You'll never guess who's to blame for 7/7
Energumen
Dean Godson
The latest attempt to erode extremism is doomed to fail. A parallel Islamic
society, not assimilation, will result
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1922518,00.html
I DON'T KNOW what effect some of the Muslim "moderates" have on the Islamist
"radicals" - but, as the Duke of Wellington might have said, by G-d they
frighten me. The unerring instinct of the Government in picking many of the
wrong partners within the Muslim community finds its apotheosis in the
recent report of the Home Office task force, Preventing Extremism Together,
which was assembled after the July bombings in London.
As might have been expected from a panel on which the most reactionary
strains of Islam, such as Wahhabism and Salafism, were highly
over-represented - as well as one member who believes that there is a plot
between Freemasons and Jews to run the world - the bulk of the panel came up
with, well, some pretty reactionary conclusions. Meanwhile, the concerns of
the majority of British Muslims, including theological moderates such as the
main Sufi orders, were underplayed.
So what, then, does the Home Office mean by the much hallowed-word
"moderate"? It is now apparent that "moderate" does not necessarily mean
liberal or progressive. In this context, a moderate is opposed to the use of
violence in the United Kingdom - although there was no unanimity on the
panel about its employment abroad where Muslims are "oppressed". In other
words, such "moderation" is often methodological, rather than ideological.
The tone of the report has much in common with that of dark "Green"
constitutional Irish nationalists during the IRA's campaign: help us or
those nasty Provisionals will take over. But the relationship between
moderates and extremists can be symbiotic as well as competitive.
Islamist violence has thus provided a wonderful, unexpected opportunity for
these moderates to demand more power and money from the State. This will
leave them and their favoured co-religionists as the main intermediaries
between the state and the Muslim community.
The mood music of the document is one of breathtaking arrogance. The panel
makes it quite clear that it is not for Islamists alone to make adjustments
after 7/7: rather, it is a two-way process in which the needs of two
million-plus Muslims weigh equally in the balance with those of all 60
million non-Muslims. British identity will have to evolve into a much looser
concept to accommodate them.
The events of 7/7 appear, in their view, to be as much the fault of the
Government as the bombers themselves: there is a strong flavour of "it woz
Iraq and deprivation and unemployment and Islamophobia wot made 'em do it,
guv". To prevent a repeat, they seem to imply, there should effectively be a
Muslim veto over counter-terrorist legislation and foreign policy.
Their long-term solution for the ills of society? More of their kind of
political Islam. More Islam in the national curriculum, including GCSEs in
Islamic studies; more Islamist rapid rebuttal units - that is, propaganda.
And what are two of the most important ways of empowering Muslim women? Give
them more Islamic education and Arabic lessons. Since a large majority of
them are South Asian, the only reason they would need Arabic is for more
Koranic instruction. As such, the report endorses a key aim of some radical
elements - the "Arabisation" of British Muslims.
The effect of all of this will be to create a parallel society. The natural
tendency of most minority groups is to assimilate into the majority culture
after several generations. The recommendations in this report would arrest
that evolution by pumping taxpayers' money into a British Leyland-style
rescue package, circa 1975, for reactionary Islamist institutions. Thus, one
of the key proposals that the Government views favourably is the idea of
"co-locating" community centres in mosques - thus forcing secular Britons of
Muslim origin into the hands of the clerics if they are to obtain civic
amenities.
All this is pretty tough on those non-fundamentalist Muslims who will be
left behind in these Islamised cantons. The post-modern British State is so
lacking in self-confidence and knowledge that it feels that it cannot manage
things except by proxy through these new Islamist chieftains. As such, the
most self-consciously trendy of governments is prepared to pursue a
traditional communalist policy redolent of the colonies.
As in Northern Ireland, the ambitions of that post-modern British State are
minimalistic. Its core message is as follows: please refrain from physical
force and then everything else will be up for negotiation. If the "extremes"
of the DUP and Sinn Fein have the credibility to deliver the "hardliners" in
Ulster's "end game" so only those with hardline theological credentials can
"de-fang" the violent radicals.
One panellist, Tariq Ramadan, is a case in point. This grandson of the
founder of the Muslim Brotherhood once had his visa revoked in America and
was once kept out of France - but is most welcome here. Based at Oxford, he
has become the pin-up boy for elements of the Met's Specialist Operations
department. He opposes violence yet he intervened on the task force to
ensure that Salafist ideology was not condemned.
The price that many task force members seem to be demanding for helping to
foster stability post-7/7 is, quite literally, that of men's souls. As
Charles Clarke ponders the remit and composition of his forthcoming
commission on integration, he should ask himself whether this
"sophisticated" strategy will defeat extremism, or create more of it. By
hopping on to the Islamist bandwagon, the Government has effectively jumped
on a tiger and shouted "gotcha"!
Dean Godson is Research Director of Policy Exchange
Ariadne
Energumen wrote:
> You'll never guess who's to blame for 7/7
> Dean Godson
> The latest attempt to erode extremism is doomed to fail. A parallel Islamic
> society, not assimilation, will result
>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1922518,00.html
>
I read this last week.
There might in fact be some sense in it. Part of the problem
with Islam is apparently that in the 1980s young Muslims were
so lazy or so ignorant or uneducated - whatever - that they were
allowed to study the Koran in English.
It was all very exciting to them - and you know the rest of the
story.
Perhaps the hope is that the Arabic lessons will reverse history...
Taqiyyah.