Abstract
The paper highlights the paradoxical position of certain Salafi and Islamist communities in London who have consistently demonstrated skill, courage and commitment in countering al-Qaida propaganda and recruitment activity while simultaneously facing ill-founded criticism from other Muslim communities and secular political lobbyists for creating the conditions that gave rise to the al-Qaida phenomena. In doing so the paper compares the experience of Salafi and Islamist communities living in London during an ongoing terrorist campaign by al-Qaida with Jewish and Irish Catholic communities living in London during earlier terrorist campaigns against the UK’s capital city. In each instance community policing is shown to have a crucial role to play in terms of reassurance for minority faith communities and the prevention of terrorism. However, the intersection between policing and counter-terrorism is shown to produce tensions that may weaken minority community confidence in policing and thereby reduce proactive community support for counter-terrorism measures. At this intersection a London policing initiative is shown to have developed proactive counter-terrorism partnerships with Salafi and Islamist community groups of a pioneering nature. In consequence the same critics who conflate Salafis and Islamists with an urgent terrorist threat to London have accused this policing initiative of appeasing extremism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The chapter draws on the author’s PhD research material. In turn the PhD research draws heavily on the author’s prior role as head of the Muslim Contact Unit, Metropolitan Police, London, UK. See Lambert, Robert, 2008. “Countering al-Qaida Propaganda and Recruitment in London: An Insider’s Interpretive Case Study.” Ph.D. diss. University of Exeter. Forthcoming.
Outrage at Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses prompted London’s first large scale Muslim demonstration in 1989. Mainstream media attention focused on a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeni in Iran in which the murder of the London based author was sanctioned. As a result lawful protest was conflated with criminal violence in much the same way as it has been post 9/11. Muslim indignation re-surfaced when the author was knighted in 2007.
Munira Mirza is an Associate Research Fellow at the right wing think tank Policy Exchange and a founding member of the Manifesto Club, an “organisation that aims to champion humanist politics in the 21st Century”. http://www.manifestoclub.com/ accessed 28.1.08.
In 1997 Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All a report by the Runnymede Trust provided an eight part definition of Islamophobia that was adopted by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. The eight components are: (1) Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change; (2) Islam is seen as separate and ‘other’. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them; (3) Islam is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist; (4) Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism and engaged in a ‘clash of civilisations’; (5) Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used for political or military advantage; (6) criticisms made of the West by Islam are rejected out of hand; (7) hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society; (8) anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural or normal.
Ibn Taymiyyah, d.1328, is a highly regarded figure for Salafi Londoners, as elsewhere in the UK. Thus, typically, the Ibn Taymiyyah Masjid is the name Brixton Salafis gave to their South London mosque—a hub of effective activity against al-Qaida influence.
9/11
The MCU consists of eight counter-terrorism police officers (Muslim and non-Muslim) situated within the Counter-Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in London.
Lambert, R. 2008. PhD research, op. cit.
In January 2008 Ed Hussein and other former Hizb Ut Tahrir activists founded the Quilliam Foundation claiming that having “traveled the path of extremism and, in recent years, after witnessing the logical conclusion of unfettered ideology and its impact on adherents, have resoundingly rejected Islamism while remaining committed Muslims”. Abdal-Hakim Murad is cited as a key scholarly influence. It would be left to Muslim commentator Yahya Birt to point out the irony of their adoption of Britain’s first Islamist, Abdullah Quilliam (1856–1932), for their anti-Islamist project [http://www.yahyabirt.com/ accessed 28.1.08].
Significantly, in July 2007, breaking with precedents set by their immediate and distant predecessors, Gordon Brown, then a new UK Prime Minister, and Jacqui Smith, then a new UK Home Secretary, responded to al-Qaida inspired terrorist incidents calmly and judiciously in tone and in terms that failed to oxygenate public fear and terror in the way the perpetrators calculated they would.
Lambert, R. 2008. PhD research. op. cit.
op. cit.
op.cit
op.cit.
op. cit.
Op. cit.
op. cit.
op. cit.
References
Mayor of London (2006). Muslims in London. London: Greater London Authority.
Esposito, J. L. (2003). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Malik, K. (2005). Multiculturalism has fanned the flames of Islamic Extremism. The Times, 16 July. Accessed 27.1.08. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072–1695604,00.html.
Butt, R. (2006). Rushdie backs Straw in row over Muslim veils. Guardian Online 11 October http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1892556,00.html.
Bunting, M. (2005). Orphans of Islam. Guardian Online. 18 July. Accessed 27.1.08. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1530581,00.html.
Runnymede Trust (1997). Islamophobia: A challenge for us all. London: Runnymede Trust.
Murad, A. -H. (2001). Recapturing Islam from the Terrorists. Accessed 26.1.08. http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/recapturing.html.
Dispatches (2007). Undercover Mosque Channel 4, UK, first broadcast 15 January. Accessed 27.1.08. http://www.hardcashproductions.com/recent29.html.
Briggs, R., Fieschi, C., & Lownsbrough, H. (2006). Bringing it home: Community-based approaches to counter-terrorism pp. 35–36. London: Demos.
Ofcom (2008). Broadcast bulletin, 97. Ofcom: London, 19 November. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/obb97/
MacEoin, D. (2007). The hijacking of British Islam. London: Policy Exchange http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/libimages/307.pdf.
BBC TV Newsnight (2007). Jeremy paxman interview with dean Godson, 12 December. http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7140000/newsid_7142300/7142300.stm
Bright, M. (2006). When progressives treat with reactionaries. London: Policy Exchange http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/libimages/176.pdf.
Gove, M. (2006). Celsius 7/7. London: Weidenfield & Nicholson.
Phillips, M. (2006). Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within. London: Gibson Square.
Desai, M. (2007). Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology of the New Terror. London: Taurus.
Cox, C., & Marks, J. (2006). The West, Islam and Islamism: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy? London: Civitas.
Hussein, E. (2007). The Islamist. London: Penguin.
Lambert, R. (2008). Empowering Salafis and Islamists against Al-Qaida: A London counter-terrorism case study. PS: Political Science and Politics, 41(1), 31–35.
Spalek, B. (2005). Muslims and the criminal justice system. In T. Choudhury (Ed.), Muslims in the UK: policies for engaged citizens Budapest (pp. 253–340). New York: Open Society Institute.
Malik, M. (2006). Muslims are now getting the same treatment Jews had a century ago. Comment is Free: Guardian Online 2 February. Accessed 25.1.08. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2004258,00.html.
Reiner, R. (1985). The politics of the police. Brighton: Wheatsheaf.
Hillyard, P. (1993). Suspect community: People’s experience of the prevention of terrorism acts in Britain. London: Pluto.
Macpherson, L. (1999). The stephen lawrence inquiry: Report. London: TSO, Cm. 4262-1
Robert, N. B. (2006). From my sister’s lips. London: Bantam.
Godson, D. (2007). The old bill should choose its friends carefully: What on earth are west midlands police up to? The Times, 23 August.
Kelly, R. (2006a). Britain: Our values, our responsibilities—speech to Muslim community groups, 11 October. Accessed 27 December 2007. http://www.communities.gov.uk/archived/speeches/corporate/values-responsibilities.
Kelly, R. (2006b). Speech at launch of Commission on Integration and Cohesion, 24 August. Accessed 27 December 2007. http://www.communities.gov.uk/speeches/corporate/commission-integration-cohesion>.
Kelly, R. (2006c). Speech at launch of Sufi Muslim Council, 19 July. Accessed 27 December 2007. http://www.communities.gov.uk/speeches/corporate/sufi-muslim-council.
Hillyard, P. (2006). Paper to critical terrorism studies conference. Manchester: University of Manchester 28 October.
Judd, T. (2006). Police in public feud over profiling The Independent 21 August. Accessed 28 December 2007. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1220622.ece.
El-Fadl, K. A. (2005). Islam and the challenge of democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kamali, M. H. (2003). Fanaticism and its manifestations in Muslim societies. In A. A. Malik (Ed.), The empire and the crescent: Global implications for a new American century (pp. 175–207). Bristol: Amal.
Tibi, B. (2005). Islam between culture and politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Batty, D. (2006). Reid barracked during speech to Muslim parents. The Guardian, September 20.
Butt, H. (2007). My plea to fellow Muslims: YoU MUST RENOUNCE Terror. Guardian Unlimited—Comment is Free, 1 July.
Altikriti, A. (2007). The new fundamentalism. Guardian Unlimited—Comment is Free, 2 July.
Manningham-Buller, E. (2006). The international terrorist threat to the UK. Speech by the Director General of the UK Security Service at Queen Mary College, London, 9 November
Oliver, M. (2007). MI5 Chief Says Terrorists Targeting UK Teenagers. The Guardian, 6 November.
Lustick, I. S. (2006). Trapped in the war on terror. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Ignatieff, M. (2004). The lesser evil: Political ethics in an age of terror. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Duyvesteyn, I. (2004). How new is the new terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 27, 439–54.
Gerges, F. A. (2005). The far enemy: Why Jihad went global. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Godson, D. (2006a). Already hooked on poison. The Times, 8 February.
Gove, M. (2006). We must engage with moderate Muslims. The Guardian. 23 August.
Godson, D. (2006b). You’ll Never Guess Who’s to Blame for 7/7. The Times, 13 Dec.
Godson, D. (2007). The old bill should choose its friends carefully: What on earth are west midlands police up to? The Times, 23 August.
Innes, M. (2006). Policing uncertainty: countering terror through community intelligence and democratic policing. Annals of the American Academy, 605, 1–20.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lambert, R. Salafi and Islamist Londoners: Stigmatised minority faith communities countering al-Qaida. Crime Law Soc Change 50, 73–89 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9122-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9122-8