Saudi support for ISIS at root of global terror problem‏

On 19 May two years ago, the then home secretary, Theresa May, was openly criticised at the Police Federation conference by a former Manchester police officer, Inspector Damian O'Reilly had been named community officer of the year in 2010 (Manchester Evening News, 10 November 2010; http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/beat-that-mr-gorton-is-named-902680) but had subsequently resigned in frustration over policing cuts.

 

He told May bluntly: “We run the risk here of letting communities down, putting officers at risk and ultimately risking national security.” (Daily Mirror, 21 May 2015; http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/award-winning-policeman-blasts-theresa-over-5728171)

Responding dismissively, May accused the Police Federation of “scaremongering” and declared: "This crying wolf has to stop". But  another officer said: "It's not scaremongering, it's fact. Don't talk down to us.”

Mrs May wants to be elected on a strong and stable platform. But her actions belie her words.

Jeremy Corbyn is absolutely right to identify British foreign policy as a proximate cause

(note: not a justification) (Guardian, report, 26 May; www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/25/jeremy-corbyn-links-foreign-policy-to-growing-terror-threat) of terrorist threats.

Six weeks ago the prime minister lead a trade mission to Saudi Arabia. Under fire from Labour, she denied the UK had been selling its principles for the sake of trade deals for the post-Brexit era. “No, we are not doing that. What we are doing is continuing the links that we have had for a long time with countries that are important to us.” (“Theresa May: building Saudi ties better than 'sniping' from sidelines,” Guardian, 5 April; www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/04/theresa-may-building-saudi-ties-better-than-sniping-from-sidelines

Saudi Arabia is primarily important for selling us oil, and spending $billions on buying arms.  But what is the record of the Saudis in combatting extremism?

In October 2014, General Jonathan Shaw, (who retired as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff in 2012), told The Daily Telegraph that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were “primarily responsible for the rise of the extremist Islam that inspires Isil terrorists.”

The newspaper’s diplomatic editor added that the two Gulf states “have spent billions of dollars on promoting a militant and proselytising interpretation of their faith” derived from Abdul Wahhab, an eighteenth century scholar, and based on the Salaf, or the original followers of the Prophet."

General Shaw emphasised: "This is a time bomb that, under the guise of education, Wahhabi Salafism is igniting under the world really. And it is funded by Saudi and Qatari money and that must stop."  (Qatar and Saudi Arabia 'have ignited time bomb by funding global spread of radical Islam' Daily Telegraph, 5 October 2014; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11140860/Qatar-and-Saudi-Arabia-have-ignited-time-bomb-by-funding-global-spread-of-radical-Islam.html) 

Arms sales and oil are  the reason ministers refuse to face up to the perverse reality of Saudi support for terrorism, both against Iran-backed Shiite muslims in Syria and Iraq over the past decade, and innocent concert goers in Manchester this week, when murderously attacked by an ISIS-supporting suicide  bomber, whose very ideology is exported from, and funded by, the Saudis.