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Tahir Abbas in The Economist on Britain extremists of Bangladeshi origin

The article of The Economist discusses the problems of Great Britain “exporting” extremists to foreign countries and the serious worries about British extremist who hold a foreign origin. In particularly, citizens whose roots lie in Bangladesh. Last February, Shamima Begum was stripped of her Britain citizenship after wanting to join the Islamic State (IS).

Islamic radicals

Britain has a history of exporting Islamic radicals. There was Syed Golam, who is the founder of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamist movement that is banned in Bangladesh, British citizen Touhidur Rahman with Bangladeshi origin was accused of planning two murders on two bloggers in Bangladesh and earlier this year, Rizwan Haroon was arrested by Bangladeshi police because of suspicion of him, using a school to recruit youngster to IS. Tahir Abbas, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs of Leiden University says Islamic State has a big influence on Bangladeshi’s taking on extremist ideas. ‘British Bangladeshis weren’t so much on the map in terms of these issues—until Islamic State. Perhaps 100 of the 800 or so Britons who have joined IS are of Bangladeshi origin.

Read the full article on the website of The Economist

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