The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain

Press release

Muslim Parliament calls for a public inquiry into the radicalisation of Muslin youth

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament, will be speaking at a Liberal Democrat fringe meeting in Blackpool on Wednesday, 21 September on ‘Anti-Terror laws – What next?’

At the meeting, Dr Siddiqui will call for a public inquiry into the radicalisation of young British Muslims to look into the role the UK intelligence services played in promoting salafist ideology in the UK. He will say that Muslim youth have been the victim of this well-oiled onslaught. The inquiry must include the role that foreign policy has played in radicalising Muslim youth as well as investigate the ‘special relationship’ shared between our intelligence services and extremist groups.

Dr Siddiqui will say that the salafist ideology, a minority cult originating from Saudi Arabia, was given a global reach and militarisation in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, as a consequence of the convergence between salafist puritanical teachings and the political aims of the US and Britain. The salafists were trained in, among other things, making explosives from household items. A significant number of British Muslim youth participated in the Afghan ‘jihad’. These jihadists were later encouraged to fight in Bosnia and Kosova. Foreign Muslim clerics, who glorified ‘holy war’, were allowed into Britain to recruit and fundraise. These activities gave the jihadi ideology great currency within the Muslim community to the extent that within the politicised section of the community jihad became the sixth ‘pillar of Islam’.

Dr Siddiqui will say, ‘we in the west have created this monster and now that it has come back to bite us we want to change the rules of the game. Regrettably the world does not work like this’.

The Soviet collapse threatened to deprive the salafists jihadis a leadership role. They instead survive by playing on the humiliation suffered by Muslims in parts of the world, distracting attention from the role they played in promoting US global interests. If Muslims are today more vulnerable or victim to US ‘full spectrum dominance’, then they have contributed their fair share.

Dr Siddiqui hopes that a public inquiry will give the community confidence in the anti-terror measures required for national security. He would further say that demonisation of the whole community will only alienate the very people whose cooperation is needed to eliminate the extremist and isolationist ideology. They must knowingly distance themselves from ideology, which has made violence a part of Islam. He will insist that all anti-terror laws must adhere to the rule of law and our much-cherished civil liberties must remain if we wish to succeed in our fight against obscurantism. “Salafism, though vocal, is still a minority ideology in British Islam. We should be able to win the Muslim community over through dialogue and a fair and measured response,” he will say.

19 September 2005