Cover Story

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

Peter Oborne

24 September 2005

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

John Denham accuses the government of a ‘failure to understand’ the concerns of Muslims about foreign policy. ‘One of the reasons why people got so worked up about Zimbabwe is that they identified with the white farmers. In the same way young Muslims very much identify with Palestinians. We should recognise that areas like the Israel–Palestine conflict, Kashmir or Chechnya are of as much concern to these fellow British citizens as, say, the concern over the plight of white farmers in Zimbabwe to many in the majority population or as Israel’s security is to British Jews. The complaint that the suffering of Muslims in countries like Uzbekistan or Chechnya is given lower priority and lower concern does have a real foundation. The decision not to count civilian deaths in the Iraq war or Afghanistan causes deep offence. And the fact that these are not reported in the mainstream media does not mean that they are not well known and reported in the Muslim community. We need to recognise that some foreign policy has now a very direct impact on domestic policy. And we may well need to give [these things] higher priority and more energy, and indeed be prepared to change the emphasis of our foreign policy in order to safeguard our own security.’

John Denham warns that ‘the history of terrorism suggests that we may well be facing terrorism like the July bombings for a generation’, adding that ‘history also suggests that terrorism is rarely defeated until serious efforts are made to engage with the political and social problems that give rise to it in the first place’.

‘If a substantial section of the population believes that it is in any case subject to arbitrary injustice — at home or abroad — then it is much more difficult to win consent.’ Effective policing and intelligence, he says, depend ‘on the extent to which people feel fully integrated and respected as full members of society’. He does not believe that the British government is doing nearly enough to bring that about. And if we don’t get things right, warns Denham, then the terrorism blight could be with us for much longer than just one generation.