How to fight jihadism
by Rakib Ehsan, Artillery Row:
[…] So, what can we do to better tackle the prevailing terror threat of Islamist extremism in Britain? This would require a chunky in-depth report but I will offer a sharp list of what should be prioritised in Tory counter-extremism policy.
Hardening our thinking on de-radicalisation and rehabilitation.
It will always be difficult to quantify and effectively measure what a “successful deradicalisation outcome” actually constitutes — and if it has genuinely taken place. De-radicalisation schemes are unfortunately open to the risk of users “duping” counsellors into believing in a “successful de-radicalisation”, when in reality the users remain hardened extremists who may harbour aspirations to carry out terrorist attacks in the future. The next prime minister needs to foster a hard-headed system which moves away from the idealistic liberalism that has long characterised de-radicalisation courses — especially for those who have previously been convicted of terror-related offences (such as Fishmongers’ Hall terrorist Usman Khan, who murdered two people at a prisoner rehabilitation conference). Processes surrounding the release of terror-related prisoners should be further tightened to take into account their behaviour during their custodial sentence (such as behaviour towards prison officials and fellow inmates). The “risk-reward trade-off” must ultimately be in favour of broader public safety.
Combating Islamist radicalisation in prisons
The next Tory leader and UK prime minister must push for greater use of the prison system’s specialist separation units in order to remove dangerous and influential radicalisers from the mainstream prison population. Jonathan Hall QC, the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has been informed that prison officers had even resorted to appealing to the wing “emir” — who often undermined the authority of prison imams — to help maintain order among inmates. The UK government must be proactive in developing a legal framework which ensures that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) — to which the UK is a signatory — is not used by dangerous terrorists to block their relocation into separation centres.
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