UK: The Conservatives and Islamism: The Promises and the Reality

 

The promises:

 

Pauline Neville-Jones, 2008 Conservative Party Conference Speech:

 

We will ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir – which has just called for American soldiers in the Gulf to be killed.

 

[...]

We all – Muslims and non-Muslims – must actively face down extremists.

 

Because the security of our society rests ultimately on the hard-nosed defence of our values and a shared loyalty to them.

 

Under the next Conservative Government, led by David Cameron, that’s what we will be doing.

 

Chris Grayling, December 2009 Speech:

 

We must also be willing to challenge and where necessary to ban groups that mask an ideology of hate behind a public veil of moderation. We have just such an issue with the radical group Hizb’ut Tahrir. Within the UK it takes extreme care about how it words its propaganda. And claims that those who want it banned are completely misplaced.

 

But anyone who doubts its true character should take a look at the website for its sister organisation in Bangladesh, which talks about evil Americanplans to subjugate Muslims, and about mobilising armed forces to eliminate the Jewish entity. We cannot allow such views free rein in our society.

 

We will not be afraid to take tough decisions with radical extremists who propagate hate.

 

We have been too willing to allow their groups to operate in Britain.

If we are in Government, that will stop.

 

David Cameron, Jewish Chronicle interview, March 12, 2010:

 

[W]e’ve got to deal with this and drain this poison. And there are three key things we need to do.

 

First, stop letting people like Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Ibrahim Moussawi into this country to spread hatred. Second, ban those extremist groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir who are already here. And third, do more – much more – to tackle radicalisation in our universities.

 

 

The reality:

 

1)    Hate preachers are still entering the UK.

 

2)    Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain is alive and well.

 

3)    Radical Islamists continue to appear on campus. For example, coming soon to the Roberts G08 Lecture Theatre, UCL (University College London), is Jalal Ibn Sa’eed, a Salafi preacher who has stated:

 

Most of us are guilty … We selfishly live like the Jews who only care about themselves and call the rest the goyim, those who are damned, those who are enslaved to them.

 

Edmund Standing is a writer based in the UK and is the author of two reports on neo-Nazism for the London-based think-tank The Centre for Social Cohesion. He holds a BA in Theology & Religious Studies and an MA in Critical & Cultural Theory. He has his own blog here.