Says senior security expert

Comedians are doing more in the fight against terrorism than the Government, according to one senior defence analyst.

Professor Michael Clarke, a former advisor to the UN who now runs international security think-tank Royal United Services Institute, says that mocking extremists is the best solution to home-grown terrorism as it strips them of any supposed glamour.

‘Some of the most valuable counter terrorism experts are comedians,’ Prof Clarke – a director of the Royal United Services Institute – told the Daily Mirror.

‘They are doing more than anything the Government is doing in counter terrorism.

‘They make cruel wicked jokes and black humour which ridicules terrorists, we need more of that.

‘A lot of what these terrorists say and claim to believe is actually pathetic and juvenile, it has to be exposed and comedians are the best people at doing this.’

He cited the stand-ups who ridiculed the men who drove a burning jeep into Glasgow Airport in 2007 as a good example of this.

Here is Michael McIntrye doing just that:

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Published: 15 Sep 2009