Rooting out the apostles of hate

Last updated at 13:14 06 August 2005

This is a hugely significant moment in the campaign against terror.

The penny finally appears to have dropped. The scales have fallen from this Government's eyes and - at last - it has woken up to the dangers posed by the apostles of hate in our midst.

Now the drive is on to deport those who abuse our tolerance and hospitality for their own perverted ends.

In these days of unprecedented threat, even the sacred cow of the Human Rights Act - once billed as Tony Blair's proudest achievement - may be amended to enforce this new realism. As he so grimly remarked yesterday:

"The rules of the game are changing." And not before time.

For it has to be said that he is closing the stable door long after the horse has bolted. For years, his Government turned a blind eye while Britain became a haven for suspects wanted in their own countries for murder and terrorism.

Rachid Ramda, for example, is accused of inspiring bombings in France in 1995, which claimed ten fatalities. Yet every attempt to send him back to face trial has so far failed, because of our grotesquely labyrinthine extradition procedures.

More than half a dozen foreign governments have filed formal diplomatic protests over our indulgence towards suspects wanted overseas. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has even denounced Britain for 'protecting killers'. No wonder our capital is dubbed 'Londonistan'.

Meanwhile, our home-grown rabblerousers have flourished, despite repeated Ministerial promises to get tough.

The tragedy is that it has taken the London bombings to bring about a real change of policy. Even now, it will take an enormous act of will by Mr Blair to enforce it, when prospective deportees will exploit every wrinkle in the law, when proscribed organisations will try to continue under changed names and when a politically correct judiciary is all too likely to resist his efforts in the name of human rights.

Yet while the civil liberties aspects of all this must be carefully scrutinised, the Prime Minister is emphatically right to act, however belatedly.

These measures are not only a vital defence against the hatred that encourages terrorism, but are essential to preserve the live-and-let-live tolerance underpinning community harmony.

Take the deeply depressing news that religious hate crimes have soared by 600 per cent since the London bombings. Don't the bigots responsible for abusing or assaulting perfectly innocent Muslims find their excuse in the poison preached by a minority of Islamist extremists?

And this week we have seen two ghastly examples of what mindless hate can do.

In London, bus passenger Richard Whelan was stabbed to death by a black attacker. In Liverpool, black teenager Anthony Walker was killed by an axe in an equally unprovoked assault described by police as racially motivated.

Yet vile though these crimes are, they don't represent the real face of our society. The true picture is seen in the outpouring of support and sympathy for the Whelan and Walker families. And in the strength and decency shown by the public despite the worst the terrorists can do.

Yes, hate crimes are up, but only to 269 offences (which of course is 269 too many). But the real Britain is represented by Garri Holness, a bomb victim of Jamaican origin who so movingly wrote in yesterday's Mail of his refusal to succumb to fear or hatred, despite losing a leg.

When he appeals to the nation not to give in to the politics of evil, he speaks for countless others in a Britain built on law, tolerance, moderation and mutual respect.

Such values are at the very heart of our society. There should be no room here for the murder-promoting fanatics who despise them all.