LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain had to combat its home-grown extremism in 2011, in his New Year message released Friday. He said 2011 would likewise be a “crucial year” in Afghanistan, where British troops are fighting Taliban, as the country deals with fighting terror on two fronts. Cameron also asserted that while 2010 was the year when Britain stopped the rot by facing up to its debts, 2011 would be tough but could be the year that the kingdom “gets back on her feet”. “For many years now we have been aware of the threat we face from international terrorism,” he said. “That threat is still very much with us. And it is as serious today as it ever has been.” He said that going into 2011 the authorities were working “round-the-clock to foil plots that would do terrible harm to our people and our economy. “We will defend our values and way of life and defeat those who threaten them. But we must ask ourselves as a country how we are allowing the radicalization and poisoning of the minds of some young British Muslims who then contemplate and sometimes carry out acts of sickening barbarity. And the overwhelming majority of British Muslims who detest this extremism must help us to find the answers together.” The Dec. 11 Stockholm suicide bombing was perpetrated by a man thought to have been radicalized in England and Monday nine men from across Britain were charged with plotting a terror attack. Following the July 2005 London bombings, inflicted by four home-grown militants, the incidents renewed concerns about extremism within Britain. The kingdom's terror threat level is set at “severe”, meaning an attack is considered highly likely. Cameron, who became prime minister as head of a coalition government following the May general election, said the fight against terror could not be confined to Britain. – Agence France
