veiled4allah

about extremism and British Muslims

Last Sunday, London's Sunday Times had yet another leaked memo. This wasn't more of the Downing Street Memo saga, but instead a memo called Young Muslims and Extremism (1, 2, 3, 4, all PDF). Although the Times's companion article plays up the angle about extremists recruiting young Muslims in colleges and universities, this isn't the main focus of the memo and in fact is only mentioned in passing. The main focus of the memo is to look at factors that may contribute to extremism among young British Muslims, including the high levels of economic disadvantagement among British Muslims, anger over British foreign policy, alienation caused by Islamophobia and racism, and the need for greater engagement between the government and society on the one hand and the Muslim community on the other hand. And the memo also outlines proposed ways to deal with these issues. As Milan Rai notes, this isn't exactly the official line coming out of London these days. A group called Justice Not Vengeance has launched a campaign to pressurize the media to give more attention to this leaked memo and its conclusions. Later: As reported by the Scotsman, Herald, Guardian, Independent, Mail, and Telegraph (basically, almost every major UK paper - oh, and the BBC too), a leading British think tank on foreign affairs, Chatham House, issued a report (PDF) on Security, Terrorism, and the UK. The newspapers draw particular attention to the following passage from the report:

A key problem with regard to implementing 'Prevention' and 'Pursuit' is that the UK government has been conducting counter-terrorism policy 'shoulder to shoulder' with the US, not in the sense of being an equal decision-maker, but rather as pillion passenger compelled to leave the steering to the ally in the driving seat. There is no doubt that the situation over Iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the UK, and for the wider coalition against terrorism. It gave a boost to the Al-Qaeda network's propaganda, recruitment and fundraising, caused a major split in the coalition, provided an ideal targeting and training area for Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, and deflected resources and assistance that could have been deployed to assist the Karzai government and to bring bin Laden to justice. Riding pillion with a powerful ally has proved costly in terms of British and US military lives, Iraqi lives, military expenditure, and the damage caused to the counter-terrorism campaign.

Yes, Iraq does have something to do with it, and Blair's tendency to act like Bush's poodle is putting his country at risk. The Washington Post picks this one up too. Update 8/28: The British Foreign Office now gets into the act.

young, Muslim, and British

Thanks to an email tip from George, I found a special section by the British newspaper The Guardian about young Muslims in the UK. The Guardian held a conference with 100 young British Muslims and has a large number of articles about it. Hopes and challenges provides an overview by the Guardian's editors, while Young, Muslim and British provides another perspective by columnist Madeleine Bunting. The views of the young British Muslims themselves are provided at In their own words and the eight panel discussions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). A couple of articles also turn the analysis back on the Guardian to critique its selection of questions and topics: How to face up to perceptions - and frame the right questions and Why are all white men so aggressive?. The entire package is excellent and I highly recommend it if you really want to learn about what young Muslims think, in their own words. I think that a similar conference held in the U.S. would produce similar results.