Why does every Muslim media personality suddenly think they know about radicalisation and extremism in the aftermath of a terrorist incident?

Saira Khan writing in the Daily Mirror was kind enough to share her ten point plan to tackle radicalisation.

Now, it would be quite easy to dismiss this as another national Muslim ‘celebrity’ wading into the debate in the vain hope we will take them more seriously.

I actually like Saira Khan. I think she has said made some good points in the past, especially on forced marriages and body shaming.

She is also very vocal and rightly so when it comes to the wider media rounding-up on the whole Muslim community for the actions of a few.

Saira has also made intelligent arguments on a whole range of issues and no one should be barred from commenting on religion.

But the problem the national media have is that they are indeed desperate.

They are desperate for comments from the Muslim community and roll out the first Muslim they can get their hands on to tell us things we either already know or things that are way off the mark.

Let’s look at the positives first.

There is a good point on asking for Mosque imams to be British born – something that many mosques are already making efforts to do. But we will find that this does not actually change much.

Foreign imams are just as capable teachers and will look to uphold British values as much as British born ones. Take the simple example of our forefathers generation who were far more proud to be British than some of their offspring.

We also tend to find as we have clearly said on these pages before that British born extremists are much more of a problem than foreign ones.

Deporting all terrorists is something we would all happily agree with but finding a country to accept your ‘bad folk’ might be a little problematic. Naming and shaming the terrorist might seem like a good idea but then are we not making them into the martyrs they crave to be.

I agree on identifying anything that goes against British values. But I would say the community already makes efforts with issues such as “forced marriages, racism, misogyny, rape and inequality.”

However, the rest is a miss-mash of points that you might find in the comments section of the Daily Mail website.

Single Faith schools have some of the best education attainment levels across the country.

Universities and their societies are not segregated Saira. I suggest you take a visit one day.

Shockingly, Saira still seems to think ‘community leaders’ actually matter. I haven’t heard of a community leader taking funding or for that matter having any real effect on the Asian community.

Go back twenty years maybe, but the only community leader most folk know drives a yellow Mercedes in Sparkhill.

The sad fact is the media themselves simply want to fill airtime and pages and will ask for almost any Muslim with any credentials to share their thoughts.

There should be a curb on the number of mosques. Actually, there are too many mosques in some towns but there are also far too many derelict buildings in towns blighting neighbourhoods and attracting criminal elements.

Saira wrote, “All Muslims in Bradford can be served by one or two big mosques – like most cities only have one cathedral.” Yes, good luck with that.

Many Muslims are very self-critical. We are aware of the issues we face on a daily basis. But we are kind of a little sick and tired of being patronised in this way.