On June 11, the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) seized explosives and munitions after a raid on militant Irish nationalists a week before the G8 summit. There had also been a number of hoax bomb threats, including two near the site of the summit.
The brutal killing of the British soldier Lee Rigby by Muslim extremists in Woolwich, London has caused the right-wing, English nationalist English Defense League (EDL) to carry out disturbing attacks on Muslims and their religious sites. On June 5, an Islamic center was burned down by suspected members of the EDL. This incident will create instability within the Muslim community in London and elsewhere, which may result in retaliatory attacks on Christians and their places of worship. Although the savage murder of Lee Rigby was widely condemned by Muslim groups throughout the United Kingdom, there may be a small minority of British Muslims who take the law into their own hands and retaliate against the EDL. If this were to occur, there would be a strong possibility of "lone wolf" attacks against EDL members and off-duty British soldiers, or outright violence between the EDL and its allies and radical Muslims.
Paul Ashley is the Senior Counter-Terrorist Analyst