The problem with “extremism”
by Miriam Cates, Artillery Row:
Violence and intimidation are deplorable, but can there be a clear definition of a concept as subjective as “extremism”?
In pre-internet times, “big stories” such as political scandals or foreign conflicts used to dominate the news cycle for weeks. Nowadays, in a climate of twenty-four hour rolling news, attention quickly moves on. With every journalist constantly striving to land the next Twitter scoop, serious events are rapidly forgotten, buried under a pile of “breaking” and “exclusive” trivia.
So it seems to be for the serious events that occurred in Westminster on 21st of February, when House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle overrode centuries of parliamentary procedure to protect Labour MPs who were facing threats from “extremists” over a vote on the situation in Gaza. This was against the backdrop of appalling protests outside the Palace of Westminster, attempts to “shut down Parliament” and the projection of genocidal slogans onto our iconic national monument, the Elizabeth Tower.
There are numerous remarkable and frankly shocking dimensions to this story. Consider the response in the UK to the appalling attacks on Israel by Hamas, where instead of an outpouring of sympathy for the victims of unimaginably evil acts, hundreds of thousands of anti-Israel activists flocked to the streets to berate the Jewish nation before it had made any military response. Or consider the scandal of the inadequate policing of demonstrations that has allowed racism and overt support for terrorists to go unchecked and central London to become a “no-go” area for British Jews. Or contemplate the disgraceful levels of intimidation by anti-semites and far left activists who (successfully) tried to hijack democracy by bullying MPs into bowing to their demands. I could go on.
However one looks at it, British democracy is under threat. Domestic divisions are now seriously undermining national and international security. As Suella Braverman claimed — and George Galloway’s election proves — multiculturalism has indeed failed. Yet the rolling news cycle seems to have moved on from this existential crisis with little discussion of what the future might hold or how we can tackle the very real threat of radical Islamists and the useful idiots who enable them.
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