Is ideology or foreign policy responsible for the radicalisation of some Muslim youth?

Countering extremism

Is ideology or foreign policy responsible for the radicalisation of some Muslim youth?

Inayat Bunglawala, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2006/08/
countering_extremism.html#comment-176417
August 15, 2006

It is, quite literally, the killer question.

What would cause otherwise ordinary young British Muslims to become so radicalised that they would contemplate taking part in acts of mass murder against innocent civilians?

Last week’s arrest of 24 British Muslims for allegedly plotting to blow up airliners over the Atlantic has once again brought that question under sharp focus but the answer to it differs depending upon whom you ask.

The prime minister has clearly pointed the finger at an « evil ideology ». Yesterday, I attended one of a series of meetings that the secretary of state at the Department for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly, was holding with different Muslim groups. She too talked about an ideology that had to be confronted.

In an open letter to the prime minister last week, however, three out of four Muslim MPs and several peers, along with a wide range of Muslim organisations, called for a reassessment of Britain’s foreign policy – particularly in the Middle East – which they believed was helping extremists gain recruits to their ranks.

So which is it: ideology or foreign policy?

It is undoubtedly true that those – such as the 7/7 bombers – prepared to kill indiscriminately appear to have embraced a dangerous and nihilistic worldview. However, those ideas have been around for quite some time. I recall emerging from Friday prayers at the London Central Mosque, Regent’s Park, in the mid 1990s, only to be confronted by haranguing groups of young men fresh from Algeria busy raising funds for their « jihad » back home. Tens of thousands of civilians were deliberately massacred in Algeria in the 1990s amid claims and counter claims from the military government and their opponents.

My Darwinian-like contention here is that these kinds of murderous ideas can only spread if they find a suitable and conducive environment. In Algeria, it was the army’s annulment of the 1991 elections which the Islamic Salvation Front were set to win by a landslide that precipitated its slide into anarchy and the rise of extremist groups. In the UK our actions in the Middle East, particularly our participation in the devastating US-led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, have made extremist « us and them » ideas becoming more attractive to some sections of Muslim youth and have contributed to the undermining of our national security.

So, one can only agree with Polly Toynbee when she concludes that, « British foreign policy has helped foment murderous extremism among British Muslims. »

The government’s continuing denial of what appears to be an inescapable truth is both dismaying and, in the end, self-defeating.

Having said that, British Muslims too have a major responsibility to foster greater cooperation with the police in trying to counter a terror threat which represents a danger to all of us, Muslim and non-Muslim. The government may stubbornly refuse to listen to our advice on foreign policy in the Middle East, but we have a unilateral – and Islamic – obligation to take a stand against the evil of terrorism.

Fellow Cif blogger, Azzam Tamimi, says that he feels those arrested last Thursday, « are innocent and will soon be proven so. » Time will soon tell if he is correct in his assessment. I have heard on the grapevine that some of those suspects are due to be shortly released without charge.

It is a hugely difficult business and the police are in an unenviable position. To help us get through what looks like tough times ahead, we may all need to cultivate a bit more humility and develop a willingness to accept that we may well have made some major errors in the past and are willing to change.