by Daniel Boffey, Guardian
Government’s former extremism adviser sounds alarm as idea that diversity is harmful becomes ‘mainstream view’
Two in five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society and more than half believe the country’s national identity is disappearing due to “diversity”, a report authored by a former government adviser on extremism has found.
Sara Khan, who stood down in 2024 as the UK’s first counter-extremism commissioner, said such views contrasted sharply with accompanying findings that showed 85% of Muslims “favour integration”.
Extremist views were being exploited and promoted by hostile states and malign domestic actors, it was said. Researchers logged 1,784 far-right offline events and 225 Islamist events over a 12-month period.
At the launch of the report – titled Britain Under Strain: The Broken Social Contract, Democratic Distrust and the Mainstreaming of Extremism – Khan warned there was a “vanishingly small” window in which a new prime minister might act effectively to deal with the division and hate.