It was reported by The Guardian that the mother of Thomas Evans, a 25-year-old British extremist who converted to Islam a few years ago, asked British MPs how her son could be allowed to fly to Egypt just a few months after he had been stopped by the police from flying to Kenya in 2011.
Evans, who changed his name to Abdul Hakim on becoming a Muslim, is reported to have been killed in Kenya as he fought for the terrorist group al-Shabab, an offshoot of Islamic State (IS).
Evans is no ordinary Arab terrorist. He is white and comes from a middle-class family in the Buckinghamshire village of Wooburn Green.
How he managed to fly to Egypt a few months after being stopped from flying to Kenya by counter-terrorism police at Heathrow is a mystery.
His death comes after the reported suicide of Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, who joined an IS group in Iraq where he is reported to have detonated a vehicle fitted with explosives. His devastated family in Britain described him as “a loving, kind, caring and affable teenager”.
Strange, but true, these are the type of raw recruits that IS seems to target so easily in Western countries. It is winning the war of minds among the young after managing to effectively overshadow al-Qaeda. It is a confirmed fact that al-Qaeda is dying out but the bad news is that it is being replaced by something much worse.
The beginning of the IS success knows its origin to the decision by the US government to pull its troops out of Iraq in 2011. IS’s rallying call for a pan-Islamic State was what was needed to fill the ensuing vacuum.
IS, as a result, grew by leaps and bounds. It has committed and determined soldiers who surprised even seasoned troops in Syria and Iraq.
The political leaders in the West were caught unprepared for this new development.
So many terrorist groups were being born and dissolving at the same time that it was impossible for them to comprehend, and much less understand, what was really happening as the shifting sands constantly changed the political and war scenario in the turbulent regions where IS was actively involving itself.
Quickly, IS followers cropped up in other regions, including in North and Central Africa, thus turning the group into an international phenomenon of unprecedented magnitude as a terrorist organisation.
We need to be extra vigilant and keep constant track of the developing and changing situation
Why is IS proving more succesful than al-Qaeda is a question that needs to answered.
IS has, for all its cruelty and twisted doctrine, a much more compelling message than al-Qaeda. Add to that religious fervour and the sense that IS is winning wherever it is active (whereas al-Qaeda is losing) and one can understand why young men and women are so enthusiastically rallying to its shrilling call.
Much nearer to our shores, the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and Libya’s slide into disorder have seen the Islamist extreme groups taking advantage of the instability to take over political and military organisation in the vast country.
This February, IS assumed responsibility for several attacks in Libya, including the deadly assault on the Corinthia Hotel, in Tripoli.
Previous to that, in October 2014, a group of gunmen in the eastern city of Derna defected to the IS, pledging allegiance with a filmed military parade and a gathering in the town centre.
The American authorities are reported to be in possession of evidence that IS has set up military training camps in the east of the country.
The BBC says that many in the West, especially the USA, are confused why IS has turned its sights on Libya.
The country has a largely homogenous population of Sunni Muslims while IS has been strongest in societies of mixed religious adherence such as in Syria and Iraq by taking advantage of the deep divisions prevalent there.
It might be that the nearness of Libya to southern Europe is its main attraction. IS has more than once declared its intention to penetrate Europe and by exploiting the Libyan situation it might be preparing the ground for that eventuality.
As Times Tallk of June 9 amply showed, the chaos in Libya has created a fertile situation for increased terrorist attacks and mass irregular immigration from the shores of Libya.
There is some suspicion that part of this is organised by IS with the intention of ultimately implanting its own recruiting agents and foot soldiers in strategic capitals in Europe, with its eye especially on Rome, which for many in the Muslim world is the centre of Christianity.
At this stage, all this is mere speculation but it does explain the inconsistency noted by the Western leaders for the presence of IS in Libya.
One sure lesson to learn from all this is that we, and most of all our political leaders, need to be extra vigilant and keep constant track of the developing and changing situation.