It is now fashionable to blame the Left in allowing radical Islam to exploit multicultural sensitivity in order to push its agenda and demand total acquiescence.

However, this is inaccurate, not least because it was a Conservative government that was arming and financing jihad abroad, creating the very same ideology and adherents who would then target Britain.

This was ignored in the interests of Cold War realpolitik which saw fundamentalist Islam as a mechanism to counter communism. In the 1980s secular Afghans warned the Americans of the dire results of financing the mujahedeen.

For that reason, in 1982 Thatcher apologised to the Saudis after a BBC a report on ill-treatment of Iranians on the hajj pilgrimage, and Riyadh blamed this on the corporation’s Jewish chairman Stuart Young.

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @RanbirS11414092 on October 10, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)