Nearly three years on, the government’s biggest problem is that it is struggling with two big questions at once. One is the set of problems described under the catch-all term of “cohesion”””narrowing the social, economic and cultural gap between Muslims (especially in some poor urban areas of northern Britain) and the rest of society. The second is countering the threat from groups preparing to commit violence in Britain or elsewhere in the name of Islam.
The government says the two problems are related: poor, frustrated and mainly self-segregated groups are more likely to produce terrorists. Muslims as a group lag behind other Britons in qualifications, employment, housing and income (see chart). But in fact the overlap between exclusion and extremism is messy. And attempts to fight terrorism through tougher policing, which can alienate whole communities, make boosting cohesion harder.
“Prevent,” and all such strategies aimed at “cohesing” this or that ethnic group into the social mainstream are probably doomed, inasmuch as the majority of the recipients, whatever their individual views on violence, do not wish any success/victory on government terms. That would only diminish the resentment and the particularism required to fuel this ‘irrepressable’ cultural, religious and political struggle for power, if not for some kind of communal independence. It seems that too many Moslems are permanently alienated from the existing British mainstream
If Britons do not want to see their nation divided up or, indeed, taken over, they must muster the strength to pursue terrorism no matter where it leads, enforce the law without regard to consequences, and abandon special consideration for customs, religion and other ethnic sensitivities (as opposed to the ABC’s case for recognizing some manifestations of Sharia). This could be done, but only, like it or not, if today’s Brits have the courage to create order and maintain standards at home, much as their forbears did abroad in the days of the empire.
“poor, frustrated and mainly self-segregated groups are more likely to produce terrorists”
How about the terrorists in Scotland? were they poor? Were they disenfranchised? They were Doctors.
It is also attacked from the left (Muslim or otherwise) for using the “fight against terrorism as an excuse for a general assault on Muslims and their cultural rights.” The cultural rights of Muslims in England do not supersede “….core values such as democracy, freedom of speech or respect towards women…….â€