http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/...842926,00.html
The scale and the ruthlessness of the alleged plot by a group of young British Muslims to blow up passenger planes makes it inevitable that questions about the role and responsibility of Muslim communities will again be raised. John Reid, the home secretary, was right to say yesterday that terrorism threatens us all equally, and, by implication, that we all have an equal responsibility to do what we can to counter it. The responsibility is not only practical but intellectual, because the framework for effective decisions can only be provided by agreement on the historical processes which have led to the emergence of radically disaffected Muslim youth.
This is a sad drama of impoverishment in which a significant number of young people been alienated from the culture their parents and grandparents brought to Britain without acquiring either a sense of ownership in British life or a command of the broader Islamic culture which could have been theirs under other circumstances. The flux of settlement that sees an early generation assiduously protecting their culture, a second rebelling against their parents and a third moving on, has been interrupted. The collapse of the industries in which the first-comers had found work, and discrimination and ignorance on the part of the host society played a major part in the creation of this limbo, as did short-sighted, protectionist and socially regressive impulses within some of their communities. Some young men then find a way out in a second-hand form of Islam that is formulaic, generalised and organised around the principles of confrontation and resistance. A few converts from other backgrounds may then follow them, for disaffection is obviously not a solely Muslim phenomenon.
One way of responding is through the professionalisation of the mosques, so that they are served by leaders who can speak to the young in language they understand - which is English - and widen debate within the congregation. Another is represented by the work of a new array of Muslim thinktanks and action committees. Both show the community itself embracing change. Other initiatives include the incorporation into the school curriculum of the neglected history of British Muslims before 1945, to give young Muslims and non-Muslims alike a sense that Muslims have deep roots in this country. There is a whole range of worthwhile projects, coming from all sides - but they will all take time to exercise a benign influence. The same is true of that often repeated prescription for improvement, the demand for altered foreign policies. Shifts of the kind envisaged in international life cannot simply be conjured into being to solve problems at home, however dangerous. In any case, they can take years to complete.
The need for more immediate measures is obvious. But the self-policing often demanded by outsiders rests on unrealistic ideas about the degree of social control within Muslim communities - although Muslims should be expected to do their duty as citizens if they have knowledge that crimes are being prepared. A more active approach, of the kind favoured by intellectuals such as the sociologist Tahir Abbas, would see task forces dispatched to areas where Muslims are concentrated, with resources at their disposal and a brief to open up community life, air questions on Britishness, gender, arranged marriages and the Sunni-Shia relationship, organise thorough debate on foreign policy, and focus on unemployment and discrimination. It is an idea worth serious consideration.
Let's hear some practical ideas.
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Originally Posted by rotorgun
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