Influencing political Islam: Moderation, resilience and de-radicalisation in UK domestic counter-terrorism policies, 2005-11

TY - CHAP

T1 - Influencing political Islam

T2 - Moderation, resilience and de-radicalisation in UK domestic counter-terrorism policies, 2005-11

AU - Brown, Katherine

PY - 2014/6

Y1 - 2014/6

N2 - Consecutive governments since the beginning of the Global War on Terror have consistently denied that the United Kingdom is ‘at war with Islam’. However various countering terrorism and ‘countering violent extremism’ policy documents and numerous politicians have stated that certain ‘perverted’ forms of Islam may lead to terrorism. Consequently, and especially since July 2005, UK governments and state agencies have engaged in attempts to promote a ‘moderate’ (non-perverted) Islam that ‘resonates’ with British-Muslims and supports British ‘core values’, including women’s rights and democracy. There is continuity with this idea in British foreign policy: the National Security Strategy (NSS) argues that Britain will be safer if ‘our values are upheld and respected in the world’. In addition, at home under the ‘PREVENT’ strand of the UK counter-terrorism policy there have been attempts to alter the theological position of (that is to de-radicalise) a number of ‘at risk’ individuals through the ‘Channel Programme’. In conjunction with these theological interventions, the state has also sought to reconfigure Muslim community relations, through select engagement with particular Muslim organisations, funding projects to empower particular sub-sets of the community and policing premised on ‘community engagement’. These interventions are designed to materially support ‘moderate’ forces within Muslim communities to ensure they become ‘resilient’ to extremism. This chapter charts these three elements (moderation, resilience and de-radicalisation) of counter-terrorism policy in the UK, assesses the extent to which they represent a coherent ‘influence campaign’ and considers the impact of these elements on both Muslim communities and UK security.

AB - Consecutive governments since the beginning of the Global War on Terror have consistently denied that the United Kingdom is ‘at war with Islam’. However various countering terrorism and ‘countering violent extremism’ policy documents and numerous politicians have stated that certain ‘perverted’ forms of Islam may lead to terrorism. Consequently, and especially since July 2005, UK governments and state agencies have engaged in attempts to promote a ‘moderate’ (non-perverted) Islam that ‘resonates’ with British-Muslims and supports British ‘core values’, including women’s rights and democracy. There is continuity with this idea in British foreign policy: the National Security Strategy (NSS) argues that Britain will be safer if ‘our values are upheld and respected in the world’. In addition, at home under the ‘PREVENT’ strand of the UK counter-terrorism policy there have been attempts to alter the theological position of (that is to de-radicalise) a number of ‘at risk’ individuals through the ‘Channel Programme’. In conjunction with these theological interventions, the state has also sought to reconfigure Muslim community relations, through select engagement with particular Muslim organisations, funding projects to empower particular sub-sets of the community and policing premised on ‘community engagement’. These interventions are designed to materially support ‘moderate’ forces within Muslim communities to ensure they become ‘resilient’ to extremism. This chapter charts these three elements (moderation, resilience and de-radicalisation) of counter-terrorism policy in the UK, assesses the extent to which they represent a coherent ‘influence campaign’ and considers the impact of these elements on both Muslim communities and UK security.

KW - Counterterrorism

KW - Islam

KW - British Politics

UR - http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409451730

M3 - Chapter

SN - 978-1-4094-5173-0

SP - 219

EP - 242

BT - British Propaganda and Wars of Empire

A2 - Kennedy, Greg

A2 - Tuck, Chris

PB - Ashgate Publishing

ER -