How Australia confronts ‘militant Islam’

Gerard Henderson recommends the hostile attitude to “radical Islam” adopted by John Howard’s right-wing government in Australia:

“… the approach advocated for Britain by Martin Bright in his important Policy Exchange pamphlet When Progressives Treat With Reactionaries is consistent with what has occurred Down Under over the past five years. Put briefly, the Australian system takes Islamist ideology seriously. It does not deal with radical Islamists. It confronts extremists’ views, rather than seeking to co-opt ‘pragmatic’ radicals who happen not to be in favour of the use of violence in the here and now for purely tactical reasons.”

Times, 15 January 2007