Bribing Muslims to behave

TIME was when any group in our society which misbehaved or flagrantly broke the rules could expect a robust reaction from the forces of law and order.

How much cash will it take to ensure that signs like these are never again seen in the UK?

Muslims, however, are an exception. In order to behave like normal, law-abiding citizens, they need shedloads of taxpayers’ money as an incentive.

Or so the British government believes – hence the launch of an £86 million scheme designed to prevent the radicalisation of young British Muslims.

The Preventing Violent Extremism fund, according to today’s Telegraph, allows councils to give money to local projects in the hope that they will prevent teenagers turning to dangerous forms of Islam. It was launched last year by the since-ousted Communities Secretary, Ruth Kelly, and so far £6m spent has been splashed out on trial schemes.

£86-million sounds a lot, and indeed it is – especially in today’s straitened times. But it is a pittance compared to the cash lavished on the promotion of the hard-line Wahhabism brand of Islam by Saudi Arabia.

According to this disturbing report in the Australian, although a minority tendency within Islam, Wahhabism’s enormous financial muscle – dubbed Petro-Islam – allows it to overwhelm traditional forms of the religion. This is especially the case among the Muslim diaspora in Western countries, where petrodollars fund the educational, social and cultural infrastructure used to promote Wahhabism and related forms of Islamic fundamentalism.

The funding available for these activities is stupendous. One investigation estimated that the Saudi Government and related organisations spent $70 billion between 1979 and 2003 on “international aid”, with two-thirds of this being used to infiltrate institutions and promote Wahhabism, and anti-Western, anti-Israeli propaganda.

In Britain, a report by Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies revealed that eight British universities, including Cambridge and Oxford, have accepted more than $491 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, mainly to fund Islamic study centres. Not surprisingly, the director-general of MI5 has warned that this funding had led to:

A dangerous increase in the spread of extremism in leading university campuses.

Critics of the latest British scheme claim that large sums of money are being given to projects that do not meet its specific objectives, and are being handed out to community groups without councillors considering them first.

A BBC investigation disclosed that grants of up to £30,000 are being distributed by Birmingham City Council for projects such as a photographic exhibition of positive images of the city’s Muslims, and a conference to allow community organisations to meet policy-makers.

One woman who was given funding totalling £7,000 said she did not feel the work she did was an effective use of the money.

She told Radio 4′s Today programme:

I did feel at the time that the amount of money I was being offered was rather large for the kind of work and it made me concerned about who gets the money and how they were checking these funds were going to be effectively used.

Cllr Salma Yaqoob from the Respect party added:

It seems to me that the Preventing Violent Extremism agenda is being used as a gravy train for those willing to toe the Government line, regardless of effectiveness on the ground.

But Cllr Alan Rudge, who is in charge of PVE money for Birmingham, insisted there had been wide consultation on how best to spend the cash in areas such as work with young people and women, the media and Islamic groups.

Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, also defended the use of the cash, saying:

We have got to work with local authorities. They know their communities and increasingly the councillors are showing political leadership on it and they are now seeing what works. What I want to do is strengthen the mainstream moderate Muslims in this country, who are the overwhelming majority, but also those vulnerable youngsters so they have the ability to say ‘You are extreme. Your version of my faith is not correct. I don’t want to be part of that’. That’s difficult, it’s long-term, but we are ahead of many countries across the world in the work we are doing here.

If ever there was a case of misplaced optimism, this is it.