‘Smacks of desperation’: British Muslim organisations react to Gove’s extremism definition

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British Muslim organisations have mentioned Michael Gove’s definition of extremism “smacks of desperation” and “stifles public debate” after the minister right this moment named the teams to be assessed in opposition to the brand new outlines.

Released right this moment, the definition says extremism is the development of a violent, hateful or illiberal ideology that goals to “negate or destroy” the rights of others, or which goals to “undermine, overturn or replace” the UK’s democracy and democratic rights.

Extremism can be outlined because the promotion of an ideology that goals to “intentionally create a permissive environment” for others to obtain the identical goals.

In the Commons, Mr Gove used parliamentary privilege to inform MPs the views held by organisations such because the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Cage and Mend (Muslim Engagement and Development) “give rise to concern for their Islamist orientation and views”.

He vowed the federal government would “take action as appropriate” if that was discovered to be the case.

Responding to Mend being talked about within the Commons, CEO Azhar Qayum mentioned: “We challenge Michael Gove to repeat his claims outside of parliament and without the protection of parliamentary privilege if he believes he can provide the evidence to back up his view that Mend has called for the establishment of an ‘Islamic state governed by sharia law’.”

He added that if the federal government goes on to record Mend as an extremist organisation, they are going to concern authorized proceedings.

Following Mr Gove’s name-dropping, Cage additionally mentioned they’d be exploring authorized avenues as they mentioned: “We reject the counter-extremism and counter-terrorism powers that allow for arbitrary and authoritarian interventions against dissenting citizens.”

5Pillars, a British Muslim information web site was not amongst these teams talked about by Mr Gove right this moment. However, editor Roshan Salih mentioned he fears that the teams on the minister’s watchlist may very well be blacklisted as native councils “blindly” comply with his lead.

He mentioned: “I do fear that this stupid labelling today will be blindly followed by local councils and other state institutions, as well as by the supine mainstream media, to blacklist these groups. And that isn’t fair because they are a crucial mirror held up to the worst excesses of the British state and without them, Britain will be much poorer.”

Mr Salih added: “Mend, MAB and Cage are all grassroots Muslim organisations with their ear to the ground of the community. They are practising Muslims who live and breathe Islam and who are well respected by all.

“Their only crime is calling out British foreign policy and structural Islamophobia. In other words, they are guilty of holding our rotten government to account.”

Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission- who was additionally not named- mentioned the brand new definition exhibits the “mask is well and truly off” as the federal government has proven “they are the real threat to democracy”.

He mentioned: “This smacks of desperation. Having failed to stop the anti-genocide demonstrations the government is resorting to that well-known tactic of fascists – authoritarianism – in order to achieve its objectives.”

A joint assertion was made by Mend together with Cage, Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), and 5Pillars, which argued the brand new definition “politicises a concept that should be above party politics, attacks free speech, delegitimises lawful dissent, stifles public debate, avoids democratic oversight and scrutiny, and creates division and inflames tensions between communities”.

When saying his new definition, Mr Gove mentioned: “The pervasiveness of extremist ideologies has become increasingly clear in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and poses a real risk to the security of our citizens and our democracy.”

In response, a coalition of teams which have been organising nationwide marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, together with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa and Muslim Association of Britain, launched a joint assertion as they condemned Mr Gove’s definition.

The new definition has already confronted criticism from three former residence secretaries and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, all of whom cautioned the federal government over the chance of politicising anti-extremism.

The archbishop mentioned that the plans threat “disproportionately targeting Muslim communities”. He added: “The new definition being proposed not only inadvertently threatens freedom of speech, but also the right to worship and peaceful protest – things that have been hard won and form the fabric of a civilised society.”

Leading British Imam Qari Asim advised BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My fear is that potentially, this proposed definition will actually result in more extremism and people going underground and, as a result, being manipulated and exploited by those who are true extremists.”