In his London years, Mutallab gave no sign of terrorist tendencies

In a piece on Abdul Mutallab’s years in London as a student, the New York Times writes:

But a snapshot of Mr. Abdulmutallab’s formative years in London, from 2005 to 2009, reveals a central difficulty in preventing future terrorist attacks: Friends, relatives, a teacher and fellow Muslim students say they cannot point to a trigger moment in recent years in which an amiable and privileged young man, devout if also disaffected, aspired to mass murder.

That’s exactly right. There is no way to determine that a seemingly moderate Muslim is not really a jihadist or is not going to become a jihadist. Which is why screening prospective Muslim immigrants, as Robert Spencer admitted in 2007, is useless. The reality is that any Muslim may be a potential or actual jihadist. Which is yet another reason why, as I always say, significant Muslim populations do not belong in any non-Muslim society, period.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 30, 2009 11:28 AM | Send