You can’t fight an enemy you won’t name; you can’t discredit an ideology seeking to destroy your way of life when you’re afraid to pin down the specifics except, perhaps, for the use of violence. All “extremism” amounts to is a position relative to others, which is why hoping for “moderation” is also useless without meaningful points of reference. The measures announced by Prime Minister Cameron’s office to include advocacy for Sharia law as an “extremist” position will constitute progress to the extent that they are implemented. “Failed anti-terror campaigns ‘waste of money’, Prevent strategy admits,” by Andrew Hough and Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, June 7 (thanks to JG):
The “flawed” efforts by the previous government to focus on international projects “diverted valuable resources” away from preventing home-grown terrorism, the new Prevent strategy will concede.
The strategy, being launched on Tuesday by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, will also say that such efforts also undermined attempts to “convince Muslim Communities” that “terrorism is unacceptable and wrong”.
Mrs May will also admit that some of the annual £63 million funding to tackle extremism, which is split between the Home Office, Foreign office and Department for Communities, has been handed to groups with hard-line beliefs.
Around 20 groups will have funding withdrawn.
The strategy will say that previous messages about terrorism were put out by the government without a clear idea of the audience for whom they were intended.
“At best, this wasted money and diverted valuable resources,” the report says.
“At worst, it gave the impression that the Government had to convince Muslim communities in this country of something which the vast majority know very well already — that terrorism is unacceptable and wrong.”
There’s an easy way around that for Muslim groups: condemn terrorism for public consumption, while maintaining jihad warfare is something altogether different.
It argues that in future overseas work “must wherever possible have a demonstrable impact on UK domestic security”.
The document says: “Previous work in this area has made some progress but has not consistently reached the few people who are most susceptible to terrorist propaganda.
“It has failed to recognise the way in which terrorist ideology makes use of ideas espoused by extremist organisations and has not fully understood the implications this should have for the scope for our work.
One step forward, two steps back:
“It has not effectively engaged with and used the influence and reach of communities and community groups. Previous Prevent work has sometimes given the impression that Muslim communities as a whole are more “˜vulnerable” to radicalisation than other faith or ethnic groups.”…
Yes, please keep “engaging with” all those Methodist youth who are vulnerable to radicalization, and might blow up a bus while singing “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”…