PM: Munich speech

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: David Cameron's message is that Muslims are not wanted.

David Cameron speech ‘setting out his view on radicalisation and Islamic extremism’ at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday stirred up outrage with accusations that the Prime Minister is being “selective, hypocritical, calculating and woefully indifferent to Muslim victims of relentless racism”.

Writing for the Independent today Yasmin Alibhai-Brown says  David Cameron's message is that Muslims are not wanted. And that Muslims and migrants are being used to distract people from the planned chaos implemented by this unpopular coalition.

She writes: "I found Cameron's speech in Munich indefensible even though I completely agree with some observations and policy ideas. We discussed these two years back when we met in his office for over an hour.

"Self-exclusion, special pleading, women's rights, community oppression, anti-democratic attitudes, terrorism, the spread of Wahhabi Islam are serious problems and growing. Laissez-faire multicultural policies do not serve our times. State institutions should fund shared spaces, crossover ideas, openness and modernity.

"Many of us Muslims would be with David Cameron if his speech hadn't shown him to be selective, hypocritical, calculating, woefully indifferent to Muslim victims of relentless racism and chauvinism. He was speaking the words of white extremists but in posh. There was so much that was objectionable – where he spoke, what he said, the timing, the purposes loitering behind the fine façade of his personality.

"By speaking out in Munich he allied himself with the ghastly Angela Merkel who delivered a similarly provocative sermon last autumn. Racism is rife in both countries; in both nations, millions of their own natives rigidly hold on to their languages and cultures.

"Our PM, in effect, identified himself with the abominable English Defence League when he spoke up a day before the league marched through Luton shouting abuse. Are these the laudable British values we must embrace? Hot-headed Muslims will be even more convinced they are not wanted in the land of their birth.

"So why is he doing it? When politicians are in trouble they pick on "outsiders", put them into stocks so the people can turn on them and relieve their feelings of frustration. Andrew Lansley, now in charge of health, said shamelessly in 1995 that they were using the anti-immigration card because it played well with voters.

"Recently he blamed migrants for a rise in TB in Britain, a link that used healthcare concerns to whip up xenophobic panic. Cameron himself designed the disgraceful anti-refugee campaign for Michael Howard in 2005.

"I accept our citizens are unnerved by those British Muslims who make endless demands, are full of wrath and murderous plans, or choose ghettoisation. However, the widespread national unhappiness is created by policies pushed through by this Government.

"Muslims and migrants are being used to distract people from the planned chaos implemented by this unpopular coalition. It is politicking of the worst kind. Which is why it must be opposed vehemently. As the daughter of a survivor said to me at the Holocaust Memorial Day in January: "We Jews must look to our failings and crimes. But when outsiders try to use that for their devilish reasons, we know where we must stand." Me too".
Yasmin's full article.

The Muslim Council of Britain's Farooq Murad, Secretary General responded to the speech saying; “The Prime Minister gave an important speech today that affects all of us, including British Muslims.

"There are many things that we agree and we commend, such as the need to ensure we do speak out against Islamophobia, and the need to foster a cohesive national identity based on the values of democracy and equality of all before law.

“The Prime Minister today took aim at multiculturalism through the lens of security, when in fact we need a discussion on our shared values that includes all of us, not just Muslims. The Big Society should be about how we can work together to solve our common challenges; not to further isolate, sideline and demonise particular communities.

“The Prime Minister chose to deliver his speech on a day when the extremists of the English Defence League will be marching on Luton to sow discord amongst our communities. We find it very disappointing that at a time when we should seek to stand together to fight violence and extremism, Mr Cameron omits any reference to this extremist group spreading hate and bigotry against British Muslims in towns and cities up and down this country.

"Such a flagrant omission by the Prime Minister adds fuel to fire for such extremists to further stigmatise and alienate entire communities based on their religion or ethnicity. We already see poisonous anti-Muslim narrative emanating from some MP’s, echoing the discourse created in parts of our media.

“We welcome Mr Cameron's resolve for institutions, including Muslim organisations, to subscribe to universal human rights. It is important that we identify which groups the Prime Minister refers to that are in receipt of government funding and do not subscribe to universal human rights. The British Muslim community has stood firm against the scourge of extremism and will continue to do so.

"The MCB itself, though not in receipt of government funding, has consistently spoken in favour of British values that acknowledge universal human rights and pluralism. It has spoken in favour of a stronger and successful British nation.

"Furthermore, Muslim organisations have time and again demonstrated their commitment to the common good. We have been asked to pass the litmus test and prove our loyalty to this country. It is important that our discourse acknowledges that British Muslims are very much part of this country".

Read the PM’s speech at Munich Security Conference