Grupul englez de cercetări şi strategii politice Policy Exchange a publicat în iulie 2006 un expozeu al relaţiei strînse dintre Foreign Office – ministerul de externe al Marii Britanii – şi o serie de organizaţii islamiste britanice şi din Orientul Mijlociu. Lucrarea de faţă este deosebită deoarece se bazează pe numeroase documente confidenţiale parvenite autorului, jurnalistul Martin Bright, de la o sursă din interiorul diplomaţiei britanice. Investigaţia d-lui Bright s-a concluzionat cu acest raport şi programul de televiziune Who speaks for Muslims al postului Channel Four.

Raportul confirmă ceea ce a devenit evident în ultimii 15 ani: Marea Britanie este nodul principal de îndoctrinare, recrutare şi penetrare în mainstream al reţelelor islamiste din Vest. Această ascensiune a avut şi are loc în continuare cu sprijinul larg al Foreign Office.

Research for this pamphlet and the Channel 4 programme has convinced me that the Government is failing the people of Britain. Instead of tackling the ideology that helps to breed terrorism, Whitehall has embraced a narrow, austere version of the religion. I believe that when taken together, the documents provide a unique insight into the workings of the Foreign Office and show it is pursuing a policy of appeasement towards radical Islam that could have grave consequences for Britain.

In making the television programme I had the privilege of travelling around Britain to talk to some of the Muslim communities that feel shut out by the Government’s bizarre dalliance with the Islamists. In London, Rochdale and Dudley people told me of their frustration with a Government that chooses to promote a highly politicised version of Islam. By contrast most ordinary Muslims believe their faith comes as a result of a personal relationship with Allah, not through lobbying for blasphemy laws.

I make no apologies for the journalistic tone of this pamphlet: it makes no claims to be a definitive academic thesis, but it is an attempt to record the state of play. Chapter One provides an analysis of a series of documents showing the Foreign Office moving towards closer dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood, the key opposition Islamist group in the Middle East. In Chapter Two, I use the example of visa applications for two foreign Muslim leaders to show how the Government is engaged in a process of redefining radical Islam as “mainstream”; and in Chapter Three I attempt to show how the Government’s main partners in the Muslim community are drawn from the Islamic religious right.

When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries — The British State’s flirtation with radical Islamism

Who Speaks for Muslims