HERE we go again.
Another legal ruling that takes account of the rights of a dangerous fanatic.
The Government’s bid to rid the country of Abu Qatada, the Muslim extremist, has once again been derailed.
The concern is that Qatada, who was once described as Osama Bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe, will be maltreated in Jordan, despite assurances to the contrary from that country.
One of the tragedies about Britain’s long history of liberty is that those who despise the country will never thank it, no matter how generously they are treated by the object of their hatred.
That in itself ought not to matter – nations cannot demand thanks from their inhabitants.
The problem comes when a fanatic is not merely ungrateful, but determined to inflict physical harm on the country that they so despise, and on its citizens.
Every responsible nation must therefore protect the rights of its population, and not just the rights of wicked people.
The Troubles here in Northern Ireland showed that you cannot reason with some extremists. Brutal terrorists who were freed again and again by British courts, or convicted and given slap-on-the-wrist sentences before being released and enabled to resume their murder campaigns, never stopped to think: “The UK can’t be half as repressive as we say, because it keeps freeing me.”
Many such well-treated terrorists continued to kill, serially.
Islamic fanatics hate Britain as much, if not more. Some of them are themselves British.
But when they are not, the very least we should do is send them home – and promptly.