Prevent strategy still needs political will

West Midlands Police have just announced seven arrests as part of an investigation into alleged terrorist activity. This follows the detention of six individuals on similar charges across London yesterday. Together, they reveal just how active the Islamist network in the UK remains and the potency of its ongoing threat.

One of those arrested in London yesterday, a convert, Richard Dart (also known as Salahuddin al-Britani) first came to prominence last year when his step-brother featured him in a documentary called ‘My brother the Islamist’. It offered a rare observational view on the inability of one family to comprehend the militancy and millenarianism of their son.

Dart was radicalised by a loose nexus of Islamists who were once members of al-Muhajiroun, an extremist group created in London during the mid-1990s. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 it claimed to have sent hundreds of young men to Afghanistan to fight coalition forces and was eventually proscribed by Tony Blair.