'Muslims must shop their extremist kids'
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 
In today's Sun John Reid suggests that Muslims in Britain are not doing enough to combat terrorism. Following some initial conciliatory remarks, he writes that "the Muslim community must choose between accepting the propaganda of the terrorists and taking on would-be terrorists at every opportunity".
It boils down to a lecture to parents on controlling their children, though it is clear that the families of the 7/7 bombers didn't have the slightest idea what they were up to. However, Reid offers some handy hints on how to spot the danger signs: "look for changes in your teenage sons – odd hours, dropping out of school or college, strange new friends." By those criteria, there must be an awful lot of terrorist suspects out there.
And I thought this bit was priceless: "Some may think it is better to accommodate extremists in the hopes of influencing them for the better, but as I know from the bitter experience of dealing with militants in the Labour Party, you cannot compromise with fanatical beliefs." The Militant Tendency as al-Qaida, Ted Grant as Osama bin Laden! And a lecture on the impossibility of influencing extremists to take a more moderate course sounds all the more bizarre coming from Labour right-winger who is a former member of the Communist Party.