Speeches and Statements
Countering Terrorism Together
Speech by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, given at the Pakistani National Council Of The Arts, addressing the issues of terrorism
I am delighted to be able to speak to you today on my first visit to Pakistan and to have the opportunity to talk to your new government at this moment of major political change.
As Home Secretary, I and my department lead the government’s effort to protect the public from terrorism. In both Pakistan and the United Kingdom we know the damage that terrorism can do to individuals, communities and wider society. Our response is the theme of my talk to you today.
But I first want to put this challenge in a wider context.
After Christianity, Islam is the largest faith community in the UK. 1.6 million declared themselves Muslims in the 2001 census, and that figure may now be as high as 2 million. Islam is one of many faiths which are practised in UK communities. We are proud to live in such a diverse country.
Muslims play a full and active part in British society: in politics, from Parliament to local government, in the armed forces, policing, the professions, the arts and sports, and of course in business. There are an estimated 10,000 Muslim millionaires in Britain; the Muslim community as a whole is estimated to contribute £31 billion per year to the British economy.
Muslims who originate from Pakistan are the largest of the Muslim communities in the UK and an important thread that binds our two nations together. Four of my colleagues in the House of Commons (two of whom are Ministers) trace their heritage back to Pakistan, as do over 200 local councillors throughout the UK. Businessmen and women play a central role in the British economy; each year we trade goods valuing nearly £1 billion.
It is vitally important to celebrate our positive and close relationship. But celebration alone is not enough. We need to use the ties and the values that connect us to tackle the threat we both face from terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam.
I have arrived here barely three months since the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto, who I greatly admired for her achievements and courage. But her death and the murder of more than 20 others in the same attack represent a fraction of the toll that terrorism have exacted in Pakistan.
Hundreds of people died last year in suicide attacks here and at least another 2,000 were injured. Many of these attacks have been against undefended targets and most of the casualties were innocent civilians. Some were working to tackle the terrorist threat directly. I commend their courage and dedication. I am deeply saddened by just how large these figures are and appreciate their wider impact on families and communities in this country.
I want to say three things about the threat.
First, and despite all that I have just said, and all that you have suffered, we need to keep it in proportion. Terrorism in both our countries comes from a very small minority, indeed sometimes the same minority.
We both face a threat from Al Qaeda and other terrorist and violent extremist groups. Threats to the UK have had connections here. And threats to Pakistan have been traced back to the UK.
But the great majority of people from all communities in both our countries find terrorism abhorrent.
Second, we need to be clear that terrorism is a threat not only to our safety, irrespective of our nationality, ethnicity or religion, but also to the connections established and nurtured for generations between our two countries.
The world-view of the terrorist seeks to break apart the rich spectrum of British society, where people are able to shape their own identities. Terrorism threatens not only the values we share but the identities we have developed together, for example as British Muslims or British Pakistanis.
Third, let’s be clear that there is nothing Islamic about terrorism. I have said that before and I want to repeat that here. Terrorism has no place in Islamic thought, teaching or tradition. It is the opposite of everything that Islam stands for: peace, tolerance and obedience to God.
How should we respond to these threats?
The dialogue and cooperation between our security agencies is vital. That we face threats from the same groups and sometimes the same individuals underlines how important this is.
A great deal of work has been done already. Pakistani services have played a key role in many of the important counter terrorist investigations in the UK in recent years and continue to do so.
Assistance from Pakistan was important in pre-empting attempts by Al Qaeda related organisations to attack targets in London in 2004. Twelve men were convicted for their role in these operations last year. I want to thank all those whose work has successfully brought these criminals to justice.
Co-operation between our services continued after the attacks in London in July 2005 and during the alleged operation to destroy airliners en route to the USA in 2006.
I know that the incoming government of Pakistan wants to do more. So do I. We have already provided extensive assistance to the Pakistani services. But we will urgently consider what more can be done to further enhance our joint work.
But an effective response to terrorism can never solely depend on the state and law enforcement agencies. It also depends on mobilising those majorities - the very large proportion of people in both of our countries who roundly reject terrorism and all it stands for.
It is easy to say this. What does it mean in practice in our two countries?
It means, first, that we collectively challenge both an ideology and an image.
The ideology promoted by terrorists is a perverse rewriting of history and politics, and a misreading of a great religion.
The image is one which glorifies the role of the terrorist, which claims the indiscriminate killing of civilians, women and children, is heroic.
The ideology and the image sanction and encourage acts of violence. We all have a role to play in challenging them both: governments, civic society, our education system, the arts, the media and communities across our two countries.
We also have to challenge the advocates of violent extremism, those who spread this misrepresentation of Islam, this idea that there is something heroic about murder. I know this is difficult. Proponents of violence often impose their views through coercion and intimidation. Terrorism dislikes debate and discussion.
I have made clear to our security and police forces that I expect them to take action against those who glorify acts of indiscriminate killing. We have legislated to enable them to do so.
But I don’t want to leave it to them. I look for a wider public response, for us collectively to isolate and condemn those who wish to harm us.
We also then need to support the institutions where these individuals operate, making them aware of and more resilient to the apologists for violent extremism. In my country that includes parts of our education system, our prisons, our youth clubs, and our community centres. We also want to ensure our universities provide high quality learning about faith and Islam and to establish the UK as centre of excellence outside the Islamic world for Islamic studies.
But it will not be enough to challenge the ideology and the image, or even to build and to protect our institutions. We also have to protect the people in our communities who are at risk of recruitment to the cause of violent extremism.
In our country we are looking to local authorities, educators, social services, policing and of course to mosques to play a part in this process. Those who are at risk from radicalisation need support and protection. Young vulnerable people drawn in to violent extremism eventually become victims themselves.
So the majority in both our countries has a vital role to play. The majority has to speak out against the terrorist world view; challenge their image; call to account advocates of violence extremism; protect our institutions; and support those who are most at risk.
But to do all this the majority has to make itself stronger, more articulate and outspoken, more challenging. We need to make the communities which reach across our two countries more resilient to violent extremism.
In our country this means above all building community organisations, supporting them where we can and where they want.
Much has already been done. Last year, the Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, announced new funding for projects in the UK led by local community groups to tackle violent extremism. This included support for groups working with Muslim young people and women, projects to encourage young people to identify and explore issues around identity and extremism, to use arts and culture to challenge violent extremist ideology, and to increase the capacity for faith leaders to lead their local communities.
These projects are aimed at putting real power into communities to lead the response to violent extremism themselves.
But I repeat: our communities and governments need to be working together. The ideology and the image affect us both; the apologists are speaking to both our countries; our communities are commuters, moving from institutions in your country to institutions in my own.
We have taken some important steps already.
We are promoting debate in both our countries between opinion formers from all walks of life including community leaders, the media and students. We are providing platforms for people to engage on the issues of faith and politics that relate to extremism.
We specifically want to remove misconceptions about what it means to be a British Muslim. We are creating opportunities for Muslims from the UK to travel to Pakistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world to talk about Islam in modern Britain.
And we are of course working together already to address underlying economic and social issues in Pakistan that, as your Prime Minister has recently said, can enable extremism to develop.
Our Department for International Development the UK is doubling its spending in Pakistan to £480 million for the period 2008 to 2011.
We will want to support your developing programmes in the tribal areas.
And we are already supporting important education projects, transforming schools and training teachers. The British Council is also working hard across Pakistan on education projects aimed at improving learning and vocational skills, notably in Peshawar.
We must build on this in the future. We want to develop a major joint programme between our two countries to meet the challenge of violent extremism. We want to provide that programme with whatever support we can; it needs to grow not only through our official bilateral relations but from the contacts which exist between our communities.
In all societies terrorists use indiscriminate killing to try to influence the way we think and act, both as individuals and as governments.
Whether terrorists ultimately succeed or not is up to us, not up to them. They know that. They worry about it. They are right do so.
We should not forget that we operate from a position of strength – the overwhelming majority of people reject terrorism and all it stands for. We want to hear that majority speak more loudly. Our two countries can lead the way.
