by Paul Goodman, The Times
With extremism in British mosques and signs of sectarianism growing, government urgently needs to get a grip on the problem
[…] Islam is one of the three great Abrahamic religions. What has become of the self-confidence and intellectual endeavour of this ancient faith here in Britain? I write with a file in front of me culled from mosques in the weeks that followed October 7, 2023 and the Hamas atrocities in Israel. Comprised of clips from talks and sermons, it’s a sewer of support for terror, antisemitism, denial and conspiracy theory, including an appeal to worshippers to give funding for weapons.
The mosques might argue that the clips have been taken out of context. But there is a prima facie case here and elsewhere for prosecutions for religious and racial hatred — and perhaps, too, expressing support for terrorist organisations (though the legislation that bars it is riddled with loopholes). I have sent the file to the Home Office and asked how many prosecutions relating to such sermons there have been since that date, suspecting that there have been all too few.
There is extremism in all religions and none — Hindu extremism in Gujarat, Christian extremism in parts of the United States and Jewish extremism on the West Bank — but only one is a major security problem here. Counterextremism policy goes in trends and cycles: the latest sees a fascination with incels. But the bulk of the challenge lies elsewhere. Between the London Tube bombings of 2005 and the attack at Heaton Park synagogue last year, 71 per cent of terrorist incidents in Britain were executed by Islamists and their threats constitute 75 per cent of the caseload of Contest, the government’s counterterror strategy.
What should be done, not least now that Britain’s cities show signs, with the rise of the Gaza independents and Palestine flag-flying, of dividing into religious and ethnic blocs? There is a limit to what the state can and should do. But it must at least ensure that the public services it provides are free of support for extremism: that hospitals and schools are safe spaces for all-comers, that Islamist gangs don’t rule the roost in prisons, that funds raised for charity don’t end up funding terrorism, that marches and protests are free of incitement and that dubious figures don’t have the ear of ministers and subsidies from the taxpayer.