The security minister and the Islamist-linked TV station

The security minister and the Islamist-linked TV
station


Telegraph.co.uk
26 May 2010






Guess who Pauline Neville-Jones, the new security minister, chose for
her first post-election interview? The BBC? The Telegraph? The
Guardian? No: bizarrely, it was the Islam Channel, the Islamist-linked
satellite broadcaster whose chief executive, Mohammed Ali Harrath, is
the subject of an Interpol "red notice” for terrorist offences. Only
eighteen months ago, Neville-Jones was demanding that Harrath be sacked.
The Islam Channel also has a programme presented by a senior officer
of Hizb ut Tahrir, the group the Tories wanted to ban. Talk about
outreach, Pauline! No wonder the presenter told her they were "honoured
to be the recipients of your generosity.”
It was quite a revealing interview, too, in which she went
significantly further than the detailed coalition agreement published
last week. Among her commitments not mentioned in that agreement:
To "narrow [the] scope” of stop-and-search;
To "look at the whole question of pre-charge detention and whether it
is justified;”
To "review the operation of Prevent,” the much-criticised
counter-extremism initiative;
To produce a "national integration strategy – a conscious attempt to
bring people together as Brits, irrespective of gender [or] ethnic
origin.”
To "see… if we can, consistent with security, actually abolish the
operation and the use of control orders.” (The coalition agreement
promises only to review them.)
This is all very encouraging stuff – I’ve written a piece for this
week’s Spectator calling for much the same things, as part of a new
"compact” with the Muslim community. It is clear that the harm done by
blanket stop-and-search, 28-day detention and the rest outweighs what
(very limited) use they have against terrorism (. .)