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When “tolerance” is a bad thing: The twisted logic of David Cameron

May 15, 2015 at 9:00 am

Barely has the dust settled following the drama of last week’s election, it seems, that the now (narrow) majority Conservative government led by David Cameron has already started re-aligning domestic policies to appeal to its broad base of right wing voters. First came the news that the Tories are planning to scrap the Human Rights Act, closely followed by Cameron’s announcement that Britain is simply too “passively tolerant” as a society and that more must be done to limit “harmful activities”. Speaking on Radio 4 on Tuesday morning and pushed to define what she means by “extremists”, Home Secretary Theresa May tied herself up into linguistic knots in an attempt not to blurt out the word “Muslim”.

In his Queen’s Speech later this month, David Cameron is expected to set out a swathe of new measures explicitly targeting “extremism” and giving new and far-reaching powers to government surveillance and intelligence teams to listen in on the details of people’s lives. Along with existing anti-terror legislation, the new laws will permit gagging orders to be placed on anyone deemed to promote “hate speech”, even if their actions fall short of proscription, and to allow the forced closure of religious and community buildings where “extremists seek to influence others”.

In the prime minister’s own words: “For too long, [Britain has] been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance.”

According to the Huffington Post, “The proposals will aim to crack down on preachers like Abu Hamza, as well as the sort of radicalisation which led Mohammed Emwazi (AKA “Jihadi John”) to join the Islamic State militant group, as well as the murder of Lee Rigby.”

Now, quite apart from the fact that increasing levels of surveillance and interference in the lives of ordinary people seems to be stretching the notion of “British values” a little too far, the measures to be introduced by the new Tory government are both criminal and woefully misguided. Even without the proposed changes, current legislation already means that Britons are amongst the most monitored and controlled population of any Western democracy, able to have their private messages and conversations accessed on a whim – hardly what I’d call “freedom of speech”, the value that Cameron seems so desperate to uphold.

But what is really tragic about the proposals is that, once again, they demonstrate an appalling lack of awareness with the current reality on the ground. While it may be arguably be true that Britain suffers from a culture of “extremism and grievance” (in Cameron’s own words), particularly in immigrant and minority populations such as Muslims (which have seen the rise of radical Islamism in various guises), the reasons behind such issues are not a lack of “British values”, but precisely the sort of scare-mongering and alienating rhetoric the government is currently engaging in. Young British-born Muslims feel isolated and disenfranchised, cut off from wider society and discursively prevented from being perceived as belonging to the social and national fabric.

The reason young British Muslims such as Mohammed Emwazi, the Woolwich killers, the ISIS brides, and numerous others feel compelled to engage in such destructive behaviour is because they feel that “British society”, as defined by David Cameron and his ilk, has no place for them. By isolating and targeting whole swathes of the Muslim community as a result of their beliefs, the Tory government is pushing such people further and further away and resulting in a reification and validation of those very “extremist” messages and beliefs they are attacking. In other words, intolerance can only breed further intolerance, and Cameron’s claim that Britain has been too “passively tolerant” is ludicrous at best, dangerous at worst.

Only by fostering a sense of tolerance and inclusion for all faiths and minorities – and yes, even “extremism” – can we truly build a cohesive and coherent British society. Any other approach is simple a veiled form of neo-imperialist white supremacy that seeks to narrowly define what it means to be British on its own terms. The current leadership, and the entire ideological edifice on which they are founded, are fostering a generation of disillusioned and angry young Muslims and other minorities who are increasingly told they are not “British enough”. Tell them one too many times, and they might just believe you.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.