Our politicians must end their fear and evasion on Islam
The fear of offending Muslims by speaking the truth is endemic in the mainstream British political class, and has been so for decades. We cannot afford politically correct evasions
The Home Secretary Theresa May has promised — or threatened, depending on your point of view — new measures to deal with increasing extremism in Britain. Everyone knows what she meant, but what she meant was not quite what she said.
What she meant, of course, was the urgent need to deal with Islamic extremism, but like most mainstream western politicians on this subject, Ms May, in her Conservative Party conference speech, became all culturally sensitive rather than speaking the blunt truth.
After the usual pre-emptive reassurances about Islam being a religion of peace etc, Ms May referred to the need for radical changes to personal freedoms that Britons have enjoyed for hundreds of years. She will introduce Banning Orders and Extreme Disruption Orders targeting, as she put it “neo-Nazism and other forms of extremism as well as Islamist extremists”.
Note the train of thought in that last sentence, “as well as Islamist extremists” takes third place to “neo-Nazism and other forms of extremism”, even though Islamism is by far her greatest worry.
The problem here is more than some linguistic sleight-of-hand. This generalising of the problem of Islamic terrorism to include “other forms of extremism” really could become a threat to freedoms we have always taken for granted.
For example, expressed opinions that are within the law could be banned on social media. The British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL) could be virtually outlawed.
And this can happen because politicians are desperate not to offend Muslims by pointing out specific problems relating to their community. Instead, everyone, for reasons of “balance” and excessive deference to Muslim sensitivities must be tarred with the same brush.
Loss of freedom is too high a price to pay for failure to confront Islam and Islamism head-on.