Michael Gove’s new definition of “extremism” is extremely silly

Mar 16, 2024 by Jill

by Ben Sixsmith, Artillery Row:

We cannot define such a vague term with such vague terms.

Did anyone have high hopes for Michael Gove’s definition of “extremism”? How can you trust someone to define the acceptable boundaries of belief when they do not appear to believe in anything except their own right to elevated political status?

“The United Kingdom is a success story,” Gove announces. One waits to hear exactly what the UK is succeeding in but no answers arrive.

“It is stronger because of its diversity,” Gove continues. This is the sort of cliché that makes it hard to believe that someone is sincere. Don’t get me wrong: there have of course been vast numbers of individuals who have benefited from an increase in racial and cultural diversity (though others, of course, have been disadvantaged). But according to what metrics has the UK been growing stronger?

Gove is just clearing his throat. He is here to talk about “the pervasiveness of extremist ideologies”, which:

… has become increasingly clear in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks and poses a real risk to the security of our citizens and our democracy. This is the work of Extreme Right-Wing and Islamist extremists who are seeking to separate Muslims from the rest of society and create division within Muslim communities.

It confuses me that someone could have missed the pervasiveness of “Islamist extremists” when a teacher was being driven into hiding, a Christian evangelist was being stabbed in the head, thousand were marching over French cartoons, MPs were being made the target of both failed and successful assassination attempts and bombs were going off in British cities and yet now been enlightened by the protests against Israel. What have you been doing? How the smaller, though very real, threat of the “Extreme Right-Wing” has become more clear is also obvious only to Mr Gove. While it is certainly true that both of these phenomena have a narrow and fanatical model of Islam, meanwhile, reducing their ideologies to that is foolish.

Anyway, here is the definition that Gove and friends have come up with:

Read here

Read also: Hope Not Hate sees ‘extremism’ everywhere by Rakib Ehsan, spiked

Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg explains ‘Front and centre of Hope Not Hate’s report, are elected members of Parliament including me and my fellow MPs Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger, Marco Longhi and more’ , from GB News (which is also on the list)

I share the government’s desire to tackle extremism. But their new definition won’t help by James Mildred, Premier Christianity