'Poverty' Cause Rooted

A former insider takes a cluebat to those with over-simplified views of the 'root causes' of Islamic terrorism:

Mr Husain, whose book, The Islamist, exposed the workings of Hizb ut-Tahir, is contemptuous of the idea that the latest plots were inspired by the West's intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This is just an excuse. They reject Western culture full stop, not just 'slags in night clubs'."

And he offers a brutally realistic analysis:

"These are angry men. Accommodation is not an option. It has to be containment or annihilation."

-- Nick

UPDATE: And the 'Iraq war' excuse is in its nadir too:

Osama Bin Laden's second in command issued a warning yesterday that Britain faced fresh terror attacks as ''punishment'' for Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

The threat - addressed directly to Gordon Brown - came in a 20-minute audio-tape posted on jihadi websites by Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Everyone's a critic.

-- Nora