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October 22, 2006

UK: Government Starts Website Against Islamism

The Sunday Telegraph reports today that the UK home secretary, John Reid, has said that the British government risks losing the "battle of ideas" to al-Qaeda.

He made the statement at an emergency meeting with ministers and security officials. He said that there was an urgent need to escalate the propaganda war, claiming that al-Qaeda's "single extremist narrative" was showing itself to be more attractive to young Muslims.

He claimed that there were thirty Islamist plots currently underway in Britain. In August that there were 24 major plots in progress. In addition, he said there were an estimated 1,500 terror plotters. This is an increase of the figure of 1,200 announced in July. These came from a larger pool of 400,000 extremist sympathisers and were being kept under surveillance by MI5. Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, had claimed that there were seventy plots "at home and abroad" which were being examined by police.

One so-called "weapon" in the government's propaganda war is a website, entitled the "Radical Middle Way". The website can be found HERE. The site also uses podcasts available through the iTunes website, but the notion of a government-funded website advertising Islam is bound to be controversial. The bland messages of "moderation" and "piety" are bound to be a turn-off to Muslim youth, who can watch infidels having their heads sawn off or coalition vehicles blown to pieces on jihadist sites. The site, both in its design and content, is turgid.

In addition to the bland messages on the website, 100,000 CDs carrying similar vapid fare have been given out free to Muslims at universities. These are hoped to counteract the jihadist CDs which are already circulating.

A minister said after the meeting that the "approach is to bolster the moderate voices and isolate and attack the extremists."

In a commentary in the same paper, Patience Wheatcroft derides the propaganda attempts. She quotes from a message from Reid to security officials, which states "These podcasts made it to number 23 of the iTunes Religion and Spirituality section....The Radical Middle Way podcasts currently enjoy a five-star rating among the iTune listeners who have commented on them....this placing is a real success."

Wheatcroft states: "Really? If this high-ranking official is right to believe that all it takes to change views is a download of a podcast, then at this very moment there will be some frightening mind-bending going on, as all manner of weird ideas are offered for consumption on the internet."

If this is the best Britain can offer in the fight against radical Islam, which combines visceral appeals to violence with a message that giving into bloodlust is a divine ordinance, al-Qaeda will win the battle for "hearts and minds". All the religious sanctioning and direct invocations for violence are already within the Koran. Substitute "unbeliever" for "any member of Western civilization" and the formula for armed jihadist operations is already contained inside the "Holy Book".

A bunch of moderate Mullahs preaching is not inspiring. There is no violence, no sex (obviously), and no jokes. There is nothing to grab anyone's attention. The podcasts, website and CD are all funded by the Home Office and the Foreign Office.

It is money wasted. There is nothing "radical" about a "Middle Way", and the term "middle way" is Buddhist, anathema to Muslim purists. In the hands of New Labour politicians, this attempt to water down the violence at the heart of the Koran is no antidote to extremist Islam, which claims to be the panacea for all social ills, and providing plenty of violence and gore along the way.

Maybe if the website had video downloads of atrocities against civilians and children, carried out by jihadists, with a wise Mullah stating how wrong this is, then an effective antidote might be possible.

The terrorists of 7/7, and the would-be terrorists of Al Ghurabaa and the Saviour/Saved Sect fired themselves up with videos of atrocities - videos of civilians killed in warfare by Western or infidel military. Only a similar hardcore set of images would have a counterbalancing effect.

The Radical Middle Way is "Islam designed by committee". It is Islam promoted by people who do not accept the unpalatable truths of Islam - that it is an ideology founded through warfare, and its founder was, according to the Hadiths of Sahih Bukhari (Vol VII, Book 62, Number 65), a pedophile.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 22, 2006 4:09 PM

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