Sections of Muslim Britain in denial about extremism

This actually seems to me, having lived and worked in a Muslim-majority area in the UK, to be about right in its analysis, and offers a good summary of the 'standard' view of youth identity politics in relation to Muslim background young people. Interesting too to note how the Muslim condemnations of terrorist attacks are creditted. But we should still note that none of those have been by reputable scholars as such and involving anything like a fatwa against Usama binLaden and his ilk in the way that, for example Salman Rushdie was fatwa'd [I'd be delighted to be proven wrong on this by the way, so do send me evidence if I am and I do note also, to be fair, that I don't recal fatwas against the Danish cartoonists ...]. And that may relate to this observation.

certain elements of Muslim communities are in various stages of denial, whether about the events of 7th July, Muslim extremism or the responsibilities of the Muslim community and leadership at large. Elements of the Muslim community have become intensely self-reflective, both in terms of individuals and communities. They remain inward-looking and are still in "survival" mode, thinking and feeling victimised, disconnected and separated. For some, there is an overriding preoccupation with conspiracy theories around the threat of terrorism and the significant political leverage of fear attributed to the West. The persistence of an attitude of denial will undoubtedly be counter-productive to any significant and lasting change.

Ironically, the post/modern prediliction for the conspiracy theory is mirrored in the post/modern westernised [but not openly so] young Muslims. They retrieve an Islamic identity from a post-modern situatedness and so the literality and romance of the counter-hegemonic readings [which is what makes conspiracy theories attractive to the mindset] as well as the solidarity with the oppressed and the global reach make an Islamic identity very attractive, and actually, the more 'right on' it is Islamically, the better. Hence the militant fightback messages have a resonance that cannot be matched by more moderate and 'reasonable' forms that are so because they have had to spend generations being realistic and living with diversity.

I can see it because there are equivalent dynamics in most religious and ideological groups; including Christianity. The peculiar difficulty for Islam is that it's foundation documents and hermeneutics are more easily misappropriated to sanction violent views -or so it seems to me [and I'm hoping to discover I'm wrong]. For most Christians and Buddhists, for example, in a similar position, the struggle is whether one might justify or excuse violence in some circumstances rather than whether one can justify non-violent responses.

Sections of Muslim Britain in denial about extremism - Sunday Times - Times Online:
Filed in: Islam, UK, terrorism