Extremism is a sign of failed policies

The Times of London reported yesterday that there are more young British men fighting as jihadists in the Middle East than there are Muslims in the British army.

Though figures are not precise — estimates stand at anything between 500 and 1,500, the highest in Europe — the prospect of radicalised, battle-hardened zealots returning to Europe, and specifically these islands, must be a cause for concern. That concern is strengthened if those extremists continue their reign of terror in pursuit of an unwanted and unattainable European caliphate.

That they have so dramatically rejected the legitimacy of the British state must be a blow for those who have worked so very hard to encourage multiculturalism. This rejection must bring into question too the policies, or more accurately the failed policies, that have encouraged immigrant groups to maintain a distance from the society they choose to work and live in. That this distance, this ghettoisation, helps germinate the kind of anti-western hate fuelling Isis cannot be ignored. More must be done to realise the opportunities and security successful multiculturalism and integration should offer. The alternative is division, conflict, and the kind of distrust that eats away at stable societies.

That one of the British jihadists may be the extremist who murdered, by beheading, American journalist James Foley is an indication of how very deep and dangerous that disconnect has become.

In this regard we cannot ignore our grossly inhuman and ineffective procedures aimed at some immigrants who arrive on these shores. Some immigrants are kept in conditions, and for lengths of time, that cannot but foster great scepticism about our intentions and our generosity.

Though not directly related, yesterday’s execution in Gaza by Hamas of 18 people, including two women, who they claimed were Israeli spies, is another chilling indication of how out-of-control, how dangerously deviant, the entire region has become. That the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights described the killings, apparently a response to Israel’s air strikes earlier this week in which three Hamas leaders were killed, as “extra-judicial executions” is another indication of how difficult it will be to secure something approaching peace in the region. That ambition will not be helped either by the Hamas-run Al Rai website which warned that the punishment inflicted on those 18 people it described as spies would be imposed on others. Neither will the assessment by America’s defence secretary Chuck Hagel, who said that Isis poses an “imminent threat” to the US and may take years to defeat, bring peace any closer.

At moments like this, irrational and excessive responses are not unheard of. It must always be remembered that Isis and Hamas are extremist organisations and that they do not reflect the thinking or behaviour of the great majority of Muslims who, like everyone else, hope for no more than to live peaceful, contented, and socially integrated lives.