Britain is suffering an onslaught of Jihadi violence that has been getting increasingly and steadily worse since the turn of the century. On top of that there have been too many fundamentalist Muslims who have become politically and communally powerful by using Britain’s political, media and charity systems to advance their particular Islamic causes. Some of these individuals and some of their groups might not be welcome in some of the Gulf States and in other parts of the Muslim world because of their extreme views, but they operate here and what’s worse operate in more safety here than they would find elsewhere.
It should not need to be said but I’ll say it anyway but these extremist individuals are dangerous as are their groups. They are a threat to the majority population, they are a threat to minorities such as Jews, Sikhs and Hindus, they are a threat to everyone.
They are also I wish to point out, a danger to Britain’s liberal, questioning, open minded and pluralist Muslims who I know do exist. These types of Muslims are hated and despised by the fundamentalists and in some cases classed as not Muslim at all or ‘hypocrites’. Britain’s liberal and pluralist Muslims are in physical danger from these types should the fundamentalists gain the power to harm them and they are also subject to communal exclusion encouraged by fundamentalists.
They are also likely to be in danger from those outside of the Islamic community who might confuse the liberal Muslim from the local tyre shop who is a universe away from violent extremism, with genuine wrong’uns. If things deteriorate socially even more than they are already and there is conflict, then ‘King Mob’ is unlikely to be able to distinguish between the sort of follower of Islam who is a problem and who is not. No sensible person should want to see that situation, no honourable person should want the innocent punished alongside the guilty but I’m worried that this might happen if things go bad.
It is therefore I believe an imperative for Britain’s liberal, pluralist and heterodox Muslims to start speaking up and against the extremists. Those Muslims who are already speaking up and speaking out against something that is a threat to all of us may need to speak louder and more often. The more that Britain’s liberal Muslims speak up the better chance there is of building partnerships against Islamic extremism. More visibility by the cohort of liberal Muslims could eventually build more political allies against Jihadism and at the moment those allies are sorely needed.
I know that Islamic theology and Islamic thought has not been a single track road, it has branches, it is not a monolith but instead a collection of different worlds shaped by culture, history and philosophy. By allying with those elements that are most like our own in the Islamic community such as the Muslim liberals, we might get a better outcome to our current problems than we might from baseless hatred.
To the Muslim liberals I say this: Your enemies, the religious fundamentalists, are also ours. They desire our deaths as much as they desire your deaths. Speak up and stand together.