Prime Minister targets "anti-British" Muslims in landmark speech

Prime Minister, David Cameron has finally woken up. He announced his 5-year plan to tackle extremism in the UK, at Ninestiles School, in Birmingham.

In his landmark speech, David Cameron addressed the failure of integration by many UK citizens who although were born and brought up in Britain, somehow do not feel that they can identify with this country, and are “hostile to basic liberal values.”

The Prime Minister has specifically focussed on those Muslims who are quick to defend and blame other sectors of the community, such as blaming the Jews for exercising malicious and vindictive power; or the ideology that the 9/11 attack in the US were inspired by an Israeli intelligence agency, or suggesting how Britain had allowed the 7/7 attacks ten years back as they wanted an anti-Muslim backlash.

Cameron stated, “When you look in detail at the backgrounds of those convicted of terrorist offences, it is clear that many of them were first influenced by what some would call non-violent extremists. It may begin with hearing about the so-called Jewish conspiracy and then develop into hostility to the West and fundamental liberal values, before finally becoming a cultish attachment to death.”

To clarify his stance, he asserted that he was not targeting or attacking a particular group or religion; he aims to combat extremism. He said, “As we debate these issues, neither should we demonise people of particular backgrounds. Every one of the communities that has come to call our country home has made Britain a better place. And because the focus of my remarks today is on tackling Islamist extremism – not Islam the religion – let me say this.”

The Prime Minister underlined how it was important to pinpoint the reasons behind someone joining extremist groups and how one gets radicalised. He also stressed how the causes of these groups should be de-glamourised and people, especially the youth, ought to know the barbarities that these extremist groups represent.

Cameron expressed, “And here’s my message to any young person here in Britain thinking of going out there: You won’t be some valued member of a movement. You are cannon fodder for them. They will use you. If you are a boy, they will brainwash you, strap bombs to your body and blow you up. If you are a girl, they will enslave and abuse you. That is the sick and brutal reality of ISIL.”

He also suggested that it was their failure of integrating in the UK and the lack of sense of belonging which ultimately lures them into joining groups such as Islamic state.

Cameron also implied that schools and housing estates dominated by a single Muslim community must become ethnically mixed in order to put an end to segregation in Britain.

While some may agree with the Prime Minister, others have reacted against him. Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West said that his plan was “not the right approach.” She said, “Do we then say, ‘we are going to make social housing but we have to put a cap here, and we’re going to make it 30 per cent or 40 per cent of [black and ethnic minority] people’? Is that how we force integration?”

Paul Cheshire, emeritus professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics (LSE) said, “There is absolutely no evidence that this sort of social engineering, to generate social mixture, improves anybody’s welfare.”

In order to combat extremism, David Cameron spoke about giving the power to parents to cancel their children's passports if the suspect that they had plans of joining Islamic State, in order to curb radicalisation, as well as preventing their children from being exploited and attracted to these vengeful extremist groups.

However, Lord Dolar Popat agrees to the strategies that Cameron has proposed in tackling extremism in Britain, in order to prevent more home-grown terrorists to be born.

He said, “David Cameron has rightly identified that countering extremist ideology, particularly in the Muslim community, is the 'struggle of our generation'. For too long politicians have been afraid to stand up for Britain and British values. As the Prime Minister’s speech acknowledged, too often we let the extremists set the agenda, rather than setting out ourselves the overwhelming positives that our country offers. The Hindu community have, almost universally, settled in Britain without issue. We have integrated, upheld and adhered to British values and always spoken positively of the place we call ‘home’.”

He went on to add, “So too have the vast majority of the Muslim community. It is easy to forget that the people who have suffered the most because of these extremists are innocent and law-abiding Muslims, tarred by the same brush. The Prime Minister’s speech acknowledged this, and – in perhaps the most comprehensive speech of this nature by a politician in living memory – looked at the causes of extremism, and outlined how the Government will tackle them.”

In order to win against the struggle of extremism, the Prime Minister's propose strategy includes enabling the communications watchdog Ofcom to nail foreign television channels that broadcast extremist messages; make “incentivise” schools to become more mixed; demand that the internet service providers do more to remove extremist material, as well as identify those who are responsible for it; improve the strategy of combatting extremism in prison; launch a study looking at how extremism spreads, plus much more.

David Cameron's proposed strategy will be reviewed and will be implemented from October 2015.