LONDON, 7 January 2007 — British Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, the architect of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s so-called diversity and integration policy, is set to unveil a controversial plan later his month whereby thousands of council (municipal) workers across the UK will effectively be asked to spy on Muslim radicals and extremist organizations in their midst.
The Daily Mirror, one of Britain’s top tabloids and a staunch supporter of the ruling Labour Party, yesterday confirmed in a report quoting Kelly, the former education secretary, that the government will give 50 local authorities some 5 million pounds in special funding “to be the ears and eyes of the police” about possible risks and to keep a watch on suspected Muslim extremists in the major metropolitan areas of the country.
Reaction from British Muslim organizations were slow to filter out given the weekend. However, Muslims were divided about the initiative. Some stressed that the lookout for extremists within communities of all sorts was already prevalent.
The terrorist scare at British airports last August when an alleged plot to blow up several planes bound for major US cities using disguised liquid explosives smuggled in hand luggage was supposedly uncovered, is a case in point. The scare reportedly was precipitated by Muslims who informed the security services of “suspicious behavior” of some Muslim individuals in communities in Waltahmstow in East London and others in Manchester and Leeds.
Other Muslims warned that such racial and faith profiling of Muslims could backfire and hinder the very integration and social cohesions which the Blair government was trying to inculcate. Local council trade unions also expressed concern that Kelly’s plan may endanger council staff because they could be targeted by extremists.
The aim of the plan, according to Kelly, is to help pre-empt an outrage such as the one on the London transport system in July 2005 when some 56 innocent passengers lost their lives and over 700 commuters were injured. Four Muslim radicals — three of Pakistani descent and the fourth a Jamaican convert to Islam — carried out the attacks, the first suicide bomb attacks on British soil.
Speaking to the left-leaning tabloid, Kelly stressed that “extremism is an issue for all of us. Local authorities must rise to the challenge, too. They have a pivotal role in winning the battle of hearts and minds in local communities. This funding will enable us to harness the long-established expertise of local authorities in developing deep insights into their areas in order to meet the challenge of tackling violent extremism.”
Blair, Home Secretary John Reid and Kelly have over the last two years warned that Britain remains a primary target for terrorism. This has been regularly reiterated by senior police and intelligence officials including Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police chief commissioner.
Critics including some members of Parliament in the Labour Party’s own ranks, opposition politicians and Muslim groups and individuals such as the Muslim Council of Britain, the British Muslim Forum and Lord Nazir Ahmed, the Labour peer, have warned that British foreign policy especially in Iraq and Afghanistan and its close cooperation with the Bush administration in launching the invasion and occupation of Iraq must bear much of the responsibility in radicalizing home-grown British Muslim youth.
This charge has been strongly dismissed by Blair, stressing that the 9/11 attacks preceded the war in Iraq.
The money will partly be used to set up organizations to identify and root out groups deemed to be brainwashing young Muslims. Staff of these organizations, according to Kelly, “would be asked to establish systems to share potential risks or concerns at the local level with councils and staff acting as the eyes and ears for police in countering threats.”
