Something was scarce, if not absent, in the commemorations of the 7/7 Islamist attacks yesterday, and that is the fact that these were Islamist attacks. The word did not appear in the Prime Minister’s official statement to mark the anniversary. Keir Starmer commended ‘the unity of Londoners in the face of terror’, but what kind of terror? Far-right? Far-left? The IRA? Eco-warriors?

The trouble is that if you specify the nature of the attacks, you specify the nature of the perpetrators. They were: Mohammad Sidique Khan (born in Leeds, parents from Pakistan); Shehzad Tanweer (born in Bradford, parents from Pakistan); Hasib Hussain (born in Leeds, parents from Pakistan); and Germaine Lindsay (born in Jamaica, family converted to Islam after settling in Yorkshire). That all were Muslims and all here as a result of immigration is purely coincidental and definitely not something we should learn any lessons from.

To recognise Islamism as the cause of 7/7 is to say that four British Muslims blew up people who were supposed to be their fellow citizens, and did so in the name of ‘protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters’, as Khan put it in a video statement. That to Khan, Tanweer, Hussain, and Lindsay, and those who think like them, a Muslim’s kinship and loyalty is with co-religionists the world over and not with the country that welcomed their families and extended them the benefits of citizenship.

The obvious follow-up question is: how many Muslims in Britain feel the same way? In the wake of 7/7, ‘Islamism’ was never off the tongues of policymakers and pundits as the merits of various counter strategies were debated. Should ministers co-opt ‘community leaders’ to fashion a moderate British Islam that rejected extremism? Tried that. Should they root out extremist, foreign-born imams from UK mosques? Talked about it a lot but did very little. Should more money be directed to Prevent and anti-radicalisation outfits? That was popular for a while; what it achieved is anyone’s guess.

Twenty years on from 7/7, Islamism is no longer on quite so many tongues but it is no less of a threat.

In 2010, Labour MP Stephen Timms was stabbed at his constituency surgery by Roshonara Choudhry, who was motivated by the Iraq war. In 2013, fusilier Lee Rigby was butchered in Woolwich by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale in ‘retaliation for deaths in Muslim lands’. In March 2017, Khalid Masood murdered PC Keith Palmer and four........

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