Politics
Chaos over the biggest issue of our time
Published 19 June 2006
Nobody knows which Whitehall department is in charge of engaging with Britain's Muslims and tackling extremism. After Forest Gate, the problem could lead to disaster
It seemed a reasonable enough question: which Whitehall department is responsible for engaging with Britain's 1.5 million Muslims and tackling the issue of Islamist extremism? Yet it is one the government has some difficulty answering. There appears to be an institutional resistance to deciding who takes the lead in building up an understanding of Britain's hugely diverse and fastest-growing faith community.
Last month's reshuffle made matters more confusing, with a large chunk of the Home Office that used to deal with Muslim issues moved to Ruth Kelly's Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
After a series of phone calls across Whitehall, I think I have worked it out. It seems that four separate departments now have partial responsibility in the area of "Muslim engagement".
The Home Office remains in charge of counter-terrorism, but the Communities Group, which had previously led on race equality and cohesion issues inside the department, has been shifted to the DCLG. The senior civil servant in charge of this crucially important group, Mark Carroll, has been moved to the DCLG, while most of his civil servants physically remain at the Home Office.
This leaves the Active Communities Directorate (ACD), which ensures that "citizens, communities and the voluntary sector are more fully engaged in tackling social problems", and includes a number of initiatives with the Muslim community.
Confused? The Home Office website states that, following the reshuffle, "detailed ministerial responsibilities and administrative arrangements for the . . . ACD are currently being finalised". I am told it has now found a home at the Cabinet Office. The fourth department with a degree of responsibility is the Foreign Office, which retains its Engaging With the Islamic World group, a body that has the task of promoting understanding of British foreign policy abroad, but also has a domestic role in tackling extremism and building an understanding of Islam in Britain.
This state of affairs could be dismissed as a time-honoured Whitehall farce, were it not so serious. The botched police raid in Forest Gate, east London, has highlighted the tensions between law enforcement, intelligence and the Muslim community.
Leaked documents
In recent weeks I have been trying to secure an interview with the minister responsible for Muslim engagement to answer questions raised in a series of leaked Whitehall documents, published over the past year in the New Statesman and the Observer.
These papers have shown a readiness on the part of ministers to forge links with radical Muslim groups at home and abroad, including the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
It took some time for the departments to decide who was in charge. At first the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells agreed to answer questions, but then he withdrew, saying he could not discuss leaked documents. Following the reshuffle, the Home Office and the DCLG were similarly nonplussed, but as my concerns touched on counter-terrorism, the new Home Office minister Liam Byrne agreed to talk. A few days later, an internal switch led to a job swap and the offer was withdrawn.
The government must be held to account for its strategy. It should not be too much to ask that it decide who is responsible. It is almost a year since home-grown Muslim terrorists carried out a series of attacks in London. It is five years since riots broke out in Muslim communities across the north of England. Yet there remains uncertainty at the heart of government over how to deal with the country's Muslim minority.
Shattered lives
A consultation period on the structure of Kelly's department is coming to an end and we have to hope the new arrangements work. Some Muslims may find it odd that the issue has been handed to an arch-Catholic, but they will accept there is some sense in splitting responsibility for community issues from the specific problem of counter-terrorism.
The integration of Muslims into mainstream society is one of the most difficult challenges faced by western governments. Ministers proclaim it is their top priority in the fight against terrorism. But, so far, the government's approach has been hesitant and confused.
Muslims have been more affected by the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 than other groups. It is they who have been stopped and searched disproportionately, who are in effect criminalised by waves of anti-terror legislation, who have seen their lives shattered in police raids - less high profile than Forest Gate, but no less traumatising - that too often yield nothing.
The government owes it not just to Muslims, but to Britain at large, to get this right.
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