"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last." -- Winston Churchill
Speaking of "safety valves," the British government hoping for some of its own here, attempting to mollify the "extremist" Muslims in the U.K. enough to head off acts of violent jihad.
It will backfire. "Hizb ut Tahrir is not a gateway to terrorism, claims Whitehall report," by Andrew Gilligan for the Telegraph, July 25 (thanks to the aptly pseudonymed Thomas Pellow):
The Government has opened the way for official links with Muslim extremists after civil servants said radical groups could be a "safety valve" for those tempted by terrorism.
The groups specifically named - in documents leaked to The Sunday Telegraph - include al-Muhajiroun, which has praised 9/11 as "magnificent" and Hizb ut Tahrir, which wants to turn Britain into an Islamic dictatorship under sharia law.
See here and here for our archives on these two groups.
In addition, al-Muhajiroun's spinoff group Islam4UK was banned in January after planning a march through Wootton Bassett, a town known for honoring fallen soldiers upon their return to Britain. Is this supposed to be a "safety valve?"
In the classified papers, presented last week to Coalition ministers on the Cabinet's home affairs committee, officials say a "clear assessment" has been made that individuals "do not progress" to violence through such groups.
One paper, classified "Restricted" and entitled "Government strategy towards extremism", says: "It is sometimes argued that violent extremists have progressed to terrorism by way of a passing commitment to non-violent Islamist extremism, for example of a kind associated with al-Muhajiroun or Hizb ut Tahrir ... We do not believe that it is accurate to regard radicalisation in this country as a linear 'conveyor belt' moving from grievance, through radicalisation, to violence ... This thesis seems to both misread the radicalisation process and to give undue weight to ideological factors."
In fact, at least 19 terrorists convicted in Britain have had links with al-Muhajiroun, including Omar Khayam, sentenced to life imprisonment as leader of the "fertiliser bomb" plot, and Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the airliner "liquid bomb" plot, who is also serving life.
Al-Muhajiroun provided backing to Abu Hamza, the extremist cleric, whose Finsbury Park mosque was a forming-ground for other terrorists. Advertising a conference held in the mosque in 2002, al-Muhajiroun leaflets described the 9/11 hijackers as the "magnificent 19".
The organisation was banned under Labour, but ex-members have regrouped under different banners. Former al-Muhajiroun activists demonstrated against a parade by British troops through Luton and threatened to do the same against the coffins of dead soldiers passing through the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett.
Hizb ut Tahrir says it opposes terrorism and condemned the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks. However, it regards integration as "dangerous," orders all Muslims to keep apart from non-believers and says that "those [Muslims] who believe in democracy are Kafir", or apostates. A British would-be suicide bomber, Omar Sharif, was radicalised partly by Hizb activists at his London university.
Before he became Prime Minister, David Cameron repeatedly called for Hizb to be outlawed, and criticised Labour for failing to introduce a ban. In March he said in an interview that he wanted to keep foreign preachers of hate out of Britain and "ban those extremist groups like Hizb ut Tahrir who are already here".
The Whitehall documents admit that a "minority" of terrorists have been involved with non-violent extremist groups such as al-Muhajiroun, and state that such groups "can foster a sense of Muslim isolationism from wider UK society, which may increase vulnerability to radicalisation".
But in a "restricted" memorandum to Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, written on July 15, Robert Mason, one of his senior officials, says the papers present "a clear assessment that individuals do not progress through non-violent extremist groups to violent groups ... Extreme groups may also provide a legal 'safety valve' for extreme views."...
... What?
Establishing a parallel society withing an existing society, causing "corruption and diversity" within accepted moral values, promoting splits within families and communities .....all this is OK then. Right.
I have quite an interesting book. "Red for danger. The classic history of British railway disasters".
The safety valve analogy does not hold water, for the obvious reason that often safety valves are bound to be defective. And the more we tamper with them, the bigger will be the resulting explosion. Prolong the inevitable and you´ll reap the inevitable.
From what I have read by first hand witnesses the distance from the Hizb ut Tahrir to worse is very short indeed, the difference is only in how theory comes to be expressed and practized. Change a few imponderables and the valve shall blow. Is this a Bristish characteristic, hoping for the best and it must be so? A scrap of paper?
"..."safety valves" for Muslims "tempted by terrorism"..."
Muslims are not "tempted by terrorism", true muslims have to follow the orders and the examples of their "Perfect Man".
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/07/perfect-man.html
I've got an alternative safety valve (for us) involving deportation hearings for these goons.
grievance> radicalisation> violence...''This thesis seems to both misread the radicalisation process and to give [sic] undue weight to ideological factors.''
Whoever came up with this piece of tosh is sic. The original premise for the study was, hopefully, just one of many strands of inquiry, but to bin the importance of the 'ideological factors' in the same breath is criminally insane.
Imran Waheeb, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, wrote on the Guardian’s site in 2006—arguing that there is “growing hysteria against British Muslims”, he claims:
“Over the last year, we have seen the furore over the Danish cartoons, the Pope quoting descriptions of Islam as ‘evil and inhuman’, aspects of Islam labelled an ‘evil ideology’ by Tony Blair and the use of the term Islamo-fascism by George Bush.”
So—what "aspects of Islam" did Tony Blair consider an 'evil ideology'? Why, the embracing of Jihad terrorism that led to the horrific 7/7 bombings that killed 52 Britons. George Bush was condemning the Jihad terrorism of 9/11.
It is worth reiterating that both George Bush and Tony Blair bent over backwards to indicate that Islam was a "religion of peace", and were careful to condemn only the most murderous aspects of Islam.
This isn't enough for Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which considers concern over even the most homicidal Jihad terrorism to be nothing more than "hysteria".
That "safety valve" of Hizb-ut-Tahrir looks suspiciously like a flame thrower.
The games continue, and will continue, until Islam is recognized as wicked. Short of this, duh, the games will go on. Acknowledge Islam, all of Islam, as malevolent and everything will start to fall into place and the West will know what to do. Don't do this and the insanity, inanity and imbecility, to the great detriment of the West, will, duh, continue. Ain't rocket science here.
Ten Downing Street... We have a problem.
We have at least one politician in Australia who sees Hizb ut Tahrir rather more clearly than those in the Mother Country seem to do.
From early July, when Hizb ut T were holding a hatefest in Sydney, this is what one Michael Johnson, MP, had to say...'Ban 'em!'. Ban the rabble-rousers.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/ban-islamic-extremist-preachers-says-mp-michael-johnson/story-e6frea73-1225888233117
'Ban Islamic extremist preachers says MP Michael Johnson
From:
AAP July 05, 2010 9:17pm
'PREACHERS of Islamic extremism should be barred from Australia, a federal MP has said.
'Michael Johnson, a lower house independent, has also called for a debate on banning the burqa.
'He said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and his former boss, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, **needed to repudiate the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir** {my emphasis - dda}, a global Islamic group which wants Australian Muslims to reject democracy.
"Join together and repudiate the extremism of this global movement and ... **guarantee that none of its international preachers ever receive a visa to step on to Australian soil again** {my emphasis - dda}," Mr Johnson said in a statement.
'The release was issued in response to an article in The Australian which reported Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders urging participants in a western Sydney conference to join the struggle for a transnational Islamic state.
'Mr Johnson said Australia's Judeo-Christian heritage promoted inclusion, openness and transparency.
"It is not our culture to exclude, nor is it one that aims to suppress women's rights of equality, openness and full political participation," he said.
"Therefore, let us have a full and fearless debate on whether women should be required to wear the head to toe covering niqab, or the burqa."
'In May, Liberal senator Cory Bernardi called for a ban on the wearing of the burqa, prompting criticism from Victorian Premier John Brumby.
'Still, Mr Johnson's comments make him potentially the most vocal Queenslander to criticise a minority group [sic: dda] since Pauline Hanson said in her 1996 parliamentary maiden speech that Australia was in danger of being "swamped by Asians". {Note - what *she* seems to have meant by 'Asians', and what she was generally understood to have meant, was 'East Asians', i.e. 'people with yellow skins and slanty eyes', *not* 'Muslims].
If the UK wants to stifle terrorists, they should pass legislation that if ther can be a direct link to a specific mosque to someone with that religious community commiting an act of religiously motivated terror, that the mosque and it's enviorns be razed to the ground. P--- in their cornflakes.
It is a gateway to terrorism. Absolutely.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
The British government is on the horns of a dilemma. They want to strive to be democratic on one hand,yet here is a group of Muslims who make no secret of the fact that given the chance, by fair means or foul they will bring a Sharia inspired Caliphate to Britain.
The obvious reaction is to ban them. Doesn't work - why? They and other Islamist extremist groups have the propensity to change their names and reappear. Also, the over stretched security services have no way of keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't get up to mischief. Besides, banning them is undemocratic - British tradition upholds free speech... see where I'm going with this? Human rights laws adopted by the British government will ensure their human rights to free speech are respected, won't they?
The solution? I know it's tedious and it may be pointless - just keep on writing to your MPs flagging it up, pointing out how HuT despises democracy, and should NEVER have a part in Government-driven policy making. Eventually, if we stop the apathetic approach the last government (as well as this one) has encouraged and get of our backsides - we can stop this.
Dumbledoresarmy - all kudos to Australia, but there again - they aren't hog-tied by some idiot politician signing Australians up to the kind of human rights laws that make them appear powerless, without their knowledge and consent.
The British government is on the horns of a dilemma. They have to strive to uphold the country's democratic values, but along comes an Islamic extremist group, racist, obviously opposed to democracy in all its forms, and who wants an Islamic state in Britain, not a democratic government. Thanks to an idiot former Prime Minister who signed the British people up to European Human Rights laws without their knowledge or consent - this Islamist group knows all it has to do is be very careful not to appear racist in any way, and sooner or later it and other such groups will achieve their aim of Islamising Britain. They just have to shout "Human Rights" and "Free speech is being stifled", and threaten murder and mayhem to stop all opposition.
What's the solution? It seems there isn't one. Banning them won't help. They'll just reappear with a different name, and besides - the overstretched security services haven't a hope in hell of keeping tabs on what they're doing.
However.... we're ignoring the obvious here. There IS a solution. The British people can get off their apathetic backsides and keep an eye on all these groups. Every time one of them steps out of line - get on to the CPS and make official complaints. Ignore the liberal diversity celebrating idiots that pervade the Home Office and Foreign office, who have let Islamists into their sanctums and now are reaping the whirlwind. It's PEOPLE POWER that'll be successful. It might take a while, it's tedious and time consuming - but it's up to us, because this useless government will just roll over and play dead. Then it's burqas, beards and baggy trousers for us, and being forced to be Muslims. NEVER!!!
Sorry - didn't realise it had gone up!
Don't worry.
You ended up with two subtly different versions, both interesting.