A Terrible Lesson

London is in the midst of a terror onslaught--a coordinated campaign of attacks designed to terrorize the West, force British troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and drive a wedge between Britain and the United States.

Thus far, the terrorists have failed on all three counts. Britons seems to be reacting with more defiance than fear, British troops remain in Iraq and Afghanistan, and will do so for the forseeable future, and American-British cooperation has, if anything, increased since the June 7 attacks, as the two nations share intelligence and hold joint press conferences reaffirming their mutual vow to crush the terrorists. Rather than quickly capitulating to the demands of terrorists, as Spain did last year, Britain is holding firm.

But while the British stiff upper lip in the face of adversity is inspiring, their willingness to tolerate the festering presence of radical Islam in their own communities is decidedly less so. It is not foreign terrorists who are throwing London's subway system into chaos; it is homegrown Muslim extremists, and some are even British citizens. Protecting a nation's infrastructure from foreign infiltrators is difficult enough, but protecting that infrastructure from the very citizens it is meant to serve can be nearly impossible.

It is this added dimension of difficulty that makes the type of threat now being seen in London so dangerous. Western societies are, by their very nature, open and relatively unassuming, especially to its citizens. Terrorists exploit this uniquely Western strength and turn it into a weakness.

Although the West cannot allow itself to devolve into a police state by curtailing freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism, it does not have to provide an umbrella of protection to the preachers of jihad who openly and boldly exhort their followers to violence. Because of lax immigration controls, government feebleness, and Western self-loathing couched in multiculturalist blather, London has become a hotbed of Islamic radicalism in recent years. If there were any lingering doubt as to the magnitude of Britain's crisis, this article should lay that to rest:

LONDON (Reuters) - Militant Islamists will continue to attack Britain until the government pulls its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the country's most outspoken Islamic clerics said on Friday.

Speaking 15 days after bombers killed over 50 people in London and a day after a series of failed attacks on the city's transport network, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed said the British capital should expect more violence.

"What happened yesterday confirmed that as long as the cause and the root problem is still there ... we will see the same effect we saw on July 7," Bakri said.

Bakri, a Syrian-born cleric who has been vilified in Britain since 2001 when he praised the September 11 hijackers, said he did not believe the bombings and attempted attacks on London were carried out by British Muslims.

He condemned the killing of all innocent civilians but described attacks on British and U.S. troops in Muslim countries as "pro-life" and justified.

In an interview with Reuters, Bakri described Osama bin Laden, leader of the radical Islamist network al Qaeda, as "a sincere man who fights against evil forces."

Bakri said he would like Britain to become an Islamic state but feared he would be deported before his dream was realized.

"I would like to see the Islamic flag fly, not only over number 10 Downing Street, but over the whole world," he said.

Bakri has Syrian and Lebanese citizenship and says he thinks the British government might deport him to one of those two countries in the wake of this month's bombings.

"But I think that would be political suicide for the British government if they started to deport and imprison all extremists and radicals," he said.

No amount of police work, and no amount of military action in the Middle East can protect the British from further attacks until they come to grips with the jihadists they have allowed to live in their own country. But I fear that it is already far too late. America ignores the terrible lessons seen almost daily now in London at our peril.