"This is a small group of extremists, not one who should be ignored because of the danger they pose, but neither should it define Muslims in Britain, who are overwhelmingly law-abiding, decent members of our society." With these civilised words Tony Blair yesterday expressed his horror at the dramatic police revelations that last week's attacks in London were carried out by British-born suicide bombers. It appears that four young men were involved, and perhaps a fifth. Police are convinced they were part of a wider group and fear further attacks.
The prime minister's political instinct to protect Britain's Muslim communities from public anger and concentrate attention on the extreme ideology and organisations involved is well judged. So is his determination to mobilise moderate voices of Islam against those responsible for an evil perversion of the religion. This should be accompanied by continuing vigilance on how strong retaliatory measures proposed affect civil liberties. The measures he proposes include new laws against inciting hatred, a counter-terrorism bill, moves to make it easier to deport suspects and a fresh push to introduce identity cards. At EU level, British ministers have proposed initiatives on exchanging intelligence and monitoring telephone and internet usage.
Britain's large Muslim community is diverse in its ethnic and geographical origins. By and large the story of migration, settlement and cultural accommodation over the last two generations has been a positive one. Continuing racist attitudes from a minority of British citizens have been more than offset by successful adaptation - nowhere more than in multicultural London, so much so that many of the bombing victims were themselves Muslim. Although the community as a whole is poorer than average, more than half of them have been born in the UK and one third are under the age of 16. But there is an established pattern of alienated extremism among a small minority of second and third generation youth. It is driven by religious prejudice, extremist ideologies and the sustenance they find from western interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Chechnya.
These horrifying events show how easily disguised such extremism can be among apparently normal and well-adapted youth. In the wake of the bombings Mr Blair has spoken of the necessity to address its causes as well as its effects. He is right to harness the great majority of moderate Muslim leaders to this cause and refuse a hearing to those who advocate a war of civilisations based on the premise that Islam is an inherently extremist religion. It should be nothing of the sort - though it could be made more so by misconceived policies of repression and cultural hostility. Among the proximate political causes of such alienated extremism the war in Iraq must be included. Efforts to restore Iraqi sovereignty and self-rule and to speed up negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian settlement must be among the response to these atrocities.