The unveiling of Mohammed Emwazi as the man behind the “Jihadi John” mask is a reminder that Islamist extremism is an ideology that is accessible to all. It is clear from the news in the past week how powerful a draw it is for such a diverse range of people.
From the Bangladeshi-heritage east London schoolgirls to Emwazi, the well-off west Londoner of Kuwaiti heritage, Islamic State (Isis) and other extremists recruit from across British society. It is this inherent vulnerability that should inform what is the most appropriate response, without doubt a civil society one.
It is my former radicalisation and my active involvement in exploiting others in the same process that frames my view on this. And it is clear that there are strong parallels between Islamist extremism and racism, and I am convinced we can tackle it in similar ways.
Let’s remind ourselves of other recent stories. The disgraced and subsequently dismissed Ukip councillor Rozanne Duncan shocked us with her overt, albeit confused, racism in a BBC documentary. Last week, Chelsea football fans who refused Souleymane S entry to their Paris train carriage on the grounds of his skin colour shocked us in equal measure – this story reminded me of the racist attacks I experienced in my youth, which were the touchstones my former role models exploited in my radicalisation to Islamism in the 1990s.
Of course, racism back then came in all shapes and sizes. There was the institutionally racist police force; there were the nonviolent but despicably racist views that were normalised on the football terraces; and there were the physical attacks by the likes of the far-right Combat 18 and the murders by those who shared these widely held views and were motivated to commit violence because of them.
We have come a long way from those days in Britain, and while instances still exist, they are roundly criticised and cut off at such an early stage that, thankfully, we see less racist violence. But we’ve not progressed so far in tackling Islamist extremism.
Cage, the pressure group that revealed “Jihadi John’s” real name, is keen to promote the notion that the security services contributed to his radicalisation. It is true to say that failing to tackle extremism in the correct way can feed the radicalisation process, not starve it, but Cage seems to have ignored the fact that he tried to join al-Shabaab before being questioned by MI5, not afterwards, and has ignored jihadist signs in its three-year engagement with him.
Just as racism became the go-to grievance for my subsequent actions, about which I remain repentant, so too does Islamist extremism feed far-right extremism. This is no excuse, but it does add another level to the significance of this challenge. Extremism breeds extremism, and this vicious circle needs breaking with sensible counter-narratives.
Ignoring the rising threat of Islamist ideology in a misguided belief that we hope to defend Muslims only makes anti-Muslim sentiment worse, because it risks the average non-Muslim being persuaded to blame “those Muslims” over there. The rise of populist far-right parties across Europe demonstrates this fact very well. This leaves a gaping hole that the far-right will, in turn, also fill with its bigotry, because no one else is speaking about these issues.
What is significant about highlighting Islamist ideology and far-right ideology in this way is that no matter how many grievances we address, and no matter how much effort we make to encourage inclusiveness, just like racists, Islamist ideologues will always seek to manipulate any complaint for the purpose of recruitment.
For example, obviously not all anti-immigration voices are racist, and it behoves such voices to make this clear when criticising immigration. But no one can deny that racists will use immigration as a recruitment tool.
This is why it is so important for members of the political right to unequivocally distance themselves from racism – violent or not – in the way that many mainstream Conservative party members already rightly do.
Similarly, it is disingenuous for many Muslims and others to solely criticise foreign policy grievances without also openly debunking Islamist ideology in its peaceful or violent manifestations. Fall short of this and we become nothing but tools in the hands of ideological propagandists who will use our voices to further the victimhood narrative, just as racists do when talking about immigration.
Islam is a faith, my own faith. Islamism is a theocratic ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society by law. Jihadism seeks to spread Islamism by force.
Islamism is not always violent, but that does not mean we should not always challenge it. Any desire to impose any religion over any people, whether by law or war, is inherently a repugnant idea. And we rightly did away with theocracies in Europe a long time ago.