The Cold War on British Muslims: an Examination of Policy Exchange and The Centre for Social Cohesion

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Friday May 17, 2013 21:55 by Turing

Interesting report on the State attacks on British Muslims and the role played by private think tanks.

This report attempts to understand the current climate of fear being whipped-up against Muslims in Britain by examining two right-wing think-tanks: the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) and Policy Exchange. The report maintains that the arguments advanced by these thinktanks represent a reversion to the failed counter-subversion strategies of the past.

The report also argues that right-wing think-tanks have understated the rise of Islamophobia on the far-right and in some cases condoned the rise of groups such as the English Defence League (EDL) because of their own links to the counter-jihad movement.

Official counter-subversion was stepped-up in the wake of the explosion of popular protest in the late 1960s. Under pressure from ministers, MI5’s Director-General agreed ‘to stretch the [Service’s] Charter as far as it would go’,1which in practice led to increasingly spurious security justifications for political surveillance. While ostensibly aimed at communists and the ‘far and wide left’, this surveillance covered a whole generation of Labour activists, including Jack Straw, Peter Mandelson, Peter Hain, Patricia Hewitt, Harriet Harman, Cathy Ashton and Joan Ruddock.2 Hewitt and Harman were targeted because of their work with the National Council for Civil Liberties, whilst Ruddock and Ashton were monitored because of their links to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. ...

Some ironies there.