The British Home Secretary Sajjid Javid said in a speech this week to his discredited commission for countering extremism (CCE), ‘Extremism is a problem that isn’t going to go away so I’m here to redouble our commitment to tackle it head on. I will not flinch from confronting extremism.’ Javid took aim at several Islamic activist organisations during his speech. Hizb ut-Tahrir, IHRC, MEND and CAGE were all mentioned. He singled out CAGE in particular with a threat to revoke their license to sponsor and employ non-EU migrant workers, even though CAGE doesn’t employ any non-EU migrant workers!

This threat is no more than a distraction to divert attention away from the real issue which is the CCE has been an abject failure wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer’s money. At the time of writing the CCE has a pitiful 2,322 followers on twitter compared to CAGE’s 28.7K or Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain’s 17.7K. In fact most Muslim organisations and Islamic activists that the UK government considers extremist have more followers than the CCE.

Javid’s speech could be his last as Home Secretary as he seeks to curry favour with his new boss Boris Johnson, who will reshuffle the cabinet next week. Javid is looking for a promotion possibly to chancellor, and what better way than to appeal to the inherent anti-Islamic nature of the incumbent Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an attack on Islamic thought aka extremism.

These countering Islam policies are not new and they have existed since the start of the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ mission in Makkah. The Quraysh wanted to prevent the rise of Islam so they enacted policies to stop people listening to him ﷺ. They used persecution, propaganda and boycott against the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions, all three of which to varying degrees form part of the UK’s countering extremism policy today.

Javid said: “Everyone has a part to play: *broadcasters who must not give platforms to extremists… *police who must swoop on the worst offenders… *and public figures who must moderate their language.”

This echoes Quraysh’s policy when they said to at-Tufail ibn Amr Ad-dawsiy, “He has charming speech like magic and he makes division between a man and his son, and a man and his brother, and a man and his wife. I fear for you and your people from him. So do not talk to him nor listen to any talk from him.” (Men around the Messenger).

Despite the efforts of Quraysh Islam was victorious and the Islamic State was still established in Madinah. Sheikh Taqiudeen an-Nabhani mentions this point in Ad-Dowlah Islamiyyah:

“Ultimately, all the ways and means of propaganda pronounced against the Islamic Dawah failed. The sheer force of truth reflected in what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was calling for, defeated all rumors, lies and propaganda, and the light of Islam dissipated all attempts at discrediting it.”

Allah (Most High) says:

وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

“they were plotting and Allah was plotting, but Allah is the Best of Plotters.”

(Al-Anfaal, 8:30)