From suspicion to refusal

“Suspect communities? Counterterrorism Policy, the Press, and the impact on Irish and Muslim Communities in Britain”, the first survey that examines the similarities and differences of the Irish and Muslim communities in the period 1974-2007, has disclosed unexpected findings. The authors of the report that examines to what extent and in what ways Irish communities and Muslim communities were represented as ‘suspect’ in public discourse and the impact of these representations and counter-terrorism measures on the two minority groups in Britain conclude that the representations and treatment of the Irish in the past have set a precedent for the treatment of Muslims in the current period. Representing a minority of individuals in the Irish and Muslim communities as “extremists” compared to the moderate majority has contributed to “fostering a social and political climate that has permitted, and seemingly continues to permit, grave violations of civil liberties and human rights”. A significant date. “Suspect communities? Counterterrorism Policy, the Press, and the impact on Irish and Muslim Communities in Britain”, similarities and differences of the Irish and Muslim communities since the 1970s, drawn up by Dr Sara Silvestri (Department of International Politics, City University London), researcher at Cambridge University, by Prof. Mary J Hickman and Prof. Lyn Thomas (Institute for the Study of European Transformations, Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University) and by Dr Henri Nickels (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Vienna, Austria) was presented at the Home Affairs Committee of the British Parliament on July 7. This is a significant date, as it marks the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on London’s Underground station. The meaning of the survey. “We have examined similarities and differences in the impact of the counter-terrorism measures on Muslim communities and Irish communities in Britain since the 1970s. The aim was to establish what useful insights this might afford both Muslim communities and policy makers who seek ways to implement counter-terrorism policies without alienating communities”, thus Sara Silvestry explained to SIR Europe the purpose of the survey that analyzed the impact of representing certain minority groups as ‘suspect’ in public discourse focusing on two periods of political violence in Great Britain. The first coincided with the so-called period of the Irish ‘Troubles’ – marked by terrorism and instability that sparked off at the end of the 1960s until the Good Friday agreement signed in Belfast in 1998 – and the second since 2001. The conclusions: discrimination. Representing some Irish and Muslims as “extremists”, and drawing comparisons with moderate groups, “fosters a social and political climate that has permitted, and seemingly continues to permit, grave violations of civil liberties and human rights”, wrote the authors of the report. Muslim and Irish participants in discussion groups reported having suffered verbal and physical abuse in everyday encounters and while travelling internationally, namely by means of excessive or intrusive controls. Muslims can cope better. This led to reactions of fearfulness and of ‘keeping low’ on the part of both Muslims and Irish. Muslims were more assertive than Irish people had been in response to being treated as suspect. Their more confident public response can partly be attributed to the second generation Muslims being older now than the equivalent Irish second generation were in the 1970s. Muslims comforted by the Irish. Irish and Muslim respondents equally underlined the high level of trust established. There was a consensus in all the groups “that the comparison had been beneficial”. The Irish participants spoke about the possibility of coming out from the category of ‘suspect’, of becoming ‘normal’ again, of being rehabilitated as good citizens. This was “an important sign of hope, a reassuring factor” for many Muslim participants.Sources. The analysis was based on over 800 sets of policy documents produced between 1974 and 2007 that include speeches and programmatic statements, strategic papers, commissioned research and command papers, Parliamentary committee reports and minutes, a total of 2,798 news items in the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian, Observer, Sun, News of the World and in Asian Times, Irish Post, Muslim News, 42 key informant interviews with leaders of community and faith-based organisations; human rights activists; individuals who had been wrongly imprisoned or arrested; journalists, politicians as well as Seven mixed Irish and Muslim discussion groups.