imams are being arrested an imprisoned. The problem is that the tabloids want it done the moment anyone says anything bad, or even looks at them in a funny way, I suspect. The police, however, take the attitude that it's better to gather enough evidence to not only guarantee the charges stick, but see them sent down for a long while.
Furthermore, if you draw your lessons from the cold war, the object of counter intelligence is to minimise the effectiveness of the opposition, not necessarily to send people down. So many times they'll leave people in play, either to turn them, or to lead to bigger fish. Ramming everyone into jail can be quite counter productive.
Not to say a fundamental betrayal of the very principles we claim to be standing up for. An Imam should be able to advocate terror and violence in this country if he so wishes. I get really quite libertarian on issues such as this. Moreover, it is up to the rest of society to make the intellectual and moral investment in forming and articulating a more compelling alternative view of the world. I like to think of it as an argument that is intellectually consistent with a belief in free markets. As that argument goes, if you remove restrictive barriers and legislation, then the market regulates itself by the wonders of competition. Taking that, we can then reasonably project that a society that has established for itself an ideological marketplace without legislative or regulatory distortions, will be driven to actively compete in that free competitive environment. By default and in concurrence with laws as immutable as those which govern gravity, a process will initiate by which creativity and intellectual enterpreneurship will see that competition is offered - and it is then down to the strength of competing "products" and their marketing to decide which profits handsomely and which is driven to rack and ruin.
Matt, as you're being blown to bits I'm sure you'll take great comfort in the knowledge that your vision will ultimately prevail in the marketplace of ideas. Splat!
The chances of me being blown to bits being as remote as they are, I have every faith that the brisk, dynamic nature of the free market will effect the required adjustments with all creative and entrepreneurial haste.
we are all quivering in our boots http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/02/terror_idiocy_outbreak/ 'al-Qaeda' puts on big shoes, red nose, takes custard pie
It has to be said, some of the attempts at "terror" we've been exposed to in the past two weeks have been, well, not very terrifying. The guys in London were undone by the fact that the first bomb was spotted when their ancient Mercedes started smoking, the second was illegally parked and towed away. And the Glasgow effort? Arf. They've been arrested, but I actually think it's because they were caught smoking in a public place We must remain vigilant, we must not be complacent, but neither must we pretend that we are about to be plunged into a thousand years of darkness.
Much of that is remembering that crime is best dealt with by police work; not by the launching of aggressive wars to continue to justify a military-industrial complex at Cold War levels...after the end of the Cold War!