Responding to Eliza Manningham-Buller’s speech, Tory leader David Cameron makes his recommendations for countering the threat of terrorism: “… we need to change our attitude to human rights. The Human Rights Act was a new Labour flagship but its totemic status has made ministers unwilling to acknowledge how much it is hampering the fight against terrorism.”
Cameron also advocates “a much more rigorous approach to combating Islamic fundamentalism. The government seems confused as to what fundamentalism actually is. On the one hand ministers – perfectly reasonably – express concern about women who wear the veil while teaching. On the other hand they pay for extremist preachers of hate such as Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who supports suicide bombings, to attend conferences. We need to embrace genuinely moderate Muslims…. Those who distance themselves from terrorism while seeking to radicalise young Muslims into despising the West are part of the problem. Groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir should be banned.”
Sunday Times, 12 November 2006
As Osama Saeed points out, here Cameron rejects one of Manningham-Buller’s own points – that it is a mistake to “confuse fundamentalism with terrorism”.