Leave aside, for a moment, the specifics of the row over the two Muslim schools and their alleged links to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, as well as the various “inaccuracies” in the Tory narrative, exposed by Jeremy Paxman and Richard Watson on BBC2’s Newsnight. Instead, has anyone else noticed David Cameron’s use of language and the hardening of his position on Muslim extremism?
Here is Cameron, writing in the Observer of 13 May 2007 (in a piece entitled “What I learned from my stay with a Muslim family”):
We must also be careful about the language we use . . . our efforts are not helped by lazy use of language. Indeed, by using the word “Islamist” to describe the threat, we actually help do the terrorist ideologues’ work for them.
And here is David Cameron, speaking in the Commons yesterday at PMQs:
Let me draw the Prime Minister’s attention to the fact that two schools have been established by an extremist Islamist foundation, the ISF or Islamic Shaksiyah Foundation, which is a front organisation for Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Hmm. Methinks Michael Gove finally got to him . . .
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