View from London | The National

Hello from The National and welcome to the View from London – your weekly guide to the big stories from our London bureau Banned in most of Europe, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) has infiltrated Kurdish community centres to spread the views of its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan to the diaspora. Pressure from Turkey to chase down its operatives in Nato countries such as Sweden and Finland has been relentless but largely fruitless. Now matters could be coming to a head. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned in an Eid Al Fitr message that his country's "time and patience are not limitless" with the PKK. Could the lucrative trade in Europe be acting as an impediment to peace? Ocalan's recent call from prison for the PKK to lay down arms has not yet translated into serious talks. Meanwhile, PKK supporters are pushing to end its pariah status in Europe, arguing in an EU court that their armed guerrilla campaign against Turkey is a legitimate struggle for independence. Turkish authorities are likely to remain in a "locked and loaded" stance towards the armed conflict and its spillover into fundraising and racketeering. Doubts remain as to whether or not the PKK "has the discipline to actually implement" Ocalan's instructions, said Richard Outzen, a retired US Army colonel and former defence attache who advised the State Department on Turkey and Syria. No formal links exist between the PKK and the people smuggling trade that allows so many Kurds to travel to a new life in Europe. But our cameras caught PKK graffiti in a migrants' camp in northern France. To tackle the crime underlying the trade, ministers, officials and law enforcement agencies from more than 40 countries gathered in London this week. Along with the logistics of the trade – attracting the migrants, and sourcing the boats, engines and equipment used – a key item for discussion was finance networks. The hawala underground banking system featured prominently. To chase the gangs and the money transfer methods is, at its heart, about hawala. We produced compelling and frightening analysis highlighting the sophisticated, clandestine international people-smuggling network reliant on funds transferred with an agreed codeword. An innocuous token – half a matchstick or a torn piece of playing card – is often the gateway to Europe. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has vowed to tackle the scourge of Islamist extremism and its spreading influence in state institutions by declassifying a report into the capture of official bodies. Speaking on the fringe of a two-day conference of Interior Ministry officials in London, Mr Retailleau said he was determined to take on the "words of hatred" promoted by Muslim Brotherhood leaders such as the former Qatar-based leader, Yousef Al Qaradawi. "I will never, ever confuse Islamic faith with this Islamist hatred that disfigures it," he told an audience at the Policy Exchange think tank. "We stand by this distinction." Warning of the dangers posed by "separatism" within communities, the rightist member of French President Emmanuel Macron's minority government said infiltration in places as everyday as schools and sports centres posed a challenge to French unity. "I believe that the Muslim Brotherhood makes use of entryism, which unlike separatism wants to make all of society move towards a caliphate," Mr Retailleau said. "It’s hard to fight because its speech is very smooth. It infiltrates our associations, sports, studies, municipal elections’ lists." He said the widespread promotion of protection against Islamophobia was in fact promoting a powerful form of victimhood. "It speaks the language of freedom against freedom," he said. "The language of tolerance against tolerance." Mr Retailleau, 64, said an internal report on the Muslim Brotherhood had raised some questions for the ministry on how it would shape the legal framework to intervene and deal with the challenge posed to "national cohesion". "It’s today classified and I’ll declassify it soon. This is part of the first actions we must do, is inform the public as well as the administration and politicians. We have to have this debate because the Muslim Brotherhood progresses under cover." If it ain't broke, don't fix it, is by and large good advice. Inside the top tier of the English Premier League there are fears that new legislation could tragically spurn that honest advice. The Football Governance Bill, which last week passed through the House of Lords, is to establish a new Independent Football Regulator for English men’s professional football, protecting finances, governance and what's called heritage. What is at stake is a global phenomenon, the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories with a potential audience of 4.7 billion people. It also attracts a lot of money: £4 billion a year in television rights alone. The league's wealth is such that it contributes more than £8 billion a year to the UK economy. The elite do not want that situation to change.