British Muslims are key in fight against Islamist extremism
THE suspect in the killing of Sir David Amess is one Ali Harbi Ali. The 25-year-old allegedly stabbed the much-loved local MP 17 times. The suspect then apparently waited for the police to arrest him.
Ali’s family had settled in the UK after fleeing war-torn Somalia in the 1990s and he had been referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme.
We know that our security services have 3,000 to 4,000 people under active surveillance because they are deemed to be a terrorist threat and national security risk.
Yet these individuals do not just wake up and decide that they are going to espouse extremist rhetoric.
The material that they come across online is carefully crafted to develop a worldview that Europe and America are against Islam and Muslims, and seek to subjugate and change the faith.
The rhetoric places “constant conflict” in the minds of readers, with the West being portrayed as decadent, godless, materialistic, in violation of God’s word and seeking to take resources from so-called “Muslim lands”.
MUCH of this sort of rhetoric intersects across the Islamist extremist networks and less extreme ones too.
There is a clear dividing line between Islamists and British Muslims. The former seek to politicise Islam, and stamp its superiority and Sharia law into state structures.
The latter seek to practise their faith on a personal basis and within the secular framework of existing society.
The vast majority of British Muslims are not Islamists and Islamists should be viewed as preying on British Muslims communities, looking for the vulnerable, the weak and the marginalised to inculcate them with their poisonous and divisive rhetoric.
Over the last few years, there has been no communityfocused work that has tackled Islamist networks online or in small but vocal sections of British Muslim communities. British Muslims who want to challenge such networks have not been supported.
And work has fallen by the wayside because of Brexit and Covid, in key departments such as the Home Office.
This needs to change and British Muslim groups willing to tackle such networks must be actively supported. At the root of extremist thinking is a world view that pits “them against us”. It is this that feeds polarisation.
It is now essential that the Government takes the approach of the Austrian Government and starts to investigate British Islamist groups and to assess how closely this rhetoric meshes with extremist groups. A clear line needs to be drawn between these mendacious groups and those working for the social good and betterment of British Muslims. Secondly, an assessment of these groups needs to be published so that academics and civil society groups can use this to help in research.
Thirdly, work in British Muslim communities needs to be funded specifically to challenge Islamist extremist rhetoric.
FOURTHLY, it is essential that British communities of Somali and Afghan heritage be funded around identity, social cohesion and countering extremism. These two communities are at the frontline of the battle against Islamist extremism.
And, lastly, Government ministers need to place the problem of Islamist extremists on a highlevel policy footing to tackle them at every stage, while clearly delineating these ideologies from British Muslims. Essentially, British Muslims are key in the battle against Islamist extremism.
For decades I have come across a serial weakness in taking on Islamist networks in the UK.
Government inaction and the support of non-impactful pet projects has to stop.
How many more killings does it take, before the Government empowers British Muslims who are willing to take on those networks?
There are many British Muslims willing to stand up for our country’s values. The best message the Government can send to those who seek to harm us, is that there are Muslims willing to reclaim their faith from the twisted rhetoric of extremists.
This is essential for future race and faith relations in our country.
Fiyaz Mughal OBE is a British Muslim and is the founder of Faith Matters and Muslims Against Antisemitism. He has been working on counterextremism programmes since 7/7.
‘Extremism’s root is a world view that pits them against us’