Anger over Cameron's race stance

Published on Saturday 5 February 2011 16:37

DAVID Cameron was facing accusations of stirring "hysteria and paranoia" about Muslims last night after he used a keynote speech to declare an end to "hands-off tolerance" of groups opposing liberal values.

• Cameron: Tough new line Photo provided by Munich Security Conference

Muslim leaders in Scotland and across the UK hit back at the Prime Minister, saying the implication that they were opposed to human rights was "deeply offensive".

In his speech in Munich Cameron said Muslim organisations should be questioned on their record on what he termed liberal values, and that multiculturalism had failed to bring society together and instead had encouraged young Muslims towards extremism.

Muslims also attacked the timing of the speech, which was delivered yesterday as members of the English Defence league (EDL) staged a protest in Luton called "No surrender to militant Islam".

In Scotland, Muslim leaders said Cameron was wrong to single out one section of society for attack. Salah Beltagui, convener of the Muslim Council of Scotland said: "All the Muslim organisations believe in human rights. He should not accuse a section of society like this and not others. There is a march today by the EDL and he has not said anything to keep those people under control."

Analysis on Cameron's vision of 'muscular liberalism'

Leader: Cameron's identity crisis

Beltagui said claims multiculturalism had failed were particularly off the mark in Scotland. Scots politicians said that multiculturalism should be "celebrated, not feared".

In his speech, Cameron called for an end to what he called "passive tolerance" and said it was time for a new "muscular liberalism" which stood up for common values.

Turning to Muslim groups, but without naming any specifically, he said that many had been "showered with public money despite doing little to combat extremism".

Expecting that such groups would act as a "gateway" in the fight against Islamic terrorism, he said, was "like turning to a right-wing fascist party to fight a violent white supremacist movement." He indicated that, in future, the state would demand to know whether such groups believed in human rights, equality and democracy before they got any support.

Again, without naming any specific groups, he said: "Fail these tests and the presumption should be not to engage with organisations. No public money. No sharing of platforms with ministers at home."

Cameron also claimed that a fear of appearing to be racist against people who were not white had led to a situation where "we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them". Consequently, Britain had been weaker in standing up to the influence of extremist groups than it had been against right-wing extremists.

The new approach of "muscular liberalism", however, would involve the country "actively promoting" its values. These he defined as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy, the rule of law and equal rights. Cameron made clear that he did not believe Islam was at the root of the problem. But he drew a clear link between "non-violent extremists" and terrorism, saying it was such ideology which lured young Muslims on the path to radicalisation.

He declared: "Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream. We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values."

The speech drew widespread condemnation from Muslim leaders last night. Anas Sarwar, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, said: "First of all, the timing of this is terrible given the EDL protests.

"Secondly, on one hand we have a Prime Minister talking about a Big Society, and then the next he is saying that multiculturalism hasn't worked and it doesn't fit into the society he says he is trying to build."

He added: "Part of building a strong society is about having different religions that we all respect while maintaining our traditions under British values of fairness, hard work and justice."

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said: "Multiculturalism has greatly strengthened Scotland's society, and our diversity of cultures and faiths as a nation should be celebrated not feared".

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim youth group the Ramadhan Foundation, said: "The speech by British Prime Minister David Cameron MP fails to tackle the stooge of the fascists EDL and the BNP. Singling out Muslims as he has done feeds the hysteria and paranoia about Islam and Muslims.British Muslims abhor terrorism and extremism and we have worked hard to eradicate this evil from our country. To suggest that we do not sign up to the values of tolerance, respect and freedom is deeply offensive and incorrect."

The speech led to a spat between Labour and the Tories, after Labour MP Sadiq Khan accused Cameron of "writing propaganda for the EDL". Tory chairman Baroness Warsi described the comment as "outrageous and irresponsible".

However, Cameron was backed by the Quilliam Foundation, a Muslim counter-extremist body.