Contemporary Terrorist Threats in the UK: The Pakistan Dimension
Julian Richards
Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies (BCISS)
Brunel University
Abstract
Many key international terrorist active in the West since the late 1990's including the 7 July 2005 bombers in london, have shown linkages with the country of Pakistan, For Britain, these are facilitated by cultural and ethnic ties with the Pakistani community - the largest Muslim group in the UK. President Musharraf rejects the notion that his country is a "hub for international terrorism". In this paper I will disagree, arguing that a complex and explosive security situation has evolved in Pakistan which acts as a seedbed for an extremist, violent, Islamist politics. Many of the militant groups in Pakistan have links with Al Qaeda and an interest in exporting violent Jihad. The linkages between conditions and organisations in Pakistan and the acts of terrorism in the West cannot be ignored. In tackling the terrorist problem, Britain and its partners must use a range of approaches to confront the security situation in Pakistan, and must also attack links between extremist groups there and communities in the West.
The Murder of Theo van Gogh and the Islamic Jihad Division ('Divisie Islamitische Jihad') in the Netherlands
Maurice Punch
London School of Economics
Colin Cramphorn (DECEASED)
West Yorkshire Police
Abstract
The attacks on the people of London in 2005 by persons representing Muslim extremist were unprecedented, unexpected and unique in the respect that they were 'attacks from within' The loss of life was the highest number of deaths (52) in a violent attacks within Britain since the Second World War. This raised the issue as to how nations protect themselves against such attacks where intelligence is nonexistent and perpetrators are apparently hitherto model citizens. All this must then be coupled with the complexity, in policing and security terms, of responding to the new threat of suicide bombers (as in London in 2005). We examine here the experiences of the police and security services in the Netherlands, and elsewhere, with regard to the activities of Islamic extemists whose actions led to the globally publicised assassination of Theo van Gogh and other threats of terror. In particular, we examines the reasons for the 'conversion' of young second or third generation immigrants who appear to be integrated but who turn to radicalism.
Constructing a Historical Framework of Terrorism in Australia: From the Fenian Brotherhood to 21st Century Islamic Extremism
Stuart Koschade
School of Humanities Services, Queensland
University of Technology, and the Australian Homeland Security Research Centre
Abstract
This paper aims to provide the foundation for a history of terrorism in Australia. Within the multidisciplinary field of terrorism in Australia. Within the multidisciplinary field of terrorism studies, there exists no literature that comprehensively attempts to construct a context of terrorism history within Australia. Without such a context, the field is deprived of a basis for both quantitative and qualitative analytical methodologies and techniques that aims to understand, explains, and predict terrorism.
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