Modern-Day Britain’s Terror Threat
There is a “fundamental mismatch” between the threat posed by Islamist terrorism and the attention afforded to it by Prevent, the Government’s counter-extremism programme, according to a think tank report.
The report, published today by the Henry Jackson Society, finds that despite the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation repeatedly finding that the UK faces the greatest terroristic threat from Islamists, far more resources are being devoted to other forms of extremism.
Just 24% of all Prevent referrals and 30% of Channel cases relate to Islamist extremists. Comparatively, 22% of referrals and 43% of Channel cases are for far-right extremism. The report says “accordingly, Home Office data reveals that far-right extremists outstrip Islamist extremists in terms of referrals to the Government’s Prevent scheme which result in the offering of counter-radicalisation support and monitoring”
The 2019 Independent Review of Terrorism Legislation by Jonathan Hall Q.C., which was published in March 2021, concluded that “Islamist terrorism remains the principal threat in Great Britain”, with the majority of terrorism convictions in 2019 relating to Islamist terrorism
In 2020, the Daily Telegraph reported that “the vast majority of the suspects on [MI5’s 43,000 person terror watchlist] – as many as 39,000 – are jihadists, compared to a few thousand right-wing extremists”. Last year, just 210 Islamist extremists were referred to Channel for deradicalisation.
According to the author, Dr Rakib Ehsan, this means that “there is all too real prospect of Islamist extremists who present a significant security risk, not being sufficiently monitored by the public authorities.”
The paper – authored by a British Muslim academic – warns that “the UK cannot afford to be paralysed by political correctness and tribal identity politics in the fight against Islamist extremism – a terror threat that concerns both Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain to similar degrees”.
See also: articles on the murder of MP David Amess:
The myth of lone-wolf terrorism, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, UnHerd: For many…Acknowledging that Ali is of Somali background, we were told, is racist and xenophobic. He must only be identified as British. As someone who was born in Somalia, I find this absurd.
The hate that dare not speak its name by Brendan O’Neill, spiked:
Was Amess subjected to online abuse? There’s no suggestion he was. So why are we talking about this? Why would a man allegedly murdered by someone who the police suspect had radical Islamist beliefs need to be memorialised with a law against saying stupid things online?
On the Killing of Sir David , by Samuel Martin, The Mallard: “To summarise what has happened: a homegrown Islamist and son of a former Somalian government advisor, assassinated a sitting MP in broad daylight…In short: our policy problems stem from a deeper, ideological, existential problem. Britain is indifferent to its own survival.”
Can we now have an honest discussion about Islamist terrorism? by Brendan O’Neill, spiked: “It is always the way when a suspected act of Islamist terror takes place. ‘Don’t look back in anger’ becomes the rallying cry…In the haze of the terroristic aftermath, we witness not the promotion of strong political feeling, but the policing of it.”
The baleful consequences of cultural dogmyopia, by Melanie Phillips
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