The British government must face facts. Whatever action it takes to counteract Islamic extremism in the UK is bound to (as the BBC puts it) "attract criticism from parts of the British Muslim community". So let's simply take that for granted.
In other words, the government will always be seen as 'alienating Muslims' or 'putting all Muslims in the same basket'. This will be the case whether or not what David Cameron does is forceful or pathetic. Any action whatsoever will produce criticism from Muslims - as well as from left-wing groups and individuals.
PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON
Despite all that, in the last few days David Cameron has said (yet again) that he hopes to encourage "Muslim reformists" and "moderates". The problem with that is these genuine reformists and moderates (the few that there are) are always violently criticised by a whole host of other Muslims. Basically, the genuine Muslim moderates are seen as Muslim Uncle Toms by the bogus moderates and by large sections of the Muslim community.
Nonetheless, Cameron has said he'll set up a "community engagement forum" which will be designed to provide a voice for Muslims fighting extremism within their own communities.
Cameron has previously talked about getting Muslim moderates to speak up. Back in 2007, for example, he said that the "hardline members" of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) were "crowding out more moderate voices". (The MCB is a sleek and sly Islamic advertising campaign aimed primarily at non-Muslims.)
And as recently as January 2015, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles wrote a letter to more than 1,000 imams and Muslim leaders asking them to publicly condemn the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in France. Guess what - the MCB and nearly all other Islamic groups criticised the letter with the usual rhetoric about 'criminalising an entire community'.
This is the catch-22.
When forces outside of the Muslim community take action against Islamic extremism, Muslims resent that precisely because it's outsiders who are taking the action.
However, when Eric Pickles asked the Muslim community itself to tackle Islamic extremism, the reaction was just as negative. ...
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