Muslims must abide by Western values, says Cameron

February 05, 2011 08:36 pm | Updated December 15, 2016 04:47 am IST - Berlin

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, talks to British Prime Minister David Cameron, during their bilateral talks held on the sidelines of the Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Germany.Photo: AP.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, talks to British Prime Minister David Cameron, during their bilateral talks held on the sidelines of the Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Germany.Photo: AP.

Prime Minister David Cameron was on Saturday accused of reigniting the post-9/11 rows over Islam and fuelling Islamophobia after he used a speech at an international security conference in Munich to call for a more “muscular'' defence of Western values and a tougher approach to tackling Muslim extremism saying the “hands-off tolerance'' would not do.

In remarks that critics said had echoes of the Blair-Bush speeches, he said Muslims living in the West must abide by Western “values'' of tolerance, free speech and respect for women's rights. Arguing that “passive'' multiculturalism that allowed minority groups not to integrate had failed, Mr. Cameron said: “Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.”

He proposed a social boycott of separatist Muslim groups urging Ministers to refuse to share platforms or engage with them. They should also be denied access to public money in what was seen as a veiled reference to the previous Labour government's policy of wooing Muslim groups with funds.

“Let's properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights — including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism? These are the sorts of questions we need to ask. Fail these tests and the presumption should be not to engage with organisations,” he added. Though Mr. Cameron took care to make a distinction between the religion of Islam and the political ideology of Islamist extremism saying it was wrong to link strong religious faith with radicalism, his remarks drew criticism from Muslim groups. The Muslim Council of Britain accused him of “targeting'' the Muslim community.

“Again it seems the Muslim community is being treated as part of the problem rather than part of the solution,” a spokesperson said.

Some Labour MPs and rights activists questioned the timing of Mr. Cameron's remarks which coincided with an aggressive march by the far-right English Defence League in the Muslim-dominated town of Luton against “Islamisation'' of Britain.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.