Britain’s adherence to political correctness has created a potential enemy within. The majority of the country’s estimated 3.5 million Muslims have struck a successful balance between embracing social norms, enhancing the United Kingdom’s multi-cultural fabric and retaining their Islamic identity. That said, a small minority of Islamist radicals, often with the shrill support of leftist politicians and media, are cultivating extremist politicised views.
The UK has long been accused of providing safe haven to religious fanatics and individuals who face charges of terrorism in their home countries. In recent years, the most prominent—among them Jordanian national Abu Qatada, described as “a dangerous individual with links to Al Qaida—have been subject to deportation or control orders. Foreign nationals seeking to radicalise Britons are one thing, but, today, the government is confronting an even greater problem—the radicalisation of young British-born Muslims in mosques, social clubs, universities and even schools. This phenomenon is by no means new, but as the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, wrote in the Daily Telegraph, “There is built-in to the British system a reluctance to be judgmental about someone else’s culture, even if that reluctance places children at risk.”
Now that reluctance has come back to bite the authorities. It is no accident of fate that the jihadist organisation Al Muhajiroun was permitted to operate freely in the UK from 1986 until 2005, when it was banned, only to resurface under a different name. There is nothing coincidental about Muslim Brotherhood leaders fleeing Egyptian justice being able to set up a propaganda office in north London or the fact that terrorist recruiters have been successful in sending unknown numbers of British Muslims to fight alongside Al Qaida offshoots in Syria and Iraq—some 500 are known to have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). There is no escaping it, Britain has gained a name for mollycoddling extremists.
Official figures show that Britain tops the league of would-be jihadists flocking to Syria. Tracking British jihadists “is now the top priority for MI5,” according to the BBC, but the government must accept part of the blame. The willful negligence of successive British governments has turned the UK into a terrorist breeding ground endangering the country’s sovereignty. ‘Number Ten’ has finally woken up to this threat to national security, but it may be too little, too late.
A scandal dubbed “Trojan Horse extremism” uncovered by the Telegraph has galvanised the prime minister to fight back—or at least raise a feeble fist. The scandal was initially centred on five Birmingham schools—Park View, Nansen, Golden Hillock, Oldknow and Saltley—whose governors, principals and/or teachers have been accused of plotting to turn those state-owned schools into virtual madrasas by forcing out non-Muslim teachers, excluding non-Muslim pupils, banning Christmas celebrations, segregating classes and using terms such as “white prostitutes” and “kafirs” to brand non-Muslims. In one instance, a Taliban-supporting hate preacher was invited to lecture pupils. A review by the education watchdog OFSTED found that 21 Birmingham schools were to some degree embroiled.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has come out swinging, asserting the “plot” was the same as Nigeria’s Boko Haram—and part of a global extremist movement, stretching from Britain to Africa and the Far East. David Cameron’s response has been somewhat less colourful. “Protecting our children is one of the first duties of [the] government and this [is] why the issue of alleged Islamist extremism in Birmingham schools demands a robust response,” he says, while demanding that each one of Britain’s 20,000 schools actively promotes ‘British values.’ Another of the PM’s statements could be construed as a mea culpa (admission of a mistake as one’s own fault): “In recent years, we have been in danger of sending out a worrying message: That if you don’t want to believe in democracy, that’s fine; that if equality isn’t your bag, don’t worry about it.”
Now that the penny has finally dropped in such an impossible-to-ignore fashion, it is about time Cameron stopped relying on the religious advice of extremists in moderate’s clothing. One of the Foreign Office’s Advisory Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief, chaired by Baroness Warsi, is none other than Tariq Ramadan, who teaches in Oxford University and is a grandson of Hassan Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood—an organisation whose status in Britain is currently under review. Indeed, Baroness Warsi, known for her passionate defence of the niqab, has waded into the ‘Trojan Horse row,’ attacking the education secretary for “sensationalism,” while warning that the furor will “no doubt” alienate communities.
In reality, if the UK continues taking a softly-softly approach to this growing menace, it will alienate itself from countries making supreme efforts to deal with it. Just days ago, a UAE newspaper had exposed a UK company and a media outlet run by Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers that cook-up and disseminate anti-UAE propaganda. Simply, promoting so-called British values will not do it, Mr Cameron. Will it take an Al Qaida black flag fluttering over the House of Commons for the message to finally sink in?
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
Perhaps the reason that Britain is – supposedly – a haven for Muslim extremists and so-called Islamists is because it deliberately fosters these groups in the first place for political reasons. As a sponsor of (state) terrorism, Britain finds these groups useful and never more so than today. It thus has nothing whatever to do with the left (which does not exist anyway).