“That’s why we have the mosques coming to us. They’re saying: ‘Hold on, we can see that you’re providing hope, purpose, pride, British values, sense of discipline. All the things that ISIS give people, but for good, not bad. Come and speak to our youths.’”
Given the fact that Muslim communities in Britain show a decided tendency not to assimilate, and the many news stories we have seen of Muslim schools in Britain teaching Islamic values rather than British ones, Grylls’ picture of mosque leaders trying to find ways to instill British values into young Muslims is not quite credible. And the Islamic State (ISIS) offers those young Muslims one thing for which Bear Grylls will never be able to offer an acceptable substitute: the idea that they are serving Allah and earning a place in Paradise.
Nonetheless, I wish him all success.
“Scouts can save children from extremism and gangs, says Bear Grylls,” by Camilla Tominey, Telegraph, December 8, 2018:
As a former SAS trained soldier, he has built a career on surviving in the harshest of environments and against all the odds.
But as he embarks on his latest adventure as the new chief ambassador for the global scout movement, Bear Grylls now wants to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing society – including gang violence and extremism.
After being appointed the UK’s youngest ever Chief Scout nearly a decade ago, the father-of-three has set his sights on mobilising the Scouts into some of Britain’s hardest to reach areas.
With scout numbers having swelled by an unprecedented 43 per cent to 638,000 under his leadership, Grylls believes growing demand from Muslim communities could help in the fight against radicalisation.
“We have hundreds of mosques every week, reaching out, asking, ‘Can we start up groups?’
“MI5 is spending resources to stem the blood but we’re saying, ‘Don’t create the wound’. That’s why we have the mosques coming to us. They’re saying: ‘Hold on, we can see that you’re providing hope, purpose, pride, British values, sense of discipline. All the things that ISIS give people, but for good, not bad. Come and speak to our youths.”
Insisting the Scouts are providing “a positive alternative to kids joining gangs”, he adds: “It’s what I was saying about the young, Muslim kids in this country. If you don’t give them something good, they go to the bad.”…