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| Prime Minister David Cameron will put into effect new laws to fight jihadists in the UK. Image: Frederic Legrand / Shutterstock.com |
In
the wake of raising the United Kingdom terror threat
level to
“severe,” Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday that he plans to give the
police new powers in dealing with suspected terrorists in Britain.
Hoping
to stem the flow of British jihadists traveling through the UK on behalf of the
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Cameron will enact laws allowing police to
seize passports and prevent suspects from returning to the UK. In addition, airlines will be required to
hand over more information about passengers traveling to and from areas of conflict.
Other
plans include forcing terrorist suspects to undergo de-radicalization programs
as well as relocate and cut themselves off from associates.
Meanwhile
leaders of the British Muslim community have issued a fatwa, or religious decree, against
British jihadists, the first of its kind in the UK. The fatwa
calls those who would help Islamic extremists “heretics” and states that
while Muslims have a “moral obligation” to assist those who are suffering in
Syria and Iraq, they must do so without “betraying their own societies.”
Cameron
says he hopes to work with Germany, Turkey, and other countries in order to
keep suspected jihadists from returning to Britain.
This new counter-terrorism direction has raised some criticism within
British politics, with some concerned about the effectiveness of these upcoming
laws. Some Liberal Democrats are
questioning Cameron’s move, and Dr. Sara Silvestri, Senior Lecturer of
International Politics at City University London suggests the laws may backfire
by creating more solidarity amongst Islamic extremists instead of weakening
it. “Threatening to strip people of
their British citizenship could potentially play into the hands of the
militants because it could be a way of endorsing alternative citizenship,”
Silvestri said.
There’s also the question of whether or not equally useful laws already
exist on the books, let alone how legal these current actions are. According to Conservative
Member of Parliament Sir Edward Garnier, “We do have to consider what can be done,
but also what can be done within the law.”
As always, taking a legal stance to deal with the threat of terrorism has
caused consternation on both sides. The
effectiveness of Cameron’s new laws remains to be seen.
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