We have previously warned against Jamaica perceiving itself as being removed from, and therefore become aloof to, the dangers and consequences for ourselves of international terrorism.

For, as much as it may seem so, and we may want to believe it to be, blowing up of buildings or aircraft and trains are not things that happen 'over there' and ends there. The truth is that the world has grown truly global, providing a new and different kind of space not only for those who execute acts of terrorism but also those who nurture and provide the ideological/theological frame for their behaviour.

It might have still been possible for Jamaicans to hang on to some shred of denial that these things have anything do with us when Jerome Lindsay, 19, who was born in Jamaica, was named as one of the bombers in the 2005 attack that killed 52 people in London. We might have argued that Lindsay was a product of Britain, shaped by that society; that shoe bomber Richard Reid's father was Jamaican, we could reasonably argue, provided merely a tenuous connection with this island.

The fact though is Jamaica recognises dual citizenship and affords foreign-born children of Jamaican citizens the same rights as their children who are born here, once such children are appropriately registered. In that regard, there is an obligation on the part of Jamaica to accommodate any Jamaican citizen, from any part of the world, who returns or is sent home.

We have had numerous examples, particularly over the past decade or so, of the United States and Britain, especially, deporting Jamaicans convicted of crimes in those countries. Indeed, there has been a significant debate here over the involvement of these deportees in gangs, drugs and crime here and the exacerbation of the country's security problems.

This matter is now even more stark with last weekend's deportation to Jamaica by Britain of Abdullah el-Faisal, formerly Trevor William Forrest, a Jamaican-born Muslim cleric who was convicted in 2003 for soliciting the murder of Americans, Jews and Hindus and spreading hate. El-Faisal had been out of Jamaica for 27 years since leaving as a teenager for Guyana on a youth development training programme.

Significantly, el-Faisal's teachings at his London mosque and his taped messages of hate are said to have influenced both Reid and Lindsay. The potential for problems affecting Jamaica's national and international security should el-Faisal return to old behaviour is obvious.

But this is not only a Jamaican concern. The British, as we expect that they will be aware, cannot just 'export' this problem to Kingston; not in the context of globalisation and the myriad British and U.S. interests in Jamaica. We, and they, remain vulnerable.

This issue, therefore, underlines the need for Jamaica, with the support of its friends to enhance its security arrangements. But this cannot be an excuse for diminishing individual freedoms and those rights which give force to true democracy.