This is not 'us vs them': Violent extremism is not a Muslim problem – we must fight it together

Paris is still numb and we’re still in shock; the blood of the horrifically slain is still fresh and the terrible loss is agonisingly raw – but already, the accusing fingers have started to point. As we learn of at least 127 innocent people killed in multiple attacks in the French capital, with 180 more injured, as France reels under a state of emergency and under an unbearable shroud of mourning, there are already blame-filled rumblings across the media commentary of these appalling events. There is talk of the Syria war coming home to hurt us; about radicalised jihadis coming back to Europe after fighting with the death cult Isis. There are already mutterings along the lines of “What did we expect?”, and a blowback over Europe’s meddling in the Middle East, while on the other side of the political divide the far-right is mobilising against Muslim minorities and migrants.

As we absorb the horrifying significance of these chillingly coordinated, murderous attacks in Paris, it's all too easy for panic and fear and hate to take over, to divide us – and all the more important to hold firm. Race relations across France, and across Europe, are already terribly strained in the post-9/11 years that have created so much suspicion, mistrust and hostility. Muslim minorities across Europe are already treated as the enemy within, pretty much guilty until proven otherwise, as though all Muslims are these days somehow a couple of website clicks away from being sworn jihadis.

And as politicians struggle to deal with the murderous Isis group and its sick fan bases beyond Iraq and Syria, they have already implied that Muslims within European communities are not doing enough to tackle extremism. A prime example of that is our own prime minister, David Cameron, who last month launched another flawed counter-extremism strategy by announcing that the “Muslim silent majority” in the UK should “own” the problem of violent extremism, and do much more to counter it.

The trouble with this approach is that it further marginalises exactly those disenfranchised communities that we should be working hard to engage and include. And it isn’t true, either, that this is a “Muslim problem”: the factors that can cause jihadi extremism are many and varied. Counter-terrorism experts, as well as community workers engaged in trying to tackle this problem at a grass-roots level, have long said that alienation and social isolation are common themes. And these are modern-day, modern society factors: they are, in other words, part of us, and not just a problem with “them”.

On this Saturday, so many of us across Europe will be going out, socialising in and enjoying the multiple attractions of multicultural cities, just as those horribly murdered citizens of Paris did last night. And it is this very diversity that is in jeopardy now – our beautiful mix of peoples, across cultures, across religions, a vibrant, lived reality that seems so intolerable to a deadly, twisted and tiny minority. We cherish our diversity, all of us, together. Let’s fight for it together, too.