A ‘Suspect Community’ — Britain’s Muslims and the spectre of fear
I talk to Dr Asim Qureshi, Research Director at the pressure group CAGE, on the securitisation of the Muslim community and the making of an ‘enemy within’.
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Asim Qureshi is an unlikely activist. He studied law before deciding he would serve the Muslim community by shining a light upon the policies and motivations that have accompanied the post 9/11 security state. The Daily Mail in its usual shrill mode called him a ‘middle-class’ leader of the resistance. Asim speaks with knowledge, precision and eloquence as he explains how the Muslim community is viewed by the state as a ‘suspect community’. In Qureshi’s mind, the agenda that began with Blair has only intensified with the Conservatives, with government steadily increasing their powers and pursuing misguided anti-terror policies that label all Muslims and make them the subject of suspicion.
The War on Terror and the consequent focus on the Muslim community has created a climate where law enforcement, government agencies and public officials often view Muslims through the lense of security. Since 9/11, a generation has lived under the greater securitisation of the Muslim community. Governments of all hues have maintained a steady accumulation of powers to deal with terrorism and its related causes. We have, in the past 18 years, become well accustomed to Islam as a constant feature of the news cycle, and it’s usually for all the wrong reasons. This climate has also led to a general atmosphere of fear. It is not uncommon to find members of our community self-censoring, carefully wording what they say on the mimbars or in religious speeches. More worryingly, it is also common to find voices within our community that supports all the projects of western governments no matter how ill-conceived. Many ulema and community leaders have succumbed to this climate of fear, hoping their institutions will not be the next target of some malign legislation or speech by a Home Secretary hoping to win support from the party base. I believe this creation of fear, far from being incidental, undergirds much of government thinking.
Fear is a powerful emotion. It focuses minds. I ask Asim about the government’s Prevent policy, that was made a statutory duty in 2015 upon public sector workers. Last year alone, government statistics suggest 7318 people were reported to the Prevent scheme from which only 1314 were deemed to possibly be persons of concern with 394 receiving Channel intervention. Channel is where a so-called ‘de-radicalisation’ programme is offered, a scheme to convince a potential extremist to see the error of their ways. Even if these 394 were on a pathway to extremism, and there are plenty that doubts the accuracy of those tasked with making these decisions, the figures are staggering. 7318 people were hoovered up by the scheme, yet only 394 enter the programme. In the delivery of any other programme, such odds would lead to a government changing course, yet all administrations merely double-down on Prevent, by strengthening its provisions.
All sensible minded Muslims would want to stop members of the community join a militant group or engage in acts of terror. However, the scheme is less about de-radicalisation and more about sowing fear. As Daniel Haqiqatjou argued on a previous programme, the “spectre of genocide and internment forces the community to make concessions on matters of theology”. In my view, Prevent is an arm of a broader government project to liberalise the Muslim community by enveloping it in an atmosphere of fear and suspicion. In the process it wishes to disarm the traditional levers, whether Mosques, seminaries, Islamic groups and people of learning, promoting self-censoring and a culture more amenable to secularisation and depoliticisation.
Within this climate of pessimism, the campaigning organisation CAGE stands out almost uniquely for its call of resistance. Dr Asim Qureshi is known to be a tireless advocate against the excesses of government power. Recently he was stopped at Heathrow airport under schedule 7 powers and detained for three hours, questioned about his faith and forced to hand over his electronic devices. Asim is a prolific writer, he has authored several books including a widely acclaimed piece on his philosophy of disobedience. With his team of researchers, he has written and published many reports exposing the use of unlawful detention, rendition, and torture in the ‘war on terror’.
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