British PM to announce 5-year plan to combat home-grown Islamic extremism and radicalization in face of growing popularity of IS
Conspiracy theories of a powerful Jewish cabal or a Western plan to destroy Islam must be challenged in efforts to counter radicalization, British Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Monday.
In a speech in the central English city of Birmingham, Cameron is to announce a five-year plan to tackle home-grown Islamic extremism and help communities integrate in Britain.
“You don’t have to support violence to subscribe to certain intolerant ideas which create a climate in which extremists can flourish,” Cameron is to say, according to released remarks.
“Ideas also based on conspiracy that Jews exercise malevolent power or that Western powers, in concert with Israel, are deliberately humiliating Muslims, because they aim to destroy Islam.”
He is also to attack views that hold poverty and Western foreign policy responsible for terrorism.
“This argument, the grievance justification, must be challenged,” Cameron will say.
The prime minister’s center-right Conservative government has sought to address radicalization since Cameron won a second five-year term in office in May.
Uncomfortable questions have been raised by waves of people who have left Britain to join the Islamic State (IS) group, which has brutally carved out regions of control in Iraq and Syria, and Cameron is to say that past integration policies failed.
“For all our successes as (a) multi-racial, multi-faith democracy, we have to confront a tragic truth that there are people born and raised in this country who don’t really identify with Britain – and feel little or no attachment to other people here,” Cameron is to say.
“When groups like ISIL seek to rally our young people to their poisonous cause, it can offer them a sense of belonging that they can lack here at home, leaving them more susceptible to radicalization and even violence against other British people.”
In response, the prime minister is to announce a review into how to increase opportunities for young people from minority backgrounds, help people learn English and promote integration in isolated and deprived communities in Britain, according to a statement by Cameron’s office.
The prime minister vowed a “full spectrum” response to the killing of 30 British tourists in a Tunisian gun attack claimed by IS last month.
Cameron has also indicated he may seek to increase Britain’s role in fighting IS, potentially seeking another parliamentary vote on whether to conduct air strikes in Syria, a proposal which was voted down in 2013.
As reported by The Times of Israel