The think tank Demos makes the error of thinking that Iraq is the cause of Muslim anger in Britain. They don’t realize that if it weren’t Iraq, it would just be something else, and that the agenda of Islamic supremacism would continue to underlie all the pretexts. “Policies ‘aid Muslim extremism,'” from the BBC, with thanks to Teri:
British Muslims are being driven into the arms of violent extremists by official attempts to engage with them after the 7 July bombs, a study claims.
Amazing. Yet if they hadn’t attempted to engage with them, they would be blamed for that.
Policies since the attacks in London have “driven a wedge” between Muslims and the wider community rather than isolate extremists, the report says.
The study, by think tank Demos, accused ministers of failing to engage Muslims over British foreign policy in Iraq.
It called for “community relations to be at the heart of security policy”.
‘Resentment and alienation’
The report – partly funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government – described attempts to involve Muslims in the policy-making process as “rushed, conducted on the government’s terms, failing to break away from ‘the usual suspects’, and with little follow through”.
Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary, Nick Clegg, said: “There is little to be gained in the long term by providing our security and police services with extra powers to tackle terrorism if, at the same time, the conditions for ever-deeper radicalisation are not being addressed with equal vigour.”
That is true. But Clegg and his colleagues continue to assume, in a bizarre obverse of the old “White Man’s Burden” philosophy, that that ever-deeper radicalization is caused solely by British policies, and that the Muslims are helpless to do anything but react to those policies. The paternalism and racism of such assumptions are ironic in light of the horror that Clegg and the rest would no doubt show at the display of anything they themselves would identify as racism.
The report stated: “In the meeting rooms of Whitehall, ministers were assuring Muslim leaders of the need for partnership, but in press briefings they were talking of the need for Muslims to ‘get serious’ about terrorism, spy on their children, and put up with inconveniences in the greater good of national security.”
Yes, and there is something wrong with that?
It also said that the government’ s actions were breeding “resentment and alienation” among Muslims and “playing into the hands of the extremists”.
“By viewing Muslims as a single interest group the government has failed to draw a clear enough distinction between angry Muslim opinion and those that would seek to inflict violence and terror,” it added.
“The result is that rather than being isolated, extremists are able to attract support from communities cut adrift from mainstream British society.”…
What has made this possible? The repeated statements by Blair and the rest that they are sure that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are loyal citizens who fervently support the government?
Anyway, this is really just an attempt to mau-mau a foreign policy shift:
Rachel Briggs, head of Demos’ identity programme, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, that the think tank is recommending “a quite substantial opening up of the foreign policy-making process”.
“The grievances that are felt in some parts of the Muslim community about foreign policy, and especially about Iraq, are pretty cogent and pretty convincing are shared with others outside that community as well,” she said.