Welfare And Terrorism: Ed West makes the connection.
London became the world terrorist hub partly because the country had a
long tradition of shielding dissenters of all stripes; because it had a
very unintrusive state compared to its European neighbours (no ID
cards); and because of Britain's historic links with many Arab
countries. But there was another reason, and this is central to the
reason why Europe has an Islamist problem and the United States doesn't
— the welfare state. Welfare is intimately linked to the failure of
western European countries to integrate their Muslim populations, and
explains why Britain has such a problem with Islamism.
And illustrates it with some remarkable examples. For instance.
Abu Hamza, the hook-handed Yemeni, was a phenomenal sponger. His
London house cost taxpayers £2400 a month, and at one point he was
receiving over £500 a month for incapacity benefits while his wife
received an additional £1300 a month. Abu Hamza even sued the
government for extra benefits.
Always taking the Euro-moral high ground, the British had refused to
extradite Hamza to his native Yemen in 1999 because it had the death
penalty; he then went on to radicalise the 7/7 bombers, so that 52
innocent people died in the place of one guilty man.
(West gives us more credit than we deserve, though it is true that we
have not been as generous to our radical Islamists as Britain has been
to theirs.)
When you think about it, you can see that welfare is almost ideal for
a terrorist. It's enough to live on — and sometimes way more than
enough in Britain — and the terrorist has almost all his time free to
plot his next attacks.
And I don't suppose the terrorists mind the idea of living off their
enemies.
(Right now, a British pound is worth about $1.65.)
- 3:27 PM, 26 April 2011
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