Mapping Muslims in the UK

[Paragon]

New strategy to stem flow of terror recruits

 

This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday February 28 2008 on p1 of the Top stories section. It was last updated at 00:13 on February 28 2008.

 

Senior police officers have drawn up a radical strategy to stop British Muslims turning to violence which will see every area of the country mapped for its potential to produce extremists and supporters for al-Qaida. The 40-page document, marked restricted, was approved by a top-level police counter-terrorism committee on Monday, and is expected to be formally adopted within weeks.

 

The Association of Chief Police Officers hopes it will help to stop al-Qaida's ideas gaining hold in primary schools, colleges, the internet and prisons. Other initiatives in the strategy include:

 

· guidance to parents on how to stop children searching for extremist websites

 

· an anti-extremism agenda to be included in "all state-maintained educational establishments from primary schooling through to universities" by 2008/9

 

· intervening to stop convicted al-Qaida terrorists and supporters from spreading extremist ideology in prison.

 

Acpo's plans have been prompted by a realisation that new recruits are being attracted to violent extremism despite scores of convictions, arrests and the disruption of plots. The country's most senior counter-terrorism officials believe the level of threat has remained severe and sustained since the July 2005 attacks on London killed 52 people.

 

More effort and new approaches will be made "to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism and violent extremism", the document says.

 

Though the document does not mention the Iraq war, it accepts that foreign policy can trigger a sense of grievance that can lead to violence. It urges officers across England and Wales to "effectively address grievances", and says: "This objective is not for the police alone. Some grievances will be international in dimension."

 

It includes a stark assessment about how far police have to go in building trust with Muslim communities. "Research last year revealed that the police service would be very low on the list of agencies that the Muslim community would turn to if they had concerns about a member of their community who embraced violent extremism ... the police service has a long way to go in building a relationship of trust around these issues..."

 

It cites the example of drug use, saying that in the 1980s people would not tell the police about those close to them who were using illegal substances. Now that reticence has lessened through intensive work by officers.

 

The new strategy will be rooted in "neighbourhood profiling". "This will allow us to connect with all groups and to understand what is normal and what is unusual," it says. "We need to continually improve our knowledge about communities and how they function both in a social and religious context."

 

A senior source with knowledge of the discussions leading up to the writing of the document said mapping was important: "You have to assess where the need is greatest. Just relying on the census data for the number of Muslims in an area is not detailed or sophisticated enough."

 

The plan also calls for guidance for parents about how to manage the use of the web by their children. "The internet is a potential area where a tendency towards violent extremism can be exploited ... Parents and carers have a need for advice on how to control access for their children and to understand what defines the legal/potentially illegal divide."

 

The document says there is a "pressing need to develop the growing relationships between the police and the education sector at every level with regard to preventing violent extremism".

 

With more terrorists and supporters being jailed, the document says those convicted must also be stopped from indoctrinating other inmates.

 

The senior source added that the plans were a radical change for the police: "It's a recognition that it is a major and important new area of work and the police should see it as a mainstream area of work."

[Geel_jire]

^ this is funny.

 

glad to see some of them understand the relationship between cause and affect.

 

Though the document does not mention the Iraq war, it accepts that foreign policy can trigger a sense of grievance that can lead to violence. It urges officers across England and Wales to "effectively address grievances", and says: "This objective is not for the police alone

[Paragon]

^^Yes, its funny. But this strategy gives the green light to legally spying on Muslims, individually. This is very worrying.

[NASSIR]

Isseh, what do you think of the young Somalis who are influenced to go back home from Australia and join the Al-shabab resistance?

 

I was reading a news article on this growing issue that is affecting the Somali community in Australia.

[Fabregas]

Whitechapel should be one of the hotspots?

 

 

Almuhajiroun and Hizb U tahrir influence over the youth has declined somewhat over their years. Ask some of the older brothers how much influence they had in youth clubs, uni and colleges, in the mid 90s. I don't whether it's due to the government, disillusionment with their ideas or the increased Salafi propogation: they don't have the same impacy nemore! Or maybe I'm wrong?

[Paragon]

^^Not just Whitechapel but all over E. London, GJ.

 

Yes, you are right. Al-muhaajiroun and HT's membership recruitment has recently been waning. I think this is down to several factors. But the main one must be the shift int the government's politics in tolerating the messages these organizations propagate, especially for the London bombing. This shift has made many youngsters in university campuses (which is where their membership principally came from) think twice in joining either Almuhajiroun or HT.

 

The fact is the activities of these organizations are most probably closely watched and no youngster in his/her right mind would contemplate association with them. Furthermore, in some universities, there are actual secret service agents posing as students. I remember one time in 2005 having a jewish guy in a seminar class about the politics of the Middle East accidentally admitting to be an MI6 agent .

 

The strange thing was the class was mainly composed on Palestians/other Arabs and Jewish students plus other Muslims like myself. I must admit, the debates were unusually very heated and I remember, with the help of another Muslim student cornering the guy until he furiously said...'oh you guys are incorrect in saying this or that because I was briefed about this issue and its like this!' . We pushed him, against the advice of others that we walking on egg-shells, until he admitted who he was. Cornering people was my specialty laakiin beryahan I hardly come across any good debater to corner .

 

Caamir ,

 

To answer your question, I think when it comes to those youngsters you speak of, I don't think there is an campaign out there to influence Somalis into doing what they don't wish to do, specifically when it comes to defending their own country against an illegal occupation. The influences these Western government usually talk about seems to be related to individual who are being influenced into fighting a cause in a country that is originally not the one they hail from. What you should understand that what is being fought and suppressed by these government is essence a single idea ; the idea of young Muslims developing a transnational (or global ummah-inspired) awareness which is perceived to be underminding that idea of border-defined 'nationalis' that is the bed-rock of Western civilization itself.

 

Thus, as far as Somalis going back to their native country to join al-Shabaab and fight the Ethiopian occupation is concerned, that is, in Western eyes, still these youngsters' right to defend their nationhood. As for al-Shabaab itself, apart from Cayrow's repeated verbal self-association with Osama, it still remains a national movement regardless what others call them. The only time al-Shabaab and those who decide to join pose any danger, it seems, is when they start to harbour international or translational political and territorial ambitions, which as the ambition that professed during their brief reign in Mogadishu. For the time being, all that has thrown at al-Shabaab and those who join them are just condemnations and nothing more. Sometimes, even those whom Ethiopia has arrested and alleged them to be part of al-Shabaab were released by the respective Western governments.

[Geel_jire]

the beauty of the internet is that it allows you to research a topic, read news from an infinite number of sources therefore you control the flow of information.

 

The plan also calls for guidance for parents about how to manage the use of the web by their children. "The internet is a potential area where a tendency towards violent extremism can be exploited ... Parents and carers have a need for advice on how to control access for their children and to understand what defines the legal/potentially illegal divide."

^ there is always a way around this, and teenagers are experts these days on bypassing parental controls and filters.

[Coloow]

Caamir, where did you read that? any link? or is that waxaa la yiri news?

 

Isseh, I was reading about the new citizenship rules that are in the making.

 

Very worrying indeed,

[Separatist]

Oh yes, we're mapped. And it's just the beginning!

 

The pig-headed and self-conceited secular fundamentalists are on the march. And the future is bleak, indeed. They're so militant, aggressive and hegemonistic that they want to standardize societies under their pre-conditioned norms. They demand unconditional submission without any sign of openness, flexibility, permissiveness or pragmatism. In france they forbade Hijab, in Denmark and other countries pestering and showing disdain for Islam's principles has become norm of the day, while using freedom of speech as the shield. Not mentioning phrases like "If they don't submit to the rules and regualtions of the bigger society, they can go home" by some of their right-wing leaders. A threat to co-existence.

 

No wonder there's widespread rebellion among minorities. Many muslim youths undergo identity crisis as a result of a deeper conflict between fundmentalistic secularism, the dominating force, and the cultures they belong to. Thus easily influenced to join extreme forces.

[NASSIR]

Isseh, I get ur point but the Al-shabab's claim to have ties with the leaders of the Taliban invokes the theories of Huntington--that Islamic faith and brotherhood transcends national borders.

 

Have you seen this topic at SOL posted by our brother Makhirian before the U.S. intervention in Somalia

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by Odey:

Caamir, where did you read that? any link? or is that waxaa la yiri news?

 

 

 

Very worrying indeed,

Jihadis use foreign phone networks , Feb 23, 2008