The Islamist threat is all too real – Gove understands it needs tackling

Mar 18, 2024 by Jill

by Nick Timothy, Telegraph:

Muslim Brotherhood ideology is rife in Britain and globally. It cannot live alongside Western values.

Responding to the Government’s new definition of extremism, the Muslim Association of Britain called the move “cynical… Orwellian” and an “erosion of civil liberties”.

The response was a case study in how Islamists use the language of liberalism to pursue illiberal objectives. For the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) is one of several organisations declared extremist by Michael Gove in Parliament last week. Previously, an expert government report called it “the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK”.

Its concern for civil liberties does not apply to those who criticise Islamism, comment on Islam in ways it dislikes, or depict Mohammed in ways it finds offensive. It demands “action” against those who blaspheme – even if the blasphemers are not Muslim. It is among the organisations pushing for an official definition of “Islamophobia”, a one-religion blasphemy law that would be used to limit scrutiny of Islamists.

British politicians and those with responsibility in wider society urgently need to understand who these extremists are, which organisations speak for them, and where their ideas come from. If they fail to do so, not only violence but political subjugation awaits us.

Extremists insist, and sincerely believe, that they act in the name of Islam. Sermons by some imams – held in British mosques, often broadcast online for all to see – quote the Koran and sayings of Mohammed recorded in hadiths to justify hatred and violence. One hadith claims Mohammed said, “The hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’”

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