It is more than ten years since four men, brought up or living in Britain, blew themselves up in London and killed 52 Tube and bus passengers. Since then governments have struggled to understand what turns young British Muslims into extremists and what strategies society should adopt to prevent future atrocities. Despite measures quickly enacted by the Blair government, the situation has got worse. Hundreds of young men and women have been persuaded by extremist websites to make their way to Syria and fight for Islamic State. Dozens of terrorist plots have been thwarted by British intelligence. As David Cameron writes in The Times today, one of the biggest social problems Britain now faces is extremism.
Islamist extremists do not just threaten this country’s security: they jeopardise its multiracial, multifaith democracy, the prime minister said. And in setting out a new strategy to tackle this “poison”, he made clear that simply handing out government money to Muslim leaders to preach moderation was not enough: there had to be a real attempt to understand and counter the ideology that underpinned extremism, to empower mainstream voices that were too often drowned out and to tackle the alienation and segregation that allowed extremist narratives to take root.
The immediate challenge is what to do about those Britons returning from Syria, either because they are disillusioned with the brutalities they encountered or because they are plotting to turn their terrorist training against their fellow citizens. Imprisonment is hardly the answer: British prisons are prime recruiting ground, and jihadists could not find more fertile minds than young male prisoners, lacking self-respect and peer-group acclaim, who are looking for a cause.
Mr Cameron now proposes intensive and mandatory deradicalisation programmes. Attendance would either be a condition of release from jail or part of a court order against a suspected terrorist. Those who argue that this would fall on deaf ears should look at the road safety courses now offered by many councils to speeding motorists as an alternative to licence endorsements. Many of those intending to snooze through the lectures have often found them effective and convincing. If mentors, preferably fellow Muslims, were to confront young jihadists with the realities of what they promote — the beheading or immolation of hostages — they might break through the ideological carapace that blinds them to such horrors.
More than this is needed, however. By definition, deradicalisation is already too late: the poison has entered the mindset. Mr Cameron is right in saying that it is a challenge to all Islam to root out a perverted and illiberal interpretation of a religion that besmirches all of its many adherents. It is also important to inoculate the alienated, disillusioned young Muslim unable to find a job or earn the respect of his peers against the siren voices of jihadist recruiters. That means intensive engagement in schools, the inclusion of mosques and properly trained imams in moral and spiritual education, the promotion of tolerance, freedom and equality and a patriotism that does not contradict spiritual allegiance to a wider community.
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Institutions such as Cambridge Muslim College show what can be done to qualify young imams for pastoral work. Mosques, councils and colleges need to follow suit. At issue is the future and coherence of multicultural Britain.