The former cabinet minister Lady Warsi has taken issue with David Cameron’s decision to focus on people in British Muslim communities who may condone Islamist extremism while brushing over other factors in radicalisation.
The Conservative peer, who has criticised the government for failing to adequately engage with Muslim communities, made the remarks on Twitter as the prime minister delivered a speech on the subject in Slovakia.
“Agree w/ @David_Cameron analysis of ISIS extremist ideology, the threat it poses & the role the British Muslim Communities have to play (but) fail to understand decision 2 major on the “one” reason of “some” in the community who “may” condone yet brush over “other” reasons,” she wrote.
Cameron warned in a speech on Friday that the growing threat posed by Islamic State could only be defeated if Muslim communities and internet service providers stop giving any credence to an Islamic extremist ideology that claims the west is evil, democracy is wrong and women are inferior.
Following the speech, Dr Shuja Shafi, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, took issue with the way some of the media had portrayed the speech, including the Daily Mail, which ran a story headlined “PM: UK Muslims Helping Jihadis”.
He also called on Cameron to work with all sections of the Muslim community and argued that simplifying the causes of radicalisation for tabloid consumption helped no one but the extremists.
“The prime minister is absolutely right in saying that finger-pointing when it comes to radicalisation is wrong and dangerous,” said Shafi. “Yet the media response to the prime minister’s speech suggests that the finger is firmly pointing only at Muslim communities, even though Muslims and Muslim organisations around the country have loudly and unequivocally condemned terrorism, they continue to be demonised.
“We are in no doubt that there are many shortcomings in Muslim civil society, which like wider society, is struggling to challenge the terrorist narrative that is potent outside the mosque and in the margins of the internet.
“But to suggest that Muslim communities have led young people to extremism or gives credence to extremist ideology is erroneous, wrong and counterproductive.
“It has been suggested that Muslims are not doing enough and somehow condone extremism. We would argue that clear evidence should be presented and wrongdoing challenged, rather than perpetuate insinuation persistently.”
Shafi said blaming only Muslims for terrorism is “just as bad as placing responsibility only at the door of government and its agencies”.
Cameron’s speech was heavily trailed overnight in newspapers, which prominently featured his comments about the possibility that some Muslims may be “quietly condoning” extremism online or in their communities.
In his speech in Bratislava, Slovakia, the prime minister also said the UK would modestly expand its programme for accepting vulnerable refugees from conflict zones, such as Syria. A government source said Britain would take “a few hundred more” on top of its promise to take 500 people by 2017.
However, the focus of his address was on tackling radicalisation, calling for communities to do more to prevent young Muslims across Europe from starting down a path that ends with them being lured to fight in Syria.
Speaking at the Globsec conference in Slovakia, he said: “Too often we hear the argument that radicalisation is the fault of someone else. That blame game is wrong – and it is dangerous. By accepting the finger-pointing – whether it’s at agencies or authorities – we are ignoring the fact that the radicalisation starts with the individual.”
He was speaking in a week in which one Briton, Talha Asmal, is believed to have killed himself as a suicide bomber in Iraq and three Bradford sisters took their children to Syria.
Cameron said: “The eagerness to pass the buck is not just wrongheaded and hypocritical, it also allows extremism to flourish. Instead of endlessly pointing the finger at others, Muslim communities should face up to their own responsibilities.
“This paves the way for young people to turn simmering prejudice into murderous intent. To go from listening to firebrand preachers online to boarding a plane to Istanbul and travelling onward to join the jihadis.”
He said there were Muslims who bought into aspects of the critique of the west but didn’t go so far as to advocate violence. By accepting some of those prejudices and telling fellow Muslims to accept aspects of that world view, the extremist Islamic narrative was given weight, he said.
As a result, Cameron said, “a troubled boy who is angry at the world, or a girl [who is] looking for an identity, for something to believe in, and there’s something that is quietly condoned online or perhaps even in parts of your local community, then it’s less of a leap to go from a British teenager to an Isil [Isis] fighter or an Isil wife than it would be for someone who hasn’t been exposed to these things”.
He also expressed his surprise at the background of some terrorists.
“These are young people, boys and girls, leaving often loving, well-to-do homes, good schools and bright prospects, travelling thousands of miles from home to strap explosives to their chests and blow themselves up and kill innocent people; to live in a place where marriage is legal at nine and where women’s role is to serve the jihadists; to be part of a so-called state whose fanatics are plotting and encouraging acts of despicable terrorism in the countries from which they have come.
“It is an Islamist extremist ideology, one that says the west is bad and democracy is wrong, that women are inferior and homosexuality is evil. It says religious doctrine trumps the rule of law and caliphate trumps nation state and it justifies violence in asserting itself and achieving its aims. The question is: how do people arrive at this world view?”
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said Cameron was right to highlight the causes of radicalisation but she called for the government to do more. “The Prevent programme isn’t up to the scale of the problem and needs a major overhaul,” she said. “And we also need a stronger counter-narrative, online and offline, which busts the dangerous myths propagated by extremists.”