Author: Daniel Pipes
Publication: FrontPageMagazine.com
Date: July 11, 2005
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18722
In a confidential report, Young
Muslims and Extremism, prepared jointly by the Home and Foreign offices
in mid-2004 and presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair, we learn something
about the inner thinking of the British government. Leaked to the Sunday
Times of London, the report is now available in four parts in .pdf format
at that newspaper's site.
Its goal is "to encourage moderate
Muslim opinion to the detriment of extremism" and to that end proposes
an "Operation Contest." Along the way, it contains much of interest in
it, including these points:
* "A number of extremist groups
are actively recruiting young British Muslims" (pdf 1, p. 10).
* These "extremist recruiters" are
"circulating among university-based religious or ethnic societies" (pdf
1, p. 5; pdf 2, p. 10).
* "By and large, most young extremists
fall into one of two groups: well-educated undergraduates or with degrees
and technical professional qualifications in engineering or IT; or under-achievers
with few or no qualifications, and often a criminal background" (pdf 2,
p. 9).
* "Often disaffected lone individuals
unable to fit into their community, will be attracted to university clubs
based on ethnicity or religion, or be drawn to Mosques or preaching groups
in prison through a sense of disillusionment with their current existence"
(pdf 2, p. 12).
* Islamist terrorists include "a
significant number" who come from "liberal, non-religious Muslim backgrounds"
or who converted to Islam in adulthood (pdf 2, p. 9).
The report's policy recommendations
are also interesting, such as the one (from pdf 1, p. 8) urging the importance
"to persuade the public and the media that Muslims are not the enemy within."
It goes on to propose that the government "needs to look for opportunities
to highlight Muslim success stories and examples of Muslim contributions
to society at national and local level."
Besides that, "the term 'Islamic
fundamentalism' is unhelpful and should be avoided, because some perfectly
moderate Muslims are likely to perceive it as a negative comment on their
own approach to their faith" (pdf 2, p. 2).
In general, the authors of Young
Muslims and Extremism are too politically worried to understand the phenomenon
they are contending with. Take the matter of Muslim individuals and organizations:
if they are willing to mouth certain pieties, and not overtly challenge
the existing order, that is good enough to consider them moderate. My particular
favorite "moderate Muslim" is Hamza Yusuf (pdf 1, p. 13), for he explicitly
has denied this appellation, as I documented on my weblog at "Hamza Yusuf
Fails My 'Test.'"
They assert as fact points that
need thoughtful consideration: "A strong Muslim identity and strict adherence
to traditional Muslim teachings are not in themselves problematic or incompatible
with Britishness" (pdf 1, p. 9). One could fill a long and substantial
seminar on this topic.
The point that most of all interested
me, however, in reading Young Muslims and Extremism is where it draws on
MI5 information to make this astonishing statement:
Intelligence indicates that the
number of British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity, whether
at home or abroad or supporting such activity, is extremely small and estimated
at less than 1% (pdf 2, p. 9).
If one accepts the report's estimate
(pdf 2, p. 5) that the Muslim population of Great Britain numbers 1.6 million,
then up to 16,000 "British Muslims actively engaged in terrorist activity."
"Extremely small"? Excuse me, but
that number strikes me as an extremely large.
That the British authorities do
not recognize that they should worry about thousands of terrorists in their
midst is reason to worry what planet they inhabit. Their waffling, myopia,
and general incompetence make one despair for his country.
