A bag of sweeties and a suicide belt?

Are ‘terrorist groomers’ warping our kids?

For some time now, the arguments on terrorism put forward by Western governments have exposed a paralysis of the political imagination. Officials issue statements that implicitly acknowledge that they have little idea of who or what constitutes the ‘enemy’. It seems that the conventional Hollywood caricature of a ruthless, professional, amoral maniac is no longer sufficient to cover today’s disturbing phenomenon of the homegrown terrorist.

In recent times, British officials have tried to harness public fears and anxiety about paedophilia as a way of explaining the threat from Al-Qaeda: they have talked about the ‘strangers’ in this terrorist outfit, and the ‘danger’ that they pose to ordinary people and their children. Now, Jonathan Evans, head of the British intelligence agency MI5, has used his first public speech to argue that the war on terrorism has effectively turned into a child protection issue. It seems that Evans and the rest of Britain’s security apparatus are most concerned about sleazy Al-Qaeda predators who prey on ‘vulnerable’ Muslim children and groom them to do their dirty work.