Europe still hotbed of Islamic terrorism

In the days after 9/11, shocked American intelligence authorities quickly surmised that Islamic terrorist networks in Europe — particularly Britain — need to be tackled head on. The fingerprints of Europe were all over the attacks on the Twin Towers: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only terrorist onvicted for 9/11, was a Frenchman radicalized in a British university.

Ten years on, Europe — home to 15 million Muslims — remains a continent on the edge. If Britain is widely considered to be the epicenter of European Islamic terrorism, it is because of its large Pakistani-origin population — more than a million and growing, including 431,000 born in Pakistan.\

A massive security review in 2005 led ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown to repeatedly declare that 75% of all terrorist incidents in Britain had their origins in Pakistan. According to MI5 chief Jonathan Evans, that figure has now come down to 50% but he adds: “This does not mean that the overall threat has reduced but that it has diversified (to Somalia and other countries).”

Europe still hotbed of Islamic terrorism - Hindustan Times