The arrest of eight British Muslim terror suspects, and the discovery of half a ton of fertilizer in London yesterday, should be sending shockwaves through the UK's intelligence and security organizations such as MI5.

Even if found guilty, these eight British passport—holders of Pakistani descent, aged between 17 and 32 years old, will probably not be proven to be directly linked with Al—Qaeda.

Instead, and just as frightening —— or perhaps even worse —— is that they may represent a new class of radical Islamic terrorists: British born and bred.

Radical Islamic groups operating in the UK such as Al Muhajiroun, are the likely nursery, indoctrination, and training grounds for young British Muslims, who want to join the anti—Western Jihad. It's unlikely that these eight terror suspects ever trained or even traveled to the Al—Qaeda terror training camps in Afghanistan. They are simply too young to have been graduates from the early Al—Qaeda camps managed by Bin Laden.

This disturbing evidence, so far only circumstantial, suggests that at least in the UK, we are witnessing the birth of a new strain of homegrown Islamic terrorists whose numbers cannot be accounted for amongst the twenty thousand odd Al—Qaeda operatives, known to have trained in Afghanistan.

And if what is happening in Britain is only a microcosm of what is occurring all over the world, then the intelligence agencies tasked with defeating Islamic terrorism have an even larger problem on their hands than previously conceived.

Al Muhajiroun are but one of these radical Islamic groups that openly cater to bored young Muslims brought up in the West. They offer moral support for Al—Qaeda's acts of terror, and can often be seen throwing public rallies in London's Trafalgar square. They even have a website which explicitly supports terrorism and violent jihad against the infidels.

Britain has enacted strong legislation concerning incitement of violence, but for some reason the statements on the Al Muhajiroun are not seen by authorities to constitute an offense, because they've been publishing the same hatred for a long time, without hindrance.

However, if these eight terror suspects are found to have been developed by the Al Muhajiroun movement in Britain, political heads should roll. We've all seen too many news documentaries and investigative reports cataloguing their agenda of hatred and violence.

Why should groups such as Al Muhajiroun be treated with kid's gloves?

Just because they are made up of homegrown Islamic radicals, should be no reason to afford ourselves a benign tolerance, or them any immunity from prosecution for their dangerous activities.

Although Britain does not have the same history of mass immigration as her former colonies America, Canada, and Australia, Britain has historically been on the receiving end of immigration from first Europe, and later her colonies and former colonies. Until the rise of multiculturalism, immigrants to the UK, many of them highly—motivated political and religious refugees, had an admirable record of assimilation and achievement.

The rise of an explicitly hostile ideology of Islamicism, aimed at destroying the legacy of personal liberty, which is the fruit of British Civilization, cannot be tolerated any longer. Those who would defend the most glorious political tradition in the history of the world must be conscious of the danger from within.

Citizenship is a concept which encompasses both the mere formalities of passport—holding and voting rights, on the one hand, and also the responsibilities of membership in a political community, on the other. People who incite violence against that very political community are not full citizens in the latter sense of the concept, despite having access to the rights inherent in the former sense of the term.

Given the dangers Western democracies now face, perhaps it is time to begin balancing and reconciling the two senses to citizenship. Democracy, as a wise man once said, is not a suicide pact.

Michael Morris is London correspondent of The American Thinker. Thomas Lifson is the editor.