The prime minster made headlines over the weekend as he warned that Muslim communities in Britain were ‘quietly condoning’ the ideology of Islamic State. Cameron called for more ‘personal responsibility’ to address the continued threat of British civilians travelling to the Middle East and potentially returning with hostile intent. Yet the arguments that IS use to recruit – particularly around what has happening in Syria – need to be challenged more effectively by government who need to lead on a louder discussion as to the United Kingdom’s policies towards the Middle East.
The scale of the challenge is clear. According to the United Nations more than half the countries in the world are currently generating fighters for extremist groups such as al-Qaida and IS. More than 700 British extremists are thought to have travelled to Syria – with about half subsequently returning to the UK. We are particularly sensitive to this issue in Brent, where I am a councillor, one of the most diverse borough’s in Britain and one of 50 ‘priority areas’ identified by the Home Office.
In response to the prime minister’s words Sayeeda Warsi warned that ‘the government is aware of how disengaged it is from large sections of the British Muslim communities’. To deal with the challenge of the IS recruitment requires more effective engagement and leadership both with and from our own communities. This means, first, realising that it is a small minority who are mobilising to the IS flag, according to Islamic Relief only 0.02 per cent of British Muslims have travelled to the Middle East. Second that we need to have a more prominent and public discussion as to what is happening in Iraq and Syria and the UK’s policies towards it.
Giving local authorities the statutory duty to ‘prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and extremism’ is all well and good but only if communities in these areas feel that they have empowered allies at a local level rather than top down driven bodies snooping on them.
Those who make positive public discussion possible make negative private discussion inevitable. IS thrives on these private networks sending out 100,000 tweets a day, which has led to the European Union setting up an internet referrals unit at Europol to address the increasing amount of terrorist and extremist propaganda available on the internet.
The UK’s Syria policy – as it exists – is barely ever mentioned despite the conflict being the worst seen globally for a generation. Back in 2013 when parliament failed to agree on military action in Syria the prime minister concluded that, ‘it is very clear tonight that, while the House has not passed a motion, it is clear to me that the British parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action. I get that and the government will act accordingly’.
This dramatic political moment appears to have closed the book on the conflict in Syria as far as British decision makers are concerned whilst on the ground it burns more brightly than ever with an estimated 220,000 people killed and almost half the population being forced from their homes.
Despite 4 million refugees having fled Syria already the government has been determined to keep the numbers accepted by the UK to the few hundreds. Instead of simply trying to insulate ourselves from the consequences of the Syrian conflict – be it IS or the challenge of fleeing refugees – the UK should be leading the way and accepting more desperate refugees. It is both the morally and strategically right thing to do.
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James Denselow is a cabinet member on the London borough of Brent. He tweets @cllrjdenselow
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