Aftermath of the 1981 Red Army Faction bombing of U.S. Air Forces Europe headquarters. Wikimedia Commons/Public domain.Everything suggests that the Sun was wrong when it announced that one in five British Muslims ‘sympathised’ with ISIS. It is important to call out those who seek to tie the Muslim community as a whole to jihadist networks and their brutal murders. But at the same time, we should avoid being drawn into demonising those who do sympathise with their cause.
They are terribly wrong, of course, but we need to win them back.
In the long run, it is in our own vital interests that all potential militants come to see that the polarizing violence of jihadi fundamentalism is not beneficial – and that sharing society with us as fellow citizens is. Those who have always felt comfortable in the midst of liberal society may find this proposition difficult to contemplate. But the truth is that, not so long ago, European societies were torn along lines that felt just as dramatic as today’s confrontation with the jihadist.
