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British PM,
David Cameron
BRITISH PM
PROMISES
COUNTEREXTREMISM
BILL
Chairing the National Security Council of police and intelligence chiefs
last month, British PM, David Cameron, vowed to fight the ideology
of militant Islamist hardliners and take on neo-Nazis with a CounterExtremism Bill. He announced a package of measures aimed at tackling
the threat from Islamic State-inspired jihadists, including powers to
close premises, including mosques used by fanatics to foster extremism,
and enforce tighter immigration controls. The powers of the UK’s Charity Commission to root out charities that misappropriate funds towards
extremism and terrorism will also be strengthened. It intends to tighten
up immigration restrictions on extremists to prevent them entering the
UK, and the national broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, will be given powers to block invidious videos online.
The prime minister, setting out a crackdown on terrorists, claims Britain’s “passively tolerant society” has helped to foster “extremism and
grievance”. He said the new approach would mean “actively promoting
certain values”:
“Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law.
Equal rights regardless of race, gender or sexuality. We must say to our
citizens: this is what defines us as
a society. To belong here is to believe in these things. And it means
confronting head-on the poisonous
Islamist extremist ideology. Whether
they are violent in their means or
not, we must make it impossible for
the extremists to succeed.”
BRITAIN’S
‘PASSIVELY TOLERANT
SOCIETY’ HAS HELPED
TO FOSTER ‘EXTREMISM
AND GRIEVANCE’.
6 JEWISH LIFE ■ ISSUE 85
Speaking last month at the International Ground
Forces Ceremony, in Latrun, IDF Colonel Uri
Gordin, who commanded the Nahal Brigade
during Operation Protective Edge last summer,
discussed the differences between how Israel
and Hamas treat their civilians. He said Israel
“aims to protect its civilian population. The
Israeli fighter endangers himself to protect
civilians.” By contrast, Hamas “was not trying to
stop us, but wanted us to harm civilians… This
way, it can nega ]