DOUGLAS MURRAY: Britain imported a problem it refuses to name.

Starmer described the attempted beheading as “sickening,” while the Chief Constable of the PSNI warned about the challenge of toxic online commentary. “All of our communities in Northern Ireland contribute positively to this place,” Jon Boutcher said, warning people not to be “fooled or duped into a trap by people online.”

In the Commons the government had a swift response to a question from the Northern Ireland Unionist MP Jim Allister, who asked what might be done “to stop the importation of an alien culture that thinks it’s appropriate to try and behead someone.” The responding minister – Hilary Benn – spied his opening. “I’m sorry the honourable gentleman used the term ‘alien culture,’” he said. “What exactly is he referring to?” It shouldn’t be that hard to understand.

Historically speaking, Northern Ireland is not a place filled with pacifists. Indeed, it was almost touching that the First Minister Michelle O’Neill responded to the attack by saying that its citizens should not let “other people, who don’t care about here, incite hatred or fear.” She went on to say the public should not allow “people who are faceless to orchestrate campaigns on the street.” Because in the normal order of things it has been the job of Sinn Fein/the IRA to do just those things.

Still, the appallingness of the crime should not baffle the political class. Why not – finally – use it as a learning moment?

For years there has been a stock response whenever anybody raised the issue of the mainly Pakistani rape gangs. “So you’re saying that everybody from that background is a rapist?” was deflection question no. 1. To which the answer was: “Obviously no.” But then there was a clever little question no. 2: “So you think white British men don’t abuse children?” To which the answer was obviously once again “no.” The questions were insincere because the real answer – as with the Belfast attack – is so obvious. We have our own rapists, but why exactly do we need to import more? It is a version of the question Germany might have done well to address in the past couple of decades: “Given our historical problem with anti-Semitism, ought we to import a large and fresh batch of anti-Semites?”

Evergreen:

UPDATE: Belfast suspect is former policeman. “A Sudanese man charged with attempted murder after the Belfast knife attack served as a policeman in Khartoum, friends told The Telegraph. Hadi Alodid is from a prominent north Sudan family and after arriving in the UK was followed by two other brothers who also live in Britain…He was born and partly raised in Saudi Arabia, but returned to Sudan for his education. Azheri Omer said he had been friends with Alodid since 2022 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. He joined the police in Khartoum, but Mr Omer said he only stayed a few months.”