‘Revoke passports of British jihadists’

BRITONS WHO join extremist Islamic groups in the Middle East should have their passports revoked, a former Archbishop of Canterbury suggested this week, while the current Archbishop of York condemned the Government’s response to those fleeing persecution in Iraq.

In a sharply worded piece for The Mail on Sunday, written in the wake of the murder of the American journalist James Foley by a suspected British jihadist, Lord Carey also called on British Muslim communities to do more to control their young men and blamed multiculturalism for the exodus of Britons to fight in Syria and Iraq.

“Young people who travel abroad to commit violent jihad should know before they go that there is no way back to civilised society,” wrote Lord Carey, who also suggested Britons must “recover a confidence in our nation’s values”, adding: “For too long we have been self-conscious and even ashamed about British identity. By embracing multi­culturalism and the idea that every culture and belief is of equal value we have betrayed our own trad­itions of welcoming strangers to our shore.”

Islamic radicals should face a greater challenge from their own communities, which need to state “more clearly than they have done so far, their denunciation of these fanatical forms of Islam”, he said.

Meanwhile Archbishop John Sentamu, who this week has led a vigil and fast for peace at York Minster, called on the Government to take a leading role in helping those fleeing “the daily unfolding horrors in Iraq”.

Writing on his website, Dr Sentamu said the Government should use its influence to push for the creation of a United Nations-enforced safe zone in Iraq.

Citing the examples of France, Australia and Germany, he urged the Government to offer asylum to refugees and to “demonstrate that right policies triumph over political calculations”.