Preventing Violent Extremism

Panorama’s recent programme, provocatively titled ‘Muslim first, British second’, raised some serious allegations over the government’s Preventing Violent Extremism policy. If true, this marks a serious low point in relations with UK Muslims and points to a disastrous loss of trust. (Of course this presupposes that much existed in the first place which in recent years is difficult to imagine).

 

Her Majesty’s Government has pursued an overt policy of by-passing established Muslim institutions and community based groups in an attempt to reach out directly to ‘ordinary Muslims’. As a tactic this has many ramifications, many of which are still being played out. Here we are not talking about those organisations considered by the establishment radical and as such beyond the pale such as al-Muhajiroon as well as the non-violent (but separatist) HT but bodies such as MCB and MAB amongst many others which have positively engaged with civic society on many levels. Lumped together and dismissed as Islamists, the government has sought alternative partners and is actively procuring associates to promote its programme.

 

HMG, specifically the Department of Communities and Local Government currently headed by Hazel Blears, launched its Preventing Violent Extremism strategy as part of a multi-agency programme back in 2007. Since then, it has announced intentions to provide grants of £70m to a number of organisations and government institutions and allocated much of its budget. Nothing wrong with that you might say, particularly as these funds are directed at such innocuous projects as youth centres, teaching English and strengthening community leadership.  How the success of these funds will be measured will an interesting question to ask.

 

However the Panorama programme confirmed underlying suspicion that these projects were being used as Trojan horses to infiltrate the Muslim community. Making such a statement a couple of years ago would have left you open to accusations of paranoia and of having a persecution complex.

 

But we shouldn’t be surprised and it is naive to have expected otherwise.

 

What is more worrying is that not only does this leave those well intentioned public-minded citizens who are willing to devote themselves to their communities left open to accusations of espionage (it now seems reasonably founded), but it completely undermines any residual veneer of trust.

 

The programme goes on to allege that the government has been collating the names of every Muslim who has expressed public views against foreign policy. Coupled with proposals to monitor travel patterns, force ID cards on an unconvinced population and the power of modern database technology, this has the potential to monitor those with these views as enemies. Some Muslims already feel frustrated that their views are not being taken seriously and will take this as further evidence of the futility of political engagement if this will effectively put you on a secret service black list and in effect criminalises thoughts contrary to government policy.

 

Another central thrust of the programme (supported by an alleged leak of Contest 2 in the Guardian) is that the governement also seeks to isolate Muslims who hold traditional doctrinal views. This will extend the definition of E in PVE to those who believe that, for example, homosexuality is a sin. So the government will be left appealing to a totally unrepresentative officially anointed crew that will be considered tame enough to be deserving of an audience, grants and commendations.

 

If the aim of the PVE agenda is to change Islamic beliefs and traditions, then it is well advised now that this will fail and no further taxpayer’s money should be wasted. It will only serve to reinforce existing distrust with all government initiatives vis a vis the Muslim community and demoralise those who are willing to work with them on the basis of shared values and mutual respect. The government will risk being left talking to a pre-endorsed rump which does not honestly articulate the beliefs of the majority of the Muslims.

 

It will be interesting to see development of these policies over the next few years but I suspect much money, effort and goodwill will be wasted.

 

Big Bother

Now whilst I try to avoid getting sucked into the detrius of junk TV, I have to admit to wasting a few hours watching Celebrity Big Brother over the last week. Unsurprisingly this has been prompted by the debate of the day that has exorcised the international media on what must have been a very slow news cycle.

For the uninitiated, this excuse for a social experiment locks half a dozen z-list celebrities in a house, points cameras at them 24-hours a day and sees what happens when the eponymous ‘Big Brother’ manipulates their environment sowing discord in the name of entertainment. Apart from only recognising the Face (only those of us watching TV in the 1980’s truly remember the A-team in all its macho-glory – ‘I luv it when a plan comes together’ and ‘I pity the fool’) I didn’t know any of the others.

Anyway, one day, two particular characters in this car wreck of a show, Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty have an argument over oxo-cubes and chicken curry. Small thing to argue about you might think, but bear with me. This descends into an uncontrolled rant, a tirade of incomprehensible gibberish from Goody whose apparent claim to fame is that she was on another version of the show. In fact her most marketable characteristic apparently lay in her panache for asking stupid questions, chavette like behaviour and ‘down to earth girl in the next council estate’ charm which has garnered her £8m so far! Shilpa Shetty on the other hand hails from Bollywood royalty and apart from being cultured and possessing dignity, knows how to string words together to make a coherent sentence.

So when Goody and her Goons gang up on Shetty and say things like ‘She doesn’t speak English’, ‘She should go back home’, wilfully mispronounce her name, call her ‘Popodom’, and other petty gibes, the question that Shilpa Shetty and the world ponders is ‘Is this what Britain is today?’. To be sure Goody and the Goons are bullies but are they racist? They are no doubt extremely ignorant and represent an unpalatable side of British society. But is it representative, or is it merely a class issue representing the views of the young disenfranchised underclass? These are questions that will no doubt me the subject of future media relations PhDs.

To give the benefit of the doubt to these girls, especially when Shetty herself was magnanimous in her forgiveness is probably the reasonable thing to do. To foist upon them a status as a barometer on British society is a bit harsh. Indians themselves are not immune from a bit of racism and class intolerance themselves – see the caste system for one. There’s just that nagging feeling at the back of my mind which says you don’t have to scratch too far below the surface to bring out people’s innate intolerances and prejudices.

I hope Channel 4 never do another Big Brother. Its an awful concept for a show.