There was something depressingly familiar about arriving at work at 1am last Sunday to confront the aftermath of yet another terrorist attack — this time one conducted by three barbaric Islamists who murdered eight people and injured 48 others at London Bridge.
Terrifyingly, it is the third Islamist-inspired incident in as many months.
As my colleagues and I worked on developing an action plan to mitigate further atrocities, it dawned on me that Britain’s Muslim communities — to which I belong — have failed in combating extremism.
Last week I retired at the age of 50 from a 31-year career in the police force. However, over the past few years I have increasingly seen how well-intentioned Muslim leaders have been reluctant to tackle properly the silent killer that is Islamist extremism — the ideology that underpins terrorism, as well as promoting misogyny, hatred for democracy and intolerance of other faiths.
Such leaders verbalised their contempt for this ideology, but their stance was predominantly reactive, their words stage-managed and hollow.
Islamist extremists may invoke the language of my religion and display the symbols of piety, but they are little more than narcissists, nihilists, murderers and child abusers. We have to take action against them to safeguard and develop a peaceful and progressive British Muslim identity.
Without targeting Islamism and naming and shaming Muslim organisations such as Cage and Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), we risk having our safety and security threatened for ever.
It was only last weekend that this newspaper published figures revealing the unprecedented 456% rise in Islamophobic incidents in the week following the Manchester terrorist attack.
Reclaiming the religion of Islam from extremists is no longer a choice — it is an obligation. We have to take proactive measures. It is time to give women a voice in the fight against extremism — particularly mothers, who play a key role in Islam.
While imams and scholars are important in shaping the religious views of Muslims of all ages, there are many celebrities in the community who are much better role models than many of the self-appointed Islamic leaders. Young Muslims should aspire to be like the Olympic gold medallist Sir Mo Farah, or the boxing champion Amir Khan, or the former Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, or the MasterChef champion Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed, who is also a doctor.
On a more practical level, a regulatory body should be set up by Muslim scholars, academics and other professionals to offer guidelines on regulating Friday sermons within mosques around Britain to ensure that freedom of religious expression is in line with our British values.
Islamic societies should also be regulated to prevent them from being used as vehicles for extremist ideas, as should madrasahs [Islamic religious schools].
I urge all Muslims with a social media account to express repeatedly their disdain for extremists — make them feel irrelevant, excluded, rejected.
Many young Muslim men and women have approached me to form a “one million march” opposing extremism. Now is the time to do it.