Iraq,  Labour Party

John Prescott on radicalisation

According to John Prescott, this is how some Muslims are radicalised:

Lord Prescott added: “When I hear people talking about how people are radicalised, young Muslims. I’ll tell you how they are radicalised. Every time they watch the television where their families are worried, their kids are being killed and murdered and rockets firing on all these people, that’s what radicalises them.”

Of course it’s easy to find other perspectives, and better arguments. Here’s just one example, from Mohammed Amin. He maintains that it is wrong to deny a connection between religious beliefs and terrorism:

… I think that many Muslims feel insecure about the way that Islam is seen by non-Muslims. Accordingly I believe that their innermost fear is that, if they accept that terrorists who are Muslims are motivated even in part by their religious views, it will cause non-Muslims to conclude that Islam is a religion that promotes terrorism.

He also argues against those who insist that foreign policy plays no role in radicalisation. However he then goes on to make this absolutely vital point:

For the avoidance of doubt, to say that A is a cause of B is not to excuse B. Nor is it a reason, of itself, to not do A, if there are other good reasons for doing A. I do not want our country’s foreign policy to be determined solely by whether it may increase the risk of terrorism.

The Telegraph article on Prescott includes this response from a Labour spokesperson:

“John’s views on this do not represent the views of the Labour Party.”

Given that Prescott seems to be channeling Asghar Bukhari – that’s good to hear.