“Danegeld” anyone?

Compare these two documents by clicking here and here, however if you cannot be bothered just compare the text from the current documents on tackling extremism and the similarity in methods employed by the Victorians over a century ago.

Projects should achieve at least one of the following criteria:

· Increase the number of Muslim faith leaders engaged in mosques who are equipped with the necessary confidence, opportunity, tools and skills to participate fully within their immediate communities and in the wider community more generally, and to communicate particularly with young people.

· Equip Muslim faith leaders engaged in public service institutions with the necessary confidence, opportunity, tools and skills to effectively carry out their roles, to communicate particularly with young people, and to participate fully in the wider community.

· Build confidence/capacity of Muslim faith leaders to directly tackle signs of violent extremism in their local communities, including working with young people.

While a century ago we had-

From “The Pathan Unarmed” by Mukulika Banerjee. The Pathan unarmed goes into greater detail which makes fascinating bank holiday reading.

And what do we learn from this? Well it appears the government is learning how to deal with Muslim extremism by emulating the Victorian policies on the north-west frontier regarding the Pathan tribesmen. Then we paid subsidies to tribal Chiefs (aka “bribes”) to keep them onside. Now we give grants to “Community Leaders” to enable them to combat violent extremism! However, in a communication to the CLG department (obtained under the FoI Act) a senior Tameside official has expressed concern that these “leaders” are not as influential as they claim to be.

I can claim no credit for this fascinating historical comparison but I do thank the author for his research into the matter which certainly puts current events into historical perspective. Tameside Citizen (who is just about to go to Good Friday mass) wishes all TC readers a happy Easter.