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To anyone with a gram-and-a-half of common sense and an equal dose of respect for innocent human life, the recent mass murder in London's subway system should have come as no surprise. The United Kingdom has for far too long been a hotbed of Islamist terror cells, with too many Brits believing their tolerance would save them from this kind of evil destruction. History teaches another lesson.

The stark contrast of Great Britain's pre-World War II prime minister, the cowardly Neville Chamberlain, with his successor, the courageous Winston Churchill, has inspired analysis for the past seven decades. Chamberlain's name has almost become synonymous with capitulation, in much the same way the name Benedict Arnold has become tantamount to betrayal.

Chamberlain thought he could negotiate with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, just as liberals in the U.S. and Britain believe they can make nice today with Islamic extremists bent on destroying Western Civilization. The headline and opening paragraph of a recent New York Times article about the London bombings tell a different story:

"In Tolerant London, Militants Hit Home -- Fiery anti-west clerics based there have long felt free to stoke the rage of budding terrorists... Long before explosives ripped through London on Thursday, Britain had become a breeding ground for hate, fed by a militant version of Islam."

It seems that for the last several years, despite an official tightening of the anti-terrorism laws, extremists like Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed have drawn ever-larger crowds of admirers by calling for "holy war" against Britain and exhorting young Muslim men to fight the duly elected government in Iraq by becoming terrorists there.

Delivering a message in a London meeting hall last December, the Syrian-born Bakri vowed that if U.S. and British officials didn't change their policies, Muslims would give them "a 9/11 day after day after day." In April, Bakri predicted that "a very well-organized" London-based terror cell known as "al-Qaida Europe" was "on the verge of launching a big operation."

Four percent of the United Kingdom's overall population is Muslim. British counter-terrorism officials estimate that 10,000 to 15,000 of the two million Muslims now living in the U.K. are hardcore supporters of al-Qaida, and that as many as 600 of these people have gone through al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and elsewhere. They are ready to wage war.

Zacarias Moussaoui, known as 9/11's "20th hijacker," and Richard Reid, the convicted "shoe bomber," both attended religious services at the notorious Finsbury Park Mosque in London. The leader at the mosque at the time was Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Muslim cleric who openly preached hatred and violence for years.

London has become a crossroads for terrorists, and there are lessons in the English experience with Islam. While many of its adherents are peaceful, there is a resistance to cultural assimilation that speaks volumes about their true intentions, and the militant, violent minority has become a real threat to civilization, as we know it.

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