London Mayor proposes taking radicalized Islamic children into care

London’s Mayor Boris Johnson, writing for the Daily Telegraph and defending his comments on LBC radio, has suggested that social services should take the children of Muslim parents who are radicalizing them towards Jihad.

His comments have sent waves through the British media and forced a discussion he accurately points out is avoided. Estimates are there are a few hundred to a few thousand families in Britain in question who may be radicalizing their children. Johnson is certainly not afraid of controversy or of bucking the politically correct line. At the same time he’s been a big advocate for some straight down the middle PC ideas. But love him or hate him, he’s tough and acts on what he believes. Calling Islamic extremism was an "awful virus" he said the work of counter-terrorism officers in London was "being hampered by what I am obliged to call political correctness". He then proceeded to outline the most controversial parts of his ideas.

"It is estimated that there could be hundreds of children - especially those who come within the orbit of the banned extremist group Al-Muhajiroun - who are being taught crazy stuff: the kind of mad yearning for murder and death that we heard from Lee Rigby's killers. At present, there is a reluctance by the social services to intervene, even when they and the police have clear evidence of what is going on, because it is not clear that the 'safeguarding law' would support such action. A child may be taken into care if he or she is being exposed to pornography, or is being abused - but not if the child is being habituated to this utterly bleak and nihilistic view of the world that could lead them to become murderers.

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Reaction to Johnson’s bold idea has been cautious and mixed with a predictable backlash from Muslims. Prime Minister David Cameron did not personally address the issue but his spokesman said the matter is being kept under review and added:

"When it comes to individual decisions around taking children into care, those must of course be decisions for the courts. The Prime Minister very much agrees that through strategies such as the 'prevent' strategy, we want all agencies to be working together – local authorities and central government and other agencies. It's very important there is a multi-agency approach to dealing with the issue and risks around radicalisation."

The Muslim Council of Britain though, a politically moderate watchdog, cautioned that the Mayor’s comments could inflame hate-actions. They called on politicians to stop seeking "easy headlines" and added “After the terrible murder of Lee Rigby - condemned by Muslims throughout the country - there was a huge spike in Islamophobic attacks. The people responsible for the murder of Lee Rigby were not sons of radical extremists, nor were those who committed previous atrocities. To tackle their extremism we need to look beyond the need to generate easy headlines." The anti-extremist think-tank, the Quilliam Foundation, agreed with the Mayor’s points about a "fatal squeamishness" when it comes to intervening in the behaviour of a "protected group". But they also said that changing the law to enable intervention when children are merely at risk of radicalisation was "dangerous territory", and that there was little academic evidence to suggest parents played a key role in radicalisation. A Quilliam spokesman stated: “Non-violent extremism must be challenged, but not through illiberal legislation that is likely to do more harm than good. It is better to challenge the ideology and the narrative, rather than to alienate and malign individuals.” This is consistent with Quilliam’s position – that the ideology must be challenged and that must be the main focus. Johnson compared the reluctance to address children's radicalisation with the "appalling failure of this country to tackle the evil of Female Genital Mutilation" (FGM) which he said is “utter savagery." He then lamented that the French had done better at eliminating FGM than Britain, clarifying why with a direct attack on the far left saying "There are still Left-wing academics protesting that the war on FGM is a form of imperialism, and that we are wrong to impose our Western norms. I say that is utter rubbish, and a monstrous inversion of what I mean by liberalism." For once the Mayor gets no argument from me. Extreme lefties have constantly been opponents of sensible application of the law – seemingly advocating that any sort of enforcement of legislation is some kind of evil oppression of the innocent. Asked on LBC radio about providing protection for children of members of the British National Party (race based anti immigration group) Johnson responded that this might be justified in "extreme" cases, such as if they were being taught that race-based assaults were acceptable. He said:”It all depends on the interests of the child, it depends what is happening. If that child is being taught to want to commit crime, or be full of hate, then I imagine you might contemplate such a thing.” There is great desire to put an end to these things but the Mayor is also getting onto the top of a very slippery slope. It is a fine line between the protection of society, the welfare of the child, the rights of parents and the defense of personal liberty. The spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain added that young people of all faiths "do not need politicians threatening the prospects of living in a Big Brother Society". But Johnson has done what few politicians can and that is to start a conversation that Britain needs to have. The radicalization of young British Muslims has to be addressed and all ideas should at least be on the table.