Britain is experiencing an Age of Extremism - our democracy is in peril, says Andrew Percy MP

Those celebrations and the biggest daily totals of recorded antisemitism in the UK ever, did not occur after Israel responded to these attacks, they came within the first few hours and days after Palestinian terrorists and the thousands of Palestinian civilians who followed them, had raped, tortured and murdered their way across civilian communities in Israel.

There is no other way of describing this period than to say that the UK is experiencing an ‘Age of Extremism’. Nobody in this country should be in any doubt about the threat this poses to our nation and to our democratic institutions. It is no hyperbole to say that our democracy is in real peril by what we have seen in recent months.

This extremism is infiltrating many of our historic and noble institutions, emboldened and inflamed by the Iran-backed terror network that is waging open warfare against our society and our democratic values. Rather than push back against this, too many of our citizens seem only too willing to support this assault on our democracy, whilst others act as its useful idiots so possessed are they of a self-hating anti-western uber-progressive warped ideology.

Antisemitism in this country has spiked to unprecedented levels, Hamas slogans are projected onto Parliament and our streets ring out with near-weekly cries for intifada (Arabic for violent uprisings – the last of which saw innocent children and civilians blown up on buses and in public spaces), Jihad and death to Israel. Hamas leaders have openly boasted that its genocidal war cries are popular across the West.

Our universities are a place of open hate against Jewish students, secondary school students have been subjected to anti-Israel hate parading as education and, as I raised at PMQs recently, in some schools students have produced work not only sympathetic to Hamas but openly rejecting their designation as terrorists. All under the noses of their teachers and with little to no push back from the authorities!

Instead of discharging their prerogative to charge those preaching antisemitism and hate as required by law, the Met have instead decided to forcefully pin down and arrest dissenting voices who call Hamas for what they are – a terrorist organisation, force the removal of billboards promoting awareness of child hostages, and use their patrols to shamefully rip down posters of Israeli victims of Hamas terrorism.

What faith can we have in the Met when their own advisers have themselves seemingly endorsed members of proscribed terror groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir – the very group that called for Jihad on the streets of London. These are the people “advising” our forces.

In the courts too, district judge Tan Ikram, who liked a LinkedIn post condemning “Israeli terrorists both in the United Kingdom and United States”, gave a 12-month conditional discharge to the three women who taped sick images of Hamas paragliders onto their bodies during a London protest – a celebration of the terrorists who slaughtered hundreds of young people at the Nova Music Festival. Need I remind readers that these women were endorsing a banned terror group – and were effectively let off.

According to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, calling for Hammersmith to be “Jew free” is not even racist, with the NHS doctor who made the remarks receiving a mere suspension.

These are but a few examples of the now deeply entrenched extremism that has taken root across many of our institutions and I am afraid to say in our national broadcaster the BBC too. Far more examples can be evidenced across the nation’s health, education and media sectors.

Many politicians are either too scared to stand up as their mailboxes fill with threats which include threats to kill them or their families whilst others, sickeningly, see a cynical opportunity to exploit sectarian politics. I will not name the countless examples of MPs who would normally be the first out to, rightly, condemn gender-based violence, but who have been strangely silent on the rape of Jewish women by Hamas.

It is for these reasons that Communities Secretary Michael Gove was absolutely right to introduce a revised, more precise definition of extremism. He was correct to identify that these radical groups cloak themselves in the language of human rights, while seeking to undermine the very principles we hold dear.

We would be deluding ourselves though if we thought this was enough. The Prime Minister has used very tough language to call out this extremism which I entirely endorse. The challenge now is ensuring that politicians actually have the backbone and the guts to do something about it.

As I come to the end of my time in Parliament, I sadly fear that too few in our politics have the strength to withstand the howls, accusations and threats that will be thrown at those who genuinely attempt to fight this ‘Age of Extremism’ and defend Britain’s historic democratic principles and values.