Photo courtesy of the DFID via.
These plans, in my opinion, are bullshit. It is not the government's job to police how its citizens think or speak. There are, of course, limits to free speech—inciting violence, for example, is a criminal offense, and people who do this should be charged and punished. Causing offense to others, however, is not a criminal offense, and shouldn't be one. But even here there are limits, and those who offend people for no good reason are commonly and rightly regarded as dickheads."Extremism" as a concept shouldn't have a place in government policy. It's not any more analytically valid than "bad shit" or "bollocks." It is, first and foremost, a term of polemical censure—a word we conventionally use to register our disapproval of viewpoints and preferences that contradict our own. The government defines "extremism" as anything that stands opposed to fundamental British values of tolerance and mutual respect. ISIS clearly fits into this category, as do a whole range of other groups and individuals. ISIS, in turn, no doubt sees the British government as extreme: the antithesis of its own godly values. Indeed, ISIS is currently at war against extremism, as it defines it, in the areas under its control, violently policing the extreme activities of smoking, gambling, drinking, artistic creation, and free sexual expression.So extremism is anything we want it to be. It is also, more crucially, not the problem. Extreme views, however defined, do not kill or maim anyone. People do. Living, breathing, shitting human beings, armed with their fists and feet and anything they can get their hands on. This may sound completely banal and obvious, but the point seems to be lost on Cameron and his advisors.
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ISIS fighters on the border of Syria and Iraq.
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A very stupid way to counter contemptible viewpoints is to ban their adherents from venting them. This not only risks giving the adherents a kind of counter-cultural glamour they formerly lacked, but may also provoke a further hardening of their views, or even a violent reassertion on the part of the adherents themselves (or those who take offense on their behalf).The real issue for counter-terrorism is not extremism, but extreme action. It is those who walk the walk, not noisy blowhards and similar belligerents. It is actual terrorists and their plots we should be concerned about and trying to stop. Outlawing a set of views won't stop anyone from having them, so that plan of action only serves to divide and marginalize. But the government, despite all their resources and expertise, do not seem to recognize this. Instead, they choose to follow a path that may well backfire, worsening the very same concern they seek to contain.Simon Cottee is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Kent University. He is the author of The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam, published by Hurst & Co.