Cover Story

RACE AND CULTURE: ‘Israel’s actions affect our security’

24 September 2005

John Denham tells Peter Oborne that the domestic fight against terrorism requires the consent of the Muslim community

Denham supports the use of control orders and other forms of detention without trial. ‘There are clear circumstances in which preventive action — by detention, or otherwise restricting the liberty of individuals — is necessary. The threat is such that there will be situations in which intelligence indicates the involvement of individuals in terrorist planning, but where it is either insufficient to obtain a prosecution, or cannot be used in court without compromising sources. It is not realistic to say that we should allow the crime or terrorist act to be committed before acting.’

However, he questions the new moves to add deportation to those powers. ‘The Home Secretary told the House of Commons that control orders were sufficient. Now we are told we need deportation as well. My concern is this: if we were certain a few months ago that control orders were sufficient, why the need now to deport? Is it for security reasons or to make some kind of a point? I’ve no objection in principle to removing people from the country or preventing them coming here if they are not conducive to the public good. But I do have a concern that the energy of Parliament is being devoted to excluding a small group of foreign radicals when the major threat is not from these individuals at all. The government’s unremitting focus on legal measures aimed primarily at foreign radicals is in danger of distorting the counter-terrorism effort.’

Denham worries that ‘action against foreign radicals and controversial organisations is being given far higher priority than the challenge of long-term engagement with Muslim communities and with young Muslims in particular’. He is profoundly concerned about the need for an all-round counter-terrorism strategy which reaches to the root cause of alienation in the Muslim community, accusing the government of failing to give the ‘issues and concerns raised within the Muslim community any priority till after the London bombings’.

He complains that Ted Cantle’s 2001 report into the causes of the Oldham race riots, which highlighted the massive estrangement between the white and Asian communities, was largely ignored by government. ‘The action taken on the report was limited.’