Britain admitted lapses in its attempts to tackle Islamist militancy on Wednesday after an attack in Sweden by a UK-educated bomber revived old charges the country is overly tolerant of the threat.
Britain became a hub of Islamist activity in the 1990s thanks to a tradition of granting asylum to Middle East dissidents, but after September 11. cracked down on what many believed had become a dangerously radical militant scene.
The attack in Stockholm on Saturday by Taymour Abdulwahab, a Swede of Middle Eastern origin who had studied in Britain, has reheated accusations that the country is soft on militancy, particularly in its universities. Critics point to attacks dating back to the 1990s by radicals who had studied in Britain, including the failed bid by a London-educated Nigerian to bomb a plane over Detroit on December 25, 2009.
Speaking about the Swedish blast, Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament Britain had to do more to stop militants and ask why "so many young men" had become radicalised. "We have not done enough to deal with the promotion of extremist Islamism in our own country," he said.
"Whether it is making sure that imams coming over to this country can speak English properly, whether it is making sure we de-radicalise our universities, I think we do have to take a range of further steps," he told lawmakers. "But we've also got to ask why it is that so many young men in our own country get radicalised in this completely unacceptable way." Fellow worshippers at a mosque where Abdulwahab prayed in the English town of Luton have said they knew he had radical ideas, a fact apparently not known to police or local government.