We can’t keep turning a blind eye to Islamist extremism; cf.The Lancaster Plan by John Joyce

One of the Comments to Robert Jenrick’s article in today’s Telegraph advises readers to look up the essay published here in 2015; The Lancaster Plan by John Joyce.

That can be found here, from 2015.

And republished in 2018 here.

Just in case you can’t access all of Robert Jenrick’s article I’ll post some relevant points. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Gove when he was The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor (at my old department) and later promoted to Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government until a reshuffle in September. As many commentators at the Telegraph say, why didn’t he say any of this while in a position of power? 

Following the verdict in Ali Harbi Ali’s trial on Monday, we must all now acknowledge what was clear from the outset: the murder of my friend and colleague Sir David Amess was an act of terrorism. More specifically, it was the product of Islamist extremism which this country – and the West – continues to face more than 20 years after 9/11. . . Even after the police detained Ali under the Terrorism Act, many were unwilling to countenance extremism as his motive.

Instead of discussing the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, we debated removing online anonymity and implored one another to be kinder 

We cannot possibly hope to tackle extremism if we keep failing to diagnose it or, worse still, if when we do recognise it we pretend it is something else and reach for warm words and hashtags.

In its most dangerous form, this twisted ideology poses a direct threat to life. Despite a disturbing rise in far-Right extremism, Islamist radicals still make up the vast majority of suspects on MI5’s terror watchlist. And there remains a less violent but more pervasive strand of Islamist thought interwoven in our communities that needs stamping out.

It should be a continual source of outrage that a teacher from Batley Grammar School remains in hiding to this day, fearing for his physical safety, after showing depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in a religious studies lesson.

In recent years, we have become accustomed to cultural extremism . . . each instance, fear of political correctness or of causing offence has weakened the fight to defend sacred liberal principles.

It’s clear that Prevent, the Government’s counter-radicalisation strategy, needs urgent reform. . . 

Of the 11 most recent terrorist attackers, six had been referred to Prevent. And while the far-Right and Islamist extremists may despise our values in equal measure, it is irresponsible to draw equivalence in the cumulative threat their ideologies pose. Islamist extremists make up three quarters of offenders in prison for terror-related crime but only 24 per cent of all Prevent referrals and 30 per cent of Channel cases, that is those taken to the next level of intervention.

If Prevent is to succeed it must be focused on the greatest risk to life, without fear of appearances. 

Extremism of any kind, and certainly Islamist extremism, is a cancer that grows in our society. We must acknowledge it and summon the strength to fight it.

Some comments:

• I don’t remember Mr Jenrick saying any of this whilst he was in a position to do something about it. He probably thinks he has a shot at the leadership if he toughens up his rhetoric.
• If prevent is to succeed you must name the problem. The minute you bring it up you’re a racist or islamaphobe & your immediately shut down & further discussion is impossible.
• Has it escaped your attention that the English have been ethnically cleansed from many areas of towns and cities in ENGLAND? Visit Savile Town in Yorkshire, approx 98% immigant to see the future.
• Some sense here, except that you can’t socially integrate a culture that doesn’t believe in your rule of law, thinks their religion and culture is better and whom will always stick together for fear of more extreme followers of their own faith.
• Typical PC references to ‘far-right’ when the so-called far-right is as relevant to the Muslim invasion of Britain as the moons of Saturn.
• We could then start by correctly naming it. It’s Islamic terrorism not Islamist. The latter is a government construct designed to deceive the general public by deflecting the blame on to an abstract concept.
• It is obvious that all mainstream politicians now regard terrorist killings such as Manchester Arena and London Bridge, and episodes like Batley, Rochdale and Rotherham as a price worth paying in their wider scheme of things which is to force their theories of multiculturalism on the rest of us. Unfortunate facts which clash with those theories must not be mentioned, and anyone who mentions them too much will probably find themselves charged with a hate crime.
• Your quite brave allowing comments on this subject. You should read The Lancaster Plan by John M Joyce 2015 in the New English Review. Allegedly fiction but as time goes by you begin to suspect it’s not.