Muslims

Eric Randolph specialises in insurgency and is an editor at a defence analysis firm and London Editor at Complex Terrain Lab.The government released its updated counter-terrorism strategy, Contest Two, on 24 March. Last week, its continued relevance was demonstrated by the arrests of 12 people in Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire, apparently on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist plot against major civilian targets. The news that 11 were Pakistani nationals who entered the UK on student visas has led the media to argue that the terrorist profile has changed once again – that the age of homegrown terrorism is being replaced by foreign cells entering the UK to carry out attacks orchestrated from abroad. The government no doubt enjoys the argument that the effectiveness of its counter-terrorism policy has forced a change of tactics on the part of global jihadists. However, the UK remains at such high risk precisely because of its involvement in overseas counter-terrorism operations, and because of the continued existence of jihadist sympathisers in the UK who provide an environment in which foreign terrorist cells are able to blend.

Stuart Weir (Cambridge, Democratic Audit): There is no such thing as the single monolithic “British Muslim community” that our politicians and media discuss.  Britain’s one and a half million or so Muslims belong to a remarkably diverse set of communities; in all, it is estimated, there are over 50 ethnicities speaking almost 100 languages between them.

David Hayes (London, oD): This post on CiF by Ziauddin Sardar about the Quilliam Foundation after its recent launch is a classic cultural police operation, characteristic of a figure indulged by many as a source of authority and moderation. The barely concealed subtext is a desperate campaign - of which this is only the latest instalment - for political control of the dominant British Muslim narrative (and of territorial rights of access to the British liberal establishment).

Jon Bright (London, OK): As the Economist dryly noted at the beginning of the month, Britain's Asians must spend a lot of time responding to surveys. The opinion poll is a mainstay of journalism at the moment, and almost all of them are asking about Asians - and Islam in particular - in the hope of generating a headline about how inclusive/intolerant we all are. Today's FT has a classic example. "UK more suspicious of Muslims than America and rest of EU" we are told. The article then reports that only 59% of Britons "thought it possible to be both a Muslim and a citizen of their country", adding that "this is a smaller proportion than in France, Germany, Spain, Italy or the US".

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): A new campaign called Muslims United has been launched in response to the terrorist outrages in London and Glasgow, taking out full page adverts in the press. This is how they describe themselves: