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His was a subtle type of terrorism
Rizwan Mahmood Ditta today begins a four-year jail sentence for offences under the Terrorism Act.
Brought to book by counter-terror officers for his radical religious views and a collection of material that was deemed as crossing the line of acceptability.
Some may feel the sentence is lenient for a person described as supporting the Taliban and the London bombings on 7/7.
He had taken no part in any kind of direct action. But who knows where his beliefs would have taken him had they been allowed to flourish unchecked?
In the same direction as those who perpetrated the bombings he is said to have supported? Who knows?
His threat to society, however, has been a far more subtle sort of terrorism. The type that festers and poisons and destroys. For with his arrest came, for a time at least, a breakdown in trust between societies in Halifax, which has taken time to repair.
Thankfully that breakdown did not manifest itself in violence. But as leading Muslims admit, they could feel that distrust when they were out in town.
Calderdale is a tolerant society. The Pakistani community is now some 12,000 strong. It is 50 years since the first immigrants settled here.
There have been sporadic incidents of racial tension. But nothing too serious or lasting.
Ditta, through his extreme Islamic beliefs, has done his best to upset that racial harmony. He will now have time to reflect on his beliefs and their effects from the safe confines of a prison cell. Where he belongs.
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy snow
Temperature: -3 C to -0 C
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Sunny spells
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