The New Nation - Internet Edition

When Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, finally took the reigns of power, he was warmly applauded for the new tone he set for politics in general and his seemingly more calculated and cautious approach to tackling the scourge of terrorism. This included a much cooler relationship with US President, George W Bush, than that of his predecessor Tony Blair.

This month, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, launched a much-needed fresh approach to the Prevent component in the Government counter-terrorism strategy. With resources allocated, she said this will "enable us to develop a new kind of counter terrorist policing." To a chorus of charges from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats of breaching rules so close to the May 1 local and mayoral elections, she announced that she would be providing "more than three hundred new police posts across the country over the next three years." Their job in the Prevent strategies would be to target radicalisation in Muslim areas and therefore put a curb on potential terrorists. The new roles included training others, briefing on where radicalism might be happening, identifying people at risk of radicalisation, working with colleges, prisons and schools and building links with mosques.

In a speech to Basic Command Unit Commanders, Smith referred to her visits to Pakistan and Bangladesh, where she said their two governments had also seen the need to develop their own Prevent strategy. The new government in Islamabad is "determined to tackle the social and economic issues that it believes can create a climate for radicalisation." It wants to take on unregulated madrasahs, to challenge the world view of the terrorists, and communicate a credible counter narrative that will have an impact on communities in both Pakistan and the UK. As part of this, she said she wanted to explore "inviting moderate imams from South Asia to support their counterparts in communities in Britain."

As with the recent initiative to empower women, all attempts to address some of the inequalities, prejudice and alienation suffered by the Muslim community should be welcomed. But why are they only being launched as part of the counter terrorism strategy, which Smith implicitly acknowledged in an interview with the News of the World was not succeeding? She said that the threat was actually increasing with still 30 active plots, 200 networks of terrorist cells and 2,000 individuals being monitored.

The Home Secretary admitted that it was not possible to "arrest our way" out of the terrorist threat and what was needed was a long-term approach. But singling out and targeting Muslims, however it may be couched, only serves to further stigmatise the community and can lead to the further alienation of Muslim youths, who feel like they are under siege.

In reassessing the Prevent component, Smith spelled out the need to address key challenges that drive radicalisation. But nowhere in her speech was there any mention of tackling some of the root political causes in this country. She said that what was needed first was to challenge both an ideology and an image of terrorism. The ideology promoted by terrorists "misreads a great religion, and wilfully distorts history and politics for its own purposes." It is inexcusable to glorify terrorism and call the indiscriminate killing of civilians heroic. But it is hard to ignore the fact that every terrorist video message speaks of the untold suffering caused by the disastrous 2003 Iraqi invasion and the dismal plight of the Palestinians while the world sits in silence.

The Government has continually pledged to put the creation of a viable Palestinian state at the top of its agenda, but increasingly stops short of even condemning the latest Israeli massacres. There can be no so-called neutral policy towards a belligerent aggressor which has occupied another territory for 60 years and has flagrantly breached international law with impunity. The Government has shown a vestige of regret for some of its mistakes over Iraq, but has fallen short of any real apology for the war that was based on false premises.

There are domestic issues that also need to be addressed: not just the rising tide of Islamophobia but the virtually annual bouts of anti-terrorism legislation that makes Muslims feel more and more like fifth columnists. The need for more draconian laws is highly questionable when you take into account official figures which show that counter-terrorism legislation has led to so few extra convictions in the last seven years. Statistics compiled from police records by the offices of the National Coordinator for Terrorist Investigations lists only 41 Terrorism Act convictions up until the end of March last year, out of 1,165 arrests since 2001: less than three per cent. In contrast, offences under other laws including murder and explosives offences, conspiracies, firearms, grievous bodily harm and other related offences have resulted in 183 convictions for terrorist suspects.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister appears to be retracting towards the discredited policies of his predecessor instead of being firmer in setting out his own vision. A complete break with the past is required and Brown needs to be more forceful in biting the bullet and calling for an inquiry into the Iraq war now and not waiting to follow on the coat-tails of the US again. As has been often repeated, any hopes of learning lessons from the threat of terrorism can only start with an independent judicial inquiry into the 2005 London bombings as is being called for by many of the survivors and families of the victims. Certainly, they do not want to wait for new legislation that will allow the overdue inquests to be held in secret.

A new long-term Prevent strategy for a different kind of counter-terrorist policing is certainly welcome as is this Government's call for a partnership with all the necessary players. These include all sections of the community and not just those selected by the Government. The deal Smith apparently struck with Pakistan, which has its own severe problems, to allow respected Islamic scholars to be brought over to Britain to combat extremism also appears to be a reverse of the Government's commitment to having more domestically-trained imams. It also contrasts with what Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, talked of in her speech to police commanders regarding the priority of strengthening leadership in Muslim communities by "increasing the number of home-grown imams." Of concern is the delay in establishing the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), which has been subjected to Government interference and hampered by the refusal by many mosques and Islamic organisations to give it support. In regards to this, it is important to note that research carried out by Chester University last year contradicted the Government's approach of blaming Imams for radicalising young British Muslims, claiming there was no evidence for this.

If the Government wants its anti-terrorism policy to succeed, it should look afresh at its failed strategy.

(Source: The Muslim News, UK)