PRESS RELEASE
On Friday 1 March 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chose to speak in front of 10 Downing Street addressing the issue of extremism. Mr Sunak took the extraordinary step to make a special address to talk about the safety of our members of Parliament, the integrity of our democratic process and the need to ensure that Britain does not ‘descend into polarised camps’.
These are all objectives that we at the Muslim Council of Britain would enthusiastically endorse and support.
However, Mr Sunak’s speech not only attempted to smear hundreds and thousands of protestors calling for peace in Gaza, it was also peppered with ill-defined warnings of extremism from ‘Islamists’ and the far-right. We await to see how the government will expand its definition of extremism and whether they would also cover large swathes of the Conservative Party leadership who have directed divisive and hateful rhetoric against Muslims, and the large portion of the Party’s membership with conspiratorial views about Muslims.
That the same people would choose to consider mainstream, diverse and democratic British Muslim representative bodies as extremist is particularly ironic. In his Downing Street speech, the Prime Minister wanted to ensure that ‘no extremist organisations or individuals are being lent legitimacy…by their actions and interactions with central government. You cannot be part of our civic life if your agenda is to tear it down.’
The day before, in a speech to the Community Security Trust on 29 February, Mr Sunak justified the defunding of the Interfaith Network because ‘a trustee from the Muslim Council of Britain whose previous leaders have taken positions that contradict our fundamental values we ended their funding.’ No evidence has been given of this, nor evidence of how current leaders contradict our fundamental values.
Do these fundamental values apply to Conservative Party members as well? The Conservative Party has refused to ascribe exactly why Mr Lee Anderson MP was wrong for declaring that the London Mayor was allegedly ‘controlled by Islamists’. We also find from a poll of party members that 58% of those surveyed think Islam is a threat to the British way of life, while 52% of members think it’s true that “Parts of many European cities are under the control of Sharia Law and are ‘no-go’ zones for non-Muslims”.
The issue of defining extremism has therefore eluded successive governments, and for good reason. We endorse the 15-point test set by former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Lord David Anderson for any extremism definition and strategy, to ensure that it is robust, well-evidenced and consistent (see https://terrorismlegislationreviewer.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Terrorism-Acts-Report-2015-Print-version.pdf).
At Downing Street, Mr Sunak said that ‘our Britain must not be a country in which does not descend into polarised camps with some communities living parallel lives. It is not enough to live side-by-side, we must live together united by shared values and a shared commitment to this country.
These are arguments we have seen before, again, erroneously, to somehow argue that British Muslims live parallel lives.
The census shows the very opposite for Muslims:
- British Identity: A majority (51%) of Muslims in England and Wales are British-born, with a significant portion (75%) identifying as British. Additionally, over 90% of Muslims are fluent in English or consider it their primary language.
- Urban Concentration: The Muslim population remains concentrated in deprived urban areas, warranting increased attention and inclusion in the government’s future leveling up strategies.
The two-way street of integration, as laid out by then Prime Minister Cameron, is one we strongly support, as we fight against those who aim to divide our society. In 2018, we laid out 5 principles as part of our report entitled “Our Shared British Future: Muslims and Integration in the UK”, which remain very relevant:
– Equal Integration for All: all have an onus to support integration as a “two way street”
– Break Down Barriers: work towards tackling the challenges hindering integration
– Celebrate British Diversity: celebrate the successes of our model of integration
– Role of Faith in Integration: recognise how faith can support integration efforts
– Avoid Conflating Integration & Extremism: integration efforts are hampered when seen through the lens of security
As some choose to fabricate claims about those who participate in our democracy, we now need to look forward to a positive leadership that eschews culture wars and bring our communities together.
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