David Cameron has won a cabinet battle to toughen up the UK's counter-terrorism strategy and take a harder line against Islamic traditions that fail to "reflect British mainstream values".
The successor to Labour's Prevent strategy is likely to redefine extremists as those who hold "un-British" views, such as intolerance of equal rights for women, because ministers believe there is a link between non-violent extremism and violent acts of terrorism.
Un-British...? Very well, let's ignore for a second that Judeo-Christian culture takes a dim view of women's rights (do you sacrifice a turtle dove after every period?), we shall take a quick look at recent government policy and how it has affected women's conditions and rights. Women earn 10% less than men in equivalent jobs. On current statistics this gap is not likely to close until 2067. There are currently around one million unemployed women in Britain. The cuts in public sector services and jobs has hit women proportionally harder than men... No the most scintillating feminism, and this is before we get on to other matters, Ken Clarke for example.
The British government, perhaps by it's own definition is acting in an un-British way. It cannot take the moral highground with regard to equality for women. Of course it can't, but that's not the point. The government professing liberal values in this case is a protective coating, a prophylactic for them to help racism back into mainstream life. This is not new. Empire and colonisation was justified, in part, as a civilising mission. This is about reestablishing racism, stigmatising a community and nothing else; hence the totally spurious link given between terrorism and non-violent extremism. It is a trap. No muslim, public or private can ever condemn extremism enough, not for the government. It is blackmail, support your own persecution or we will persecute you.
We should not give Cameron any ground on this.
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