The beheading of journalist James Foley by an IS militant with a British accent as renewed calls for greater anti-terror powers, but these laws are yet another affront on basic human rights in the UK.
There are believed to be around 500 British jihadi fighters in Syria and Iraq – what makes some British Muslims turn to jihad?
Today’s extreme violence is not practised in secret, instead its authors seek maximum visibility. But there is more at stake here than propaganda. There is a new grammar of violence emerging, one closely associated with social media, in particular the way we all post photos and videos.
Western support for the opposition in Syria’s bloody civil war raises fears of a blowback from the European extremists who have flocked to the new land of jihad.