THE SPECTATOR: Policy Exchange has produced yet another extremely important pamphlet on radical Islamism and the grievous and indeed lethal errors in government policy towards it. Entitled Choosing Our Friends Wisely by Shiraz Maher and Martin Frampton, it is a devastating critique of the centrepiece of that policy, a strategy called Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE). Recently, it was reported that there was a strong feeling in parts of the security establishment that this strategy had been a disaster; defining the problem as only ‘violent’ extremism’, the government had failed to grasp that the core problem is actually religious/ ideological extremism which produces a continuum of divisive, antisocial or threatening views which provides the sea in which violence swims. The strategy should therefore be changed to ‘Preventing Extremism.’
This is a case I have made many times, not least in my book Londonistan. It is not clear whether or how this argument has resolved itself within government – although from a speech made recently by the Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, it looked as if the PVE camp had succeeded in fending off the PE proponents. No surprise there – a change to Preventing Extremism would take clarity of vision and a great deal of courage. Now, though, the Policy Exchange pamphlet has dissected the disaster that is the Preventing Violent Extremism strategy – which, through its unbelievably stupid belief that non-violent extremists can be used as the antidote to violent extremists, is actually radicalising a new generation of Muslims, sometimes with the very funds that are supposed to be countering radicalisation. It says:
Non-violent extremists have consequently become well dug in as partners of national and local government and the police. Some of the government’s chosen collaborators in ‘addressing grievances’ of angry young Muslims are themselves at the forefront of stoking those grievances against British foreign policy; western social values; and alleged state-sanctioned ‘Islamophobia’. PVE is thus underwriting the very Islamist ideology which spawns an illiberal, intolerant and anti-western world view.>>> Melanie Phillips | Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Political and theological extremists, acting with the authority conferred by official recognition, are indoctrinating young people with an ideology of hostility to western values. This strategic error on the part of officialdom is born of a poverty of aspiration: the belief of the authorities that they cannot reasonably ask angry Muslims for much more than a pledge not to use violence in Britain. The effect has been to empower reactionaries within Muslim communities and to marginalise genuine moderates, thus increasing inter-community tensions and envenoming the public space.
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
