RSS

Contact us

Thursday 4 December 2008

The Spectator’s Notes

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

The latest government guidelines for preventing violent extremism in British universities walk a tightrope. On the one hand, they usefully illustrate certain situations which may arise ‘on campus’. What happens, for example, if a martial arts club starts adding political discussion groups to its agenda? What should you do when prayer rooms are taken over by a group that does not allow others in? How can you recognise the ‘single narrative’ which extremists use to win recruits? The document has sensible advice. On the other hand, it uses a different language from past official guidance to avoid causing offence. It keeps speaking of ‘al-Qa’eda-influenced terrorism’ as being the main problem, and eschews any mention of ‘Islamic terrorism’ or even ‘Islamist terrorism’. Obviously it is right to avoid giving gratuitous hurt, but the trouble is that the name ‘al-Qa’eda’ does not do the job properly. One of the most important lessons about Islamist extremism, well described in Ed Husain’s book, The Islamist, is that it is protean in form. There are Wahabis and members of the Muslim Brotherhood and followers of Jamaat Islamiya and of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Much of it has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. There are organisations that emerge, get into trouble and then vanish, only to reappear in different forms. There are some adherents of nasty groups who are not personally dangerous, and there are some adherents of apparently innocuous groups who are very dangerous indeed. As the document unfolds, it has to use the word ‘Muslim’ many times in order to be clear what it is talking about, and yet it shies away from one of the hardest things about the problem — its pervasiveness.

Studying some papers from 1981, I noticed that, in that year, Time magazine made Lech Walesa Man of the Year. Last month, it made Vladimir Putin Person (as it is now called) of the Year. Is this where we have got to since freedom came to Eastern Europe?

More articles from: Charles Moore | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved