The Great Neocon conveyor belt spewing out Islamophobia and the vilification of Muslims juddered back to life during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to detract Muslims from the incomparable blessings of this sacred month. We commend the Muslims of the United Kingdom for their restraint, patience and characterisation of those immortal words of advice by the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be peace) to the provoked fasting person: “I am fasting; I am fasting.”
This latest deplorable attempt by the right wing “think tank” Policy Exchange spluttered so badly that it elicited political clout from former PM David Cameron to enable it reach something of escape velocity or otherwise crash and burn under the sheer Islamophobic agenda into obscurity and ruin.
The report churned out those critics of the PREVENT policy, “Muslim bogeymen” organisations to be wary of, including CAGE, MCB, MEND, LIC, CORDOBA, 5PILLARS, ISLAM21C, MAB, PREVENT WATCH, not unlike children’s favourites Biff, Chip and Kipper’s now infamous terrifying experience at being magically transported to an “unfriendly” Islamic souk. Amazingly, but not surprisingly, not one non-Muslim organisation critical of the same Islamophobic policy, not the NUT, nor the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of assembly, nor any dissenting independent academic voice received such special mention.
The Islamophobic agenda of Policy Exchange and their ilk is highlighted by their prejudice in summarily dismissing any criticism of policy from Muslim individuals and organisations as simply being terrorist/extremism apologists. Unfortunately, Cameron displayed this prejudice in the commons vis-à-vis Suleiman Ghani in order to aid fellow Tory 2016 Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith before subsequently belching out a retraction.
On the contrary, this report concludes looking forward to the urgent review of PREVENT by William Shawcross, a senior fellow at Policy Exchange and former director of the Islamophobic Henry Jackson Society, whose track record of hostility towards Islam and Muslims is a matter of public record.
At the time of its announcement, the independent review of PREVENT became instantly discredited by the Government’s ridiculous appointment of Shawcross as chair. Civil society and Muslims saw it then as nothing but a partisan tick box exercise. As it was then, so it remains now.