BRITAIN is coming under fresh international pressure to put its “own house in order” by tackling the radical clerics and dissident Islamic groups of “Londonistan”.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to London, said that it was a “true criticism” of Britain that it was too easy for Islamist extremists to stay and preach messages of hate without fear of arrest or deportation. He added: “Allowing them to go on using the hospitality and the generosity of the British people to emanate from here such calls for killing and such, I think is wrong.”

His remarks echoed those of President Musharraf of Pakistan, who vented his exasperation this week over claims that London bombings had been inspired by terror groups in his country. Although he conceded that two of the July 7 bombers had recently visited Pakistan, General Musharraf stressed that they had all grown up in Britain. He pointed out that two organisations — Hizb’ut Tahrir and Al-Muhajiroun — had threatened his own life “and yet operate with impunity ” in Britain.

He said: “Please set your own house in order. I would like to say there is a lot to be done by Pakistan and, may I suggest, that there is a lot to be done in England also.” According to a report by the Royal Institute of International Affairs on Monday, intelligence services have long since known that, “London was increasingly being used as a base by individuals involved in promoting, funding and planning terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere”.

The report also said that the Government did not perceive any threat to national security and left people to “continue their activities with relative impunity — a policy that caused much anger among the foreign governments concerned”. It was these governments who started referring to Britain’s capital in the 1990s as Londonistan because of Britain’s liberal asylum policies.

The organisations arriving included worthy Middle Eastern research institutes, political foundations and a host of news organisations. Some refugees were democracy and human rights campaigners fleeing violence and oppression in countries such as Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. But the Government now acknowledges that there were also terrorists among them.

Although legislation against conspiring with terrorists abroad was passed as early as 2000, the September 11 attacks the following year made it impossible to tolerate Londonistan as it once was.

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person in the US charged in connection with the attacks, had attended mosques in London. So did Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber” who tried to blow up an aircraft in December 2001. Ahmed Omar Sheikh, sentenced to death for the murder of the journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, was a British-born Pakistani.

Ministers claim there has been a decisive change in attitude. The Government this week took its first step toward deporting radicals, striking a preliminary agreement with Jordan. One man who may be affected by the new policy is Jordanian-born Abu Qatada, who has been described in court documents as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe. Others include the Syrian-born Omar Bakri Mohammed, the founder of al-Muhajiroun.

Last month, Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, authorised the extradition of Rashid Ramda, an Algerian suspected terrorist who has been held in custody for ten years since being accused of financing the 1995 Paris underground bombings. Previously, Britain had resisted France’s request for extradition. But some analysts believe that removing extremists, or keeping them out, may be too late.

The bombers behind the July 7 attacks were British-born, as were two men who made a suicide attack on a Tel Aviv bar in 2003. One French study has suggested, the new generation of young radicals may even be reacting to the secularism of Western society rather than being inspired by the culture their parents left behind.

These are “born again Muslims” whose adolescent search for an identity and desire to rebel is comparable to ultra-Left movements such as the Red Brigades or Action Directe in the 1960s and 1970s.

Leaked government documents suggest a network of recruiters often focusing on educated, if troubled, young men.

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