Theresa May at al-Madina mosque, East London. Flickr/Home Office. Some rights reserved.
Successive governments have framed terrorism as a problem of the Muslim community. As such, the focus on the behaviour and identity of British Muslims has become almost inevitable. It is part of a deeply ingrained narrative, which judging by the Prime Minister’s announcement, less than a week after the General Election, of a new counter-terrorism bill, shows no sign of being dismantled. One of the new powers proposed by the bill is the creation of extremism disruption orders, which would give the police powers to apply to the high court to limit the “harmful activities” of an extremist individual, where harm includes risk of public disorder, harassment, alarm, distress or creating “a threat to the functioning of democracy”.
These powers, dubbed extremism ASBOs by some, were first proposed last March, but were vetoed by the Liberal Democrats. They made their way to the Conservative Manifesto and are now are on course to be made into law. These measures, which would include a ban on broadcasting and a requirement to submit to the police in advance any proposed publication on the web and social media or in print, will almost certainly cause a new wave of civil liberties infringement, continuing to disproportionately affect the Muslim community.
