◼ Britain has been in denial about the Islamist threat. Time to face it down. - Douglas Murray/Wall St. Journal
How many ignored warnings does it take? That is one question that should hang over Britain after the horror of the daytime murder of a British soldier on the streets of south London. On Wednesday afternoon, Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in Woolwich by two men wielding large knives and shouting "Allahu akbar"—God is great.
Islamists have been saying for years they would do this. They have planned to do it. And now they have done it.
The attack itself is not surprising. What is surprising is that British society remains so utterly unwilling not just to deal with this threat, but even to admit its existence. Politicians have called the Woolwich killing "unforgivable" and "barbarous." But expressions of anger should not really be enough....
Now comes the attack in Woolwich, which the perpetrators—as with the earlier cell—wished to be observed and even filmed. Reports suggest that they invited people to capture their actions on video. The perpetrators gave interviews, machetes in hand, to bystanders with cameras. This horrific scene is something that will stick in the memory.
But it should also have been foreseen. Instead we entered the stage of denial. For there is already, in the reaction to events, more than a hint of what I have previously termed "Toulouse syndrome." The term is named after the attacks last year carried out by a jihadist called Mohammed Merah, who killed three French soldiers in a rampage that concluded with the murders of four French Jews at a school in Toulouse.
In the early stages of the attacks, when little was known, there was significant speculation that the culprit was a far-right extremist. At that stage everybody knew what they were going to say. But once the culprit turned out to be an Islamist, the gaze nearly fell away completely. "Nothing to see here, please move on" was the order of the day.
◼ MI5 admit they KNEW about fanatics who 'slaughtered soldier': Police raid house in Lincolnshire village as friends say British-born suspect became 'obsessed with radical Islam as schoolboy' - Daily Mail
Two men who allegedly slaughtered a soldier in a Woolwich street were known to security services, it emerged today.
David Cameron revealed that authorities were looking into what was already known about Drummer Lee Rigby's alleged killers, but it is not thought they were considered to be an immediate threat.
One of the men, believed to be Michael Adebolajo, is believed to have been arrested after he went to Somalia to join banned Islamist group al Ahabaab.
Eyewitness Jamie France, 29, said that his mother had seen Adebolajo preaching as recently as last week.
He said: 'She said she'd seen him last week preaching in Woolwich town centre. She said she remembers him because he'd been really angry and was saying all this political stuff.'
In an extraordinary day of events, Scotland Yard announced that another 1,200 police officers were being put onto the streets and several houses were raided as part of the investigation.
◼ RAW VIDEO: MUSLIM BUTCHERS CHARGE LONDON POLICE WITH A GUN AND BLOODY CLEAVERS - Atlas Shrugs
◼ Woolwich Attack: British soldier Lee Rigby died 'in the most horrific way possible,' says relative - NY Daily News
◼ ‘Better me than a child’: Cub Scout leader and mom of 2 says she was ‘never scared’ while standing up to cleaver-wielding terrorists who beheaded British soldier - NY Daily News
◼ A Question About The Woolwich Killings - The Scratching Post
