Shadow minister for militant Islam

Meet the shadow minister for militant Islam

James Forsyth

29 August 2007

/article_images/articledir_236/118191/1_listing.jpg

Paul Goodman MP has a tricky brief

Soon after Goodman and I talked it became apparent that the government had invited the MCB back into the fold, in a reversal of the position announced by Ruth Kelly last autumn when she shut them out on the grounds that they were too ambivalent about the need for integration. Goodman was sanguine about dealing with the MCB, saying, ‘Obviously, whether you’re a minister or an opposition spokesman you have to deal with a body like the MCB with a lot of affiliates.’ However, he frets that the MCB gives too much house room to separatism and that we might see a similar situation emerge to Northern Ireland where the SDLP was undermined by the government constantly going over their heads to talk to Sinn Fein/IRA. A notably different take from Warsi who suggested after 7/7 that Britain needed to talk to the extremists as it had done in Northern Ireland.

Having identified the problem, Goodman needs to come up with some solutions — something which he acknowledges is far more difficult. To date the Tories’ main idea is banning Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist Islamist group, which might do some good but is hardly a magic bullet. Whether the Tories can develop a coherent approach to this issue will be a major test of whether they have the maturity to govern. Considering who his boss is, the onus is squarely on Goodman.