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My conversations with my eldest son who now lives and works in London all end with please stay safe. And as I say these words I’m always imagining the worst even if momentarily – a random bomb on the underground or a car being rammed into pedestrians going about their day. However these things are plotted and realised, they’ve become the modern day images of terror on our streets. And terror today is almost exclusively linked to Islamism and more specifically to Isis. So the question of what you do with those British citizens who are currently fighting with ISIS in Syria or those who’ve returned or wish to return home to the UK presents a really difficult legal and moral challenge. They may be two different issues but they are linked. In recent days there has been some discussion as to whether the best solution to minimise the potential threat is to kill all British citizens fighting in Syria alongside IS. Others have argued that aside from all the logistical issues of identifying who is an IS fighter, of trying to ensure that civilians are not killed as part of collateral damage, this policy could have the reverse effect of playing into hands of all kinds of jihadist groups. Even if the preferred resolution is that they don’t return to the UK or to Europe, it’s unrealistic to think that they can all be killed off. We have seen that brute force cannot destroy the various ideologies which exist at the core of modern day jihadism. And so we risk the hydra like effect - you destroy one group and two others emerge. The language of eradication might seem to treat the symptom but the disease will remain because the jihadist rhetoric thrives on their sense of injustice and injustice makes for a compelling narrative. Both justice and injustice are complex and elusive terms and while the Qur’an has several verses on the importance of justice, it likens injustice to physical darkness, as if when we act unjustly we are reduced as human beings. This is because our ultimate struggle in life can often be the struggle for justice. When our own citizens become tragic victims of IS killing, it’s very human to want to see justice in acts of revenge but revenge is not the same as justice. It seems to me that we need to trust our legal systems, to put our faith in due process, hope in our security services because what do have if we don’t have the rule of law? Jihadist ideologies of destruction may be around for a long time but even as we confront them, our own challenge is to hold onto all the virtues and values which make us different.