Muslim and Christian texts. Demotix/ Lynda Bowyer. All rights reserved.The threat of violent extremism by young, radicalized Muslims has left European leaders fumbling for a solution. But it would be a grave mistake to maintain the policy of the last decade and a half that addresses radicalization by communicating with British Muslims as Muslims rather than as fellow-citizens.
David Cameron announced in October that ‘Muslim groups’ will be given 5 million pounds to help to prevent radicalization. Cameron’s approach is to recognize the attraction of ISIS to disenfranchised young Muslims and to appeal to ‘Muslim communities to plug the gap’. Bad religion is to be replaced by more religion.
Cameron’s approach is an example of a wider phenomenon that treats religion as a treatment for social ills among British Muslims. By keeping them in touch with their ‘roots’, so the theory goes, all manner of social problems can be solved. Social conservatives of all hues can find something appealing in religious tradition because of its endorsement of ‘family values’. The promotion of religious charities as part of ‘the big society’ fits into the same framework, where the welfare state’s obligations to certain ethnic minorities are farmed out to clerics. Cameron, like other European leaders, seeks a ‘moderate Islam’ as an antidote to the kind of extremism witnessed in Paris.
