Over at the Daily Telegraph spy novelist and “security analyst” Alan Judd informs the paper’s readers that “the great majority of terrorists in Britain, unsurprisingly, have been Muslim males aged 16-34” (which of course completely ignores far-right terrorists and dissident Republicans in Northern Ireland).
But how to identify those Muslim males who may pose a terrorist threat? Judd explains:
Leading British Islamic groups have urged the government to consult Muslims over plans for combating extremism, warning that knee-jerk policies risk exacerbating the problem and damaging social cohesion.
The home secretary, Theresa May, has proposed a series of measures to address the radicalisation of Muslims, including new controls on the internet and the banning of groups preaching hate.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) – which described the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week as “a horrific instance of extremism” – said that while a new and effective strategy was needed, it must not be rushed through at the expense of British Muslims or society at large.
“We hope wisdom prevails as we reflect on the response of these past few days and the missed opportunities of previous years,” it said in a statement on Sunday. “We must be vigilant and ensure we do not inadvertently give into the demands of all extremists: making our society less free, divided and suspicious of each other. Lessons from the past indicate that policies and measures taken in haste can exacerbate extremism.”
Following the attack on soldier Drummer Lee Rigby outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich on Wednesday, new YouGov research finds the British public resolute in their perceptions of the terrorist threat level and in their attitudes towards the Muslim community.
The Parti Quebecois government, already involved in a political battle to toughen the province’s language law, has placed another emotionally charged identity issue on the back burner.
The government has delayed its plan to set limits on religious accommodations until the fall and even begun referring to it in less contentious terms.
A New York Police Department detective told a federal judge that he’s seen no evidence that one of his informants brought up the subject of jihad as a way to bait Muslims into making incriminating remarks. But text messages obtained by The Associated Press show otherwise.
Does Islamic law, Sharia, have a place in American courts? A lot of state legislatures don’t think so, and there is a large movement to ban its application in the domestic courts, state and federal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfRXDDltCDQ
According to the Observatory of Islamophobia in France, the total number of registered cases has gone up by 28 percent in just one year.
The figures also show that the Internet has become the new battlefield. According to the Observatory, a rising number of hate mails are being circulated through internet, which describe Muslims as terrorists, extremists and a danger to other cultures.
One Society Many Cultures has issued a statement opposing further restrictions on the right of Muslim women in France to wear the hijab.
A US panel criticized Western European countries Tuesday for “aggressive secularism” as it released a report on religious freedom that took aim at laws banning full-face veils in public.
For the first time, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom — whose members are appointed by the government — included a chapter on the region in its annual review of tolerance of other faiths around the world.
Because Western Europe generally has a very good record, “it’s easy to overlook the fact that there are some questions and problematic issues emerging there” related to religious dress and customs, commission chair Katrina Lantos Swett told reporters. “In some countries a very aggressive secularism is putting people of religious faith in uncomfortable and difficult positions.”
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown denounces drone attacks against the populations of Muslim-majority countries as “state-sponsored, state-activated, state-engineered terrorism”. She writes: “Western leaders are blindingly proud of their democracies and human rights but how much better are they today than the Muslim terrorists they are trying to defeat? In fact, in terms of numbers of innocent dead, they are a good deal worse.”