Farage is right to call out Islamist extremists
Political correctness is stifling debate about a crucial issue.
Nigel Farage caused controversy this weekend after claiming that a growing minority of young people in the British Muslim community do not share British values.
In a Sky News interview with Trevor Phillips, Farage, when discussing national service, said that there is a “growing number of young people in this country who do not subscribe to British values”. Asked whether he was talking about Muslims, Farage said “Yes we are”.
Referencing a new poll from the Henry Jackson Society which I wrote about in April, Mr Farage added that 46 per cent of British Muslims support Hamas.
This has caused outrage among the liberal set, who have accused him of being anti-Muslim. The BBC even had to apologise for breaching partiality rules after accusing Farage of “customary inflammatory language”.
Before diving into this sensitive topic, it is perhaps important that I mention Farage has since slightly rowed back on his comments. When asked by Good Morning Britain about his controversial claims, Farage angrily denied that he was talking about Muslims and said that he was instead talking about a “growing minority of young people in the British Muslim community” who “think that Jihad is a good thing”. He also denied that he was stoking division and said, “we need to have a debate”.
What is more concerning than Farage’s comments, however, is the Islamist denialism prevalent among the media and political class. All Farage is saying is that we need to recognise the problem and have a debate about it. The fact that many on both the Left and Right of British politics are uncomfortable talking about this demonstrates just how high a hill we have to climb as a country before radical Islam can be acknowledged and discussed openly.
Political correctness and the taboo around radical Islam has real-world consequences. As recently as 2017, 23 people were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, carried out by Salman Abedi, an Islamist fanatic. An investigation into the attack revealed that security guard Kyle Lawle had a “bad feeling” about Abedi, who was behaving strangely and wearing a large rucksack, but did not approach him for fear of being branded a racist. If Lawle had only acted on his instincts, then the attack could have been stopped and 23 lives saved.
Very few have spoken up about this problem of Islamic extremism, and those who do often risk losing their jobs or damaging their reputation. Take Suella Braverman, for example, the former Home Secretary and passionate critic of Islamist extremism, who Rishi Sunak sacked for criticising the police response to anti-Israel marches, which she rightfully described as “hate marches”. There is also Trevor Phillips, the anti-racism campaigner who challenged Farage, who was suspended from the Labour Party several years ago for making comments that referenced British Muslims as being “a nation within a nation”. Even pointing out the failure of Britain to integrate Muslims is likely to get you cancelled.
This conspiracy of silence has led to a country where Islamists can force schoolteachers into hiding for showing a carton of the Prophet Muhammad. It has led to a country where Islamists protest outside schools and cinemas that show content they disagree with. The cowardly response to all this has emboldened extremists to intimidate and even kill politicians such as MP David Amess, who was murdered by an Islamist fanatic in 2021. In 2022 as well, British writer Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times by an Islamist terrorist as he was about to give a public lecture. Furthermore, earlier this year Conservative MP Mike Freer resigned after receiving death threats and an alleged arson attack on his office. The extremist group responsible, Muslims Against Crusades, targeted him for his pro-Israel beliefs.
This threat of extremist violence has had a chilling effect on the functioning of Britain’s democracy. In February, House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle changed parliamentary protocol in a decision that caused controversy and led to calls for his resignation. When justifying his decision to allow Labour to make amendments to an SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Hoyle said that he had changed the rules out of fear that MPs would be targeted and murdered by terrorists for abstaining or voting against the motion.
The examples of Islamist intimidation and violence go on and on and on. And that’s before we even mention the October 7th massacre which killed 1,200 Israelis and inspired a surge in anti-Semitism in the UK. Even this month two men were arrested by Greater Manchester Police for allegedly plotting an ISIS-style machine gun terror attack on Jews in the UK.
So, let’s stop pretending that Islamist extremism isn’t a problem and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Imagine if a far-right group of Christian fanatics was behaving in this way. It is highly doubtful that such attacks on our way of life would be ignored or dismissed. Yet to properly examine and address the causes of Islamist extremism would take many of the liberal set too far out of their comfort zones, scared as they are of being labelled racist or Islamophobic.
Denying Islamist extremism does a disservice to all of the moderate Muslims who are actively working to counteract extremist ideologies and promote a more moderate and inclusive understanding of Islam. While it is important not to make generalisations about Muslims, it is also about time we stopped denying the issue and stood up to both the Islamists and the Islamist deniers, or this problem will continue to worsen.