Stop scapegoating Muslims: social disaffection has many causes, and they won’t be solved by blunt Government intervention

The lead story in today’s Times – “Hundreds more UK Muslims choose jihad than army” - should provoke grave concern for its inference that Muslim Britons are disloyal subjects, and tend towards extremism. It links international conflicts directly to the domestic terrain, pointing to the 1500 or more young people from our country now fighting abroad for 'Jihadi' causes. In tone it reflects the increasing zeal with which UK policy makers are starting to reach for US neo-conservative narratives of analysis in the Middle East and applying them to a hugely different European situation. For Catholics it will bring back memories of English parishes being raided by the police simply for having high Irish numbers, and parliamentary speeches where Birmingham women with s