Joyce McMillan: Step too far to counter extremism

I HAD to laugh, on Tuesday evening, when the spoof versions of the news story started to appear on the internet; although in truth, the situation is not at all funny. There was the one criticising universities for failing to raid the homes of students on a routine basis; and then there was the one slamming them for their "complacency" in failing to deal with the cult of right-wing Conservatism that is rife in some places of higher education, complete with extreme free-market ideology, and incitement to hatred against the poor.

The object of the satire, of course, was the Home Secretary's statement to the House of Commons, on Tuesday, about the government's Prevent programme to combat extremism – mainly al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic extremism – among young people in Britain; and it should be said right away that some of the satirical caricatures of her revamped policy were a little unfair.

Theresa May, like her Labour predecessors, is right to suggest that incitement to violence by some Islamic teachers and preachers is an evil to be confronted, as is incitement to violence from any source; and that British society should engage with those arguments wherever they surface, and seek to defeat them.

That, though, is about the limit of any thinking citizens' potential agreement with Mrs May; for like David Cameron's speech on the same subject in Munich last year, the rest of her approach is undermined by such a range of profound errors – of thought, of judgment, of culture, of sensitivity – that it is frightening even to consider its possible long-term impact on community relations in the UK.

In essence, Tuesday's announcement signalled a shift in policy from a focus on combating violent extremism, to an attack on extremism in general – including groups which claim to be non-violent, yet are still judged to be encouraging "extremist attitudes".

In addition, Theresa May emphasised the importance of working with "mainstream individuals" to ensure that their voices are heard, rather than those of extremists; and she claimed that the present government – unlike its predecessor – would avoid funding or supporting groups which did not themselves subscribe to the "core values of our society".

Now I have no doubt that Mrs May's intentions in this matter are good; she wants to separate violent extremists from the mainstream of the British Muslim community, and thinks this is the way to do it. The fact that she thinks so, though, betrays a lack of insight into this area of policy that is truly alarming. In the first place, she makes the mistake of talking as though it is a simple matter to distinguish "mainstream" Muslims in Britain from those attracted to the ideology of al-Qaeda; whereas if there is one thing the UK should have learned from the experience of combating IRA violence, it is that the patterns of loyalty, tension and dissent in any community defined by ethnicity or religion are extremely complex.

Some young people will be "mainstream" with their families in the morning, and "extremists" with their friends at night; and there will be many of all ages whose abhorrence of political violence extends both to the crimes of al-Qaeda, and to the actions of the British and US governments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then there is her repetition of the Cameronian idea that democracy, human rights, and tolerant, liberal values are somehow "ours" – that is, belonging to indigenous Britons – and that other faiths and cultures need instruction in them.

Even if there were as much truth in this assumption as Mrs May thinks there is, this would be a patronising, discourteous and damaging way of describing the task of building a system of shared values in a multi-ethnic Britain. As things are, though, it exposes an unforgivably narrow and ill-informed worldview, lacking even the smallest ability to see ourselves as others see us.

And then finally, there is the third and most alarming error; the one that makes a mockery of Mrs May's talk about "defending our values" by crossing a line that no democracy should ever cross, and beginning to seek to identify what can only be called thought-crimes. For what Mrs May now proposes is that young people should be placed under suspicion simply for having, or showing an interest in, what the government defines as "non-violent extremist attitudes".

She slams universities for complacency in not monitoring these attitudes among students; she suggests that they should co-operate with police in reporting the suspects.

What she is proposing, in other words, is that while non-Muslim students can sit around in pubs all night arguing about the morality of armed struggle, testing out their ideas, and measuring state violence against the violence of individuals and groups – as young people have always done – any young Muslim involving him or herself in such a conversation, with a group of other Muslims, is to be fingered and investigated, as a potential terrorist.

It is, of course, impossible to say, from this distance, why Mrs May has embarked on a course so disastrous, and so obviously counter-productive.

What is clear, though, is that across the UK, this week, thousands upon thousands of the young people she hopes to turn away from al-Qaeda and its views will be beginning to wonder just where it is they really belong, when they see the UK represented by a government which will not treat them as equals, which views their culture as intrinsically inferior to its own, and which will no longer allow them real freedom of speech and thought.

And the wisest of them may wonder whether the government has not acted, consciously or unconsciously, out of fear that young Muslims will give too sharp and eloquent a voice to the anger and frustration that so many British youngsters now feel; not only about the conduct of our foreign policy, but about the wider ethics of a society which, for all its talk of "values", often seems to respect nothing but wealth – even when that wealth is acquired and used in ways that offend the values of both Christianity and Islam, of ethical humanism, and of every other major faith on earth.