Britain: Muslim MP Says 2,000 British Muslims Fighting for ISIS

If you're an American who thinks that what happens thousands of miles away in the Middle East does not affect you, think again.

Not only do U.S. officials believe that some 150 Americans have traveled to Syria to join the jihad--some 3,000 European Muslims have left the comforts of the West to travel to the genocidal Islamic State as well.

The common estimate for the number of British Muslims fighting for ISIS has been around 500. But now a British MP--who is Muslim--says that number is closer to a whopping 2,000.

Here's more, from The Telegraph:

As many as 2,000 Britons are fighting alongside Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq, a senior Muslim MP has claimed.

Officials had suggested that the number of British jihadists within the ranks of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and other terrorist groups was about 500.

However, Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, a constituency with a significant number of Muslims, has suggested this was a fourfold underestimate of the number of British jihadists fighting in the region.

“The authorities say there are 500 British jihadists but the likely figure is at least three to four times that,” he said. “I think 2,000 is a better estimate. My experience in Birmingham is it is a huge, huge problem.”

There are growing fears that the authorities remain unable to detect extremists leaving UK ports on their way to terrorist training camps.

Evidence from one posting on a social networking site last week suggested that as many as 20 British jihadists have been joining Isil forces every day.

Why should you care? For starters, travelers from Britain and other Western European countries are able to enter the United States without a visa thanks to a Visa Waiver program.

So perhaps a jolly old jihadist--male or female--from East London or Birmingham will bypass their hometowns and make a pit stop in New York City instead on their way back from the Islamic State.