Reforming Islam in the name of Terroism

In February 2009, draft plans by the UK government were leaked to the Guardian newspaper and the BBC Panorama programme, which exposed that the British government has an updated policy for Islam and Muslims. The leak focused on the definition of ‘extremism’. It was followed by a speech by Communities secretary Hazel Blears that reinforced the message that, according to the government, the definition of an ‘extremist’ included:

Belief in a Caliphate (Khilafah) in the Muslim world.
Promote Shariah law - for anywhere in the world, and eventhe personal aspects of Shariah in the UK.
Belief that Jihad, or armed resistance, is permitted - anywhere in the world including armed resistance by Palestinians against the Israeli military.
Belief that Islam bans homosexuality and that it is a sin against Allah.
If you fail to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Details within the ‘Contest 2’ strategy paper

The policy is divided into 4 parts: “Pursue” - “Prevent” - “Protect” - “Prepare”. The sections called “Protect” and “Prepare” do address the threat of a terrorist attack like 7/7. But it is the “Pursue” and “Prevent” agendas that are worth looking at in detail. Below are some points that emerge from the strategy paper.

1) The policy blames Islamic ideas (labelled as “Islamism”), not political problems for the causes of terrorism.

It explicitly labels the struggles in Palestine, Chechnya, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kashmir as ‘terrorism’. It blames ‘Islamism’ - naming Syed Qutb and Maududi as proponents of this thinking - as one cause of ‘terrorism’ and underplays the significance of oppression, occupation and injustice in the Islamic world and western foreign policy - repeating Tony Blair’s talk about false grievances - and talking about Muslim perceptions of foreign policy.

It describes the political ideas of Al-Qaida and in doing so implies that anyone who believes this believes in the political agenda of what they call ‘Islamic terrorism’. The ideas they name are:
a) Viewing all regimes in the Muslim world as un-Islamic or apostate
b) ‘Claims’ that western states support these regimes
c) Fighting occupation and fighting regimes as rewardable in the akhira
d) A desire to overthrow these regimes by force or subversion
e) A desire to establish a Caliphate
f) A desire to remove western presence from Muslim lands.

Hence, there is a huge emphasis in the whole strategy to deal with ideology as compared with dealing with occupation, oppression and injustice.

2) It explicitly links the domestic policy to the global war on terror. It talks about ‘failed states’ as a cause of ‘radicalisation’ and mentions Pakistan and the FATA region. One strand of the “Prevent” agenda is so that there can be a “positive UK contribution to ‘violent extremism’ in priority overseas countries”
i.e. it justifies on-going interference by the west in the Muslim world. To this end ‘Contest 2′ mentions funding 700 schools projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to prevent radicalisation. It talks about promoting “moderate” scholars tours to Muslim lands, hoping they will promote the UK government agenda. They wish to promote the UK overseas, as a centre for Islam outside the Muslim world. They even plan to use aid from the Department for International Development as a kind of PR function. So far they have used Muslim charities and well known Muslim personalities like MPs to do this.

3) It continues with their established controversial draconian anti-terror policies
The “Pursue” strand of the strategy is said to be about foiling terrorist networks and plans. There is lip service to human rights/rule of law but essentially stop and search, arbitrary arrest and prosecutions, 28-day detention without trial, control orders to detain suspects indefinitely without trial, financial sanctions, deprivation of citizenship, monitoring communication, covert surveillance and co-operation with other states e.g. Pakistan - are all set to continue. Some of these tools have been used against peaceful demonstrators (not only Muslim), charities, people browsing websites, people making emotional speeches, in addition to the people suspected of “terrorist plots” - whether within the UK or in places such as Iraq.

4) The “Prevent” strand of the strategy has little to do with preventing ‘terrorism’ or promoting ‘community cohesion’; as we are told is said to prevent the spread of ideology and radicalisation in the UK & Globally. The majority of the “Prevent” strategy aimed at Muslims in the UK: to control Muslim communities, establish a new leadership, make Muslims reject Islam’s political ideas, and ultimately to secularise Muslims. It is the assimilation agenda - to prevent the spread of Islamic values - what they call ‘extremism’ - and promote ‘shared’ (western liberal) values. How do they plan to achieve the westernisation agenda of the “Prevent” strategy?

At the moment they don’t plan to use legal means to get Muslims to drop Islamic views and to adopt western liberal values. Instead they want an atmosphere like 1950’s America under the ‘witch¬hunts’ of Senator McCarthy.

They say they wish to demonise people ¬who hold Islamic views and block them from being active by intimidation. They have projects under the umbrellas of:

‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ programmes (PVE) - to be implemented by Local councils, ¬the Voluntary sector and statutory organisations (like the local Commission for Human Rights).

The Prevent strategy delivery plan - run by the Police with an extra 300 paid support staff. This includes Operation Nicole where police run workshops in which community members are put in scenario’s where they take the role of counter-terrorism police officers who watch a ‘cell’ and debate if they should move in.
The Channel Project - this is a government funded project where police meet with young people in forums and have open discussions and, through this, identify who they think are potential extremists. There has been similar advice given to teachers in schools with classroom discussions on political issues, and to university lecturers.

[Extracted from the article ‘Reforming Islam in the name of Terroism’ by Dr Abdul Wahid]