Finding Solutions, Refocusing Approaches

The Sectarian of State for Muslim Control has emerged once more to preach the gospel of the Venerable Tony as it applies to our Muslim communities. Ms Kelly has been meeting with academics and scholars from the said communities. Although they "came from different schools of thought and they represented a diverse range of opinions", by an astounding miracle of God's grace they all agreed with the Government that "we urgently need a new approach to tackling the violent extremism that seeks to undermine our society", though not the violent extremism which has already undermined Iraqi society. In a few weeks, once the back of the envelope has been filled, "the Government will set out a way forward", again.

Ms Kelly notes, again, that the "overwhelming majority in our Muslim communities" (they are not, you will note, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in our community) share the values of New Labour, said values being "the backbone of a pluralist society" whose political culture stretches all the way from the Venerable Tony to Daveybloke: respect for the law as embodied in Peter Goldsmith and various hopefuls for the House of Donors; freedom of speech insofar as the smooth working of Parliament is not disrupted by public opinion; equality of opportunity for those with similar incomes; responsibility towards others to the extent that it's good for business. A "tiny minority" seeks to undermine these values with "ideologies of hatred", the kind of ideology that wouldn't lift a finger to bomb a nation into democracy even if it had weapons of mass destruction. Such ideologies "have never broken into the political mainstream because the vast majority of the British public rejects their ugly message"; while at the last general election only seventy per cent of the British public rejected the Gospel of the Venerable Tony.

In the face of such fiendish foes, the Government's role "must be to support the law-abiding majority in confronting the ideology spread by extremists" by being "relentless in the struggle against the deprivation used by extremists to generate a sense of grievance". The July bombers did it because they were poor, it appears. They cannot have been proper Muslims, because "there is widespread consensus among Muslim scholars and academics that the extremists' arguments have no foundation in theology"; theology being absolute, monolithic and certainly not subject to change with the times. Accordingly, even though "it is not the Government's role to interfere in or steer religious debate", the Government is "proud to support organisations" which "welcome support in their efforts to stand up for the values they believe in". Pro-active non-interference is a wonderful thing, no doubt.

Our aim, as so often before, "must be not just to stop people committing violence but also to challenge the ideologies that drive them". And, as so often before, the mistakes that have been made in the past - oh yes, mistakes have been made - were simply the result of an excessive outpouring of virtue on the part of the Venerable Tony and his chums. They have, for example, "put too much faith in action, not enough in debate", and have been "guilty at times of trying to provide all the solutions"; having failed to realise that an excess of well-intentioned zeal can be upsetting in certain cultures. They have "sometimes fallen into the trap of setting too much store by the voice of a small number of organisations". To remedy this, the Government has "shifted funding to the organisations which are taking the lead by forging stronger links with other communities, providing high-quality teaching about Islam and standing up to extremist messages", rather than to organisations which are isolating themselves from other communities, providing shoddy teaching about Islam and failing to stand up to extremist messages. That ought to fix it.

"Where violent extremism seeks to drive us apart," Ms Kelly concludes, "we must work harder to overcome it together." Well, gosh, I never thought of that.