MI5: Number of Far Right Terror Cases ‘Absolutely Dwarfed by the Number of Islamist Cases’

MI5 specialises in counter-espionage and domestic security, in contrast to the foreign intelligence-oriented Secret Intelligence Service – better known as SIS or MI6, made famous by Ian Flemming’s James Bond books. The assessment of the relative seriousness of the Islamist terror threat and the far-right terror threat was disclosed halfway through a Guardian report focusing heavily on the latter, later republished by other media outlets including CNN and Microsoft-owned MSN.

The left-liberal newspaper led on claims by the far-left HOPE Not Hate organisation, which describes itself as “anti-fascist” and has previously received funding from billionaire open borders campaigner George Soros, that “huge numbers of Britons are among the global audience for far-right forums” online.

The Guardian also quoted Britain’s anti-extremism “tsar”, Sara Khan, regarding the “frightening amount of legal extremist content online” which the left claim is fuelling far-right extremism. The comments suggest a clampdown on online anonymity and uncensored discussion groups may be on the cards.

Halfway through the article, however, the Guardian concedes that, while the security services “have not revealed how many of the 700 or so live terror plots and 20,000 individuals classified as ‘closed subjects’ … are related to right-wing extremism”, MI5 did disclose that such cases are, quote, “absolutely dwarfed by the number of Islamist cases” being dealt with.