An Islamic awakening: British Muslims take the fight to the extremists

David Cameron has made a controversial speech this afternoon, suggesting that elements of the Muslim community quietly condone Islamic State, the barbaric terrorist organisation that is becoming a global force, as it fights to control territory in the Middle East and attracts fighters from across the world, including this week 3 sisters from Bradford, who fled to Syria with their 9 children, leaving behind their devastated husbands.
Their disappearance comes just months after 3 teenage girls from Bethnal Green did likewise, to become so-called Jihadi brides, tweeting, in one disturbing instance, about eating takeaways and their desire to behead – an almost comic combination of the banal and brutal that testifies to their frightening immaturity.

Whilst controversial, Cameron has to say something.

Once again, British Muslims face the unwelcome prospect of being in the spotlight, feeling the need to robustly distance themselves from the vile extremism that is carried out in the name of their religion.

Speeches have been made before, lots of them. British Muslims have carried out extreme actions before, at home and abroad. Yet something feels very different this time.

This time, it is Muslims who are suffering the most. It is Muslim parents, Muslim spouses, who are losing their loved ones as, freshly radicalised, they fly out to join something so utterly ghastly that I’m quite confident they simply do not fully grasp its enormity.

There isn’t the blame game being played out, as there was when the Bethnal Green teenagers ran away, as their parents sought to blame police, as though police ought to have had more of an idea of what their children were up to than they did.

The simply bewildering array of Muslim organisations in Britain are not rushing to spuriously insist that this extremism is not linked to Islam, and blame demonization of Islam for it, rather than condemn the individuals concerned. This is exactly what they have done, even in the recent past.

Instead, they have given thoughtful explanations this week for why people are being drawn to Islamic State, and that’s what we need.

It’s so easy to condemn these young people. They are, after all, old enough to take responsibility for their actions and to make their own choices.

Claims of brainwashing are nonsense; sociological scholars of religion have consistently demonstrated that there are factors which push people towards extreme religious movements, and factors about those movements that attract them and pull them in. We do, therefore, have to acknowledge that they have a view of our society, however misguided and distorted, that repels them, and makes them vulnerable to an alternative way of life that presents itself as giving men the opportunity to be brave and heroic, and women a sense of certainty and purpose in a clearly-defined role in family and community.

It follows that, if young people are to be clearly shown a better alternative to this attractive, yet dangerously deceptive offer, it has to come from their own circle: family, friends, and institutions within the community to which they belong, in particular schools and the mosques. 

At last, Muslim organisations, which form the political face of Islam in Britain, are starting to sing from the same hymn sheet in stressing the role mosques in particular, can play in combatting this dreadful phenomenon.

Eric Pickles’s letter to mosques, sent in the wake of the Paris atrocities, was condemned by the Muslim Council of Britain. In the letter, Pickles praised the overwhelming response of British Muslims in condemning the attack, but stressed the role of communities in preventing young people being targeted.

He wrote: “Let us assure you that the Government will do all we can to defeat the voices of division, but ultimately the challenges of integration and radicalisation cannot be solved from Whitehall alone. Strong community-based leadership at a local level is needed.”

I wonder if the Council, which has condemned Islamic State in clear terms, would now find this letter, and its assignment of responsibility to local community leaders quite so objectionable now?

Is it still not the role of the Muslim community to take action even though, as this week’s events show, it is now ordinary British Muslim families that are hurting the most?

British Islamic organisations have been right to consistently stress the unfairness of ordinary Muslims having to distance themselves from atrocities carried out in the name of religion. I’d get pretty hacked off if people associated the Christianity I believe in completely, with the West Borough Baptists, for example.

This does not mean, however, that local mosques should not be speaking out. As some have done, they should be opening their doors to invite the rest of us to take a glimpse at their world, which is all too often shrouded in mystery. They should take up the invitation Mr Pickles made in his letter, to spread the word, not just to the government but to local media, schools and community centres, where they do work to promote a positive view of Islam and its role in British society.

I have heard nothing but good things from the few Muslims I know about the mosque, which acts both as a place of worship and a community focal point, but I simply do not know if there is a culture of speaking out and promoting peaceable living within British society, or whether there is simply nothing said about extremism. I expect it’s the latter. So does David Cameron, so do representative groups for British Muslims.

What I do know, however, is that if elements of a community quietly and unnoticed, sense a vacuum and feel a lack of belonging, they will be angry, even angry enough to swap this life to pursue a twisted course in which they will be heroes, freedom fighters, and possibly martyrs.

It is my sincere belief that, as home-grown extremism begins to blight the lives of families in Britain, those who have the power of influence within the British Muslim community are starting to let go of the denial and the distancing with which they have comforted themselves and drawn upon to shift the blame to the government, foreign policy, or the attitudes of the rest of us.

I am in no doubt that, if this continues to filter down to the local level, we will see an ironic coupling of increased emphasis on Islamic extremism, and more positive public attitudes to the Muslim community of Britain, peaceful, law-abiding as it is.

This week, the dark shadow of extremism looms large, but I am greatly encouraged by early signs of a real awakening of the desire to engage with it, tackle it, and defeat it, not by David Cameron, but by British Muslims.