change parliamentary procedure out of a concern for the physical safety of MPs in a debate on calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

According to a report in the Guardian, opposition leader Keir Starmer "warned Hoyle that Labour MPs' security was at risk" should they be seen to be abstaining or opposing a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Contrary to convention, and with 'hundreds of protesters congregating outside parliament,' the speaker permitted a Labour amendment softening the language of a Scottish National Party motion calling for a ceasefire, enabling Labour members to vote for the motion and thus avoid the hostile attentions of the mob.

Hoyle later justified his decision in the following terms: "The details of the things that have been brought to me are absolutely frightening on all members of this House on all sides. I have a duty of care, and I say that, and if my mistake is looking after members, then I am guilty."

A notable precedent was thus established. Dan Hodges, a journalist with the mass circulation Mail on Sunday newspaper, later tweeted that he had spoken "to an MP yesterday who told me he had weighed up his own physical safety when deciding on how to vote on yesterday's Gaza motion. We have crossed a line now. We are not a properly functioning democracy if this is a factor in how our elected representatives act."

The Speaker's decision came in the wake of a series of attacks and threats against MPs by Islamists in recent years. In 2021, a Conservative MP, David Amess, was stabbed to death in his constituency office by an Islamist assassin. A decade earlier, Labour MP Stephen Timms narrowly survived a similar stabbing attack by a female Islamist assailant.

Conservative MP and former minister of state for immigration Robert Jenrick, in a statement in Parliament...