Warning of far-right threat following release of Home Office extremism report

By Lauren Codling

A FORMER chief crown prosecutor has warned of a rise in extremism prompted by far-right views in Britain, as the Home Office released statistics from their Prevent strategy for the first time.

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Launched in 2003 to combat extremism after the September 11 attacks in the US, Prevent is a key strand of Britain’s security strategy.

Figures released last Thursday (9) showed that of the 4,997 individuals referred for concerns related to Islamist extremism, the largest proportion were from London (1,386/28 per cent).

And of the 759 individuals referred for concerns related to right-wing extremism, the largest proportion were from the north-east (159/21 per cent).

Nazir Afzal OBE, the former chief crown prosecutor for North West England, told Eastern Eye on Monday (13): “We need to recognise that the threat we face in the far-right is growing at an increasing rate. Everything we do in terms of a state-wide strategy has to work with those communities where individuals are being radicalised.”

Prevent has been criticised as the programme is seen by some people as “discriminating” against certain groups.

In 2015, a government edict instructed public bodies such as schools, health workers and universities to report concerns over radicalisation.

Rahmaan Mohammad, who was referred to Prevent when he was 14 after showing an interest in civil rights of Palestinians, told a national newspaper the scheme was “toxic” and made him and his friends feel “targeted”.

“It made us feel like we were not part of society,” he said. “I think the real reason was because we were Muslim.”

However, Afzal said Prevent was “about protecting our most vulnerable people and it isn’t about discriminating work and picking on certain people”.

He added: “It is about identifying people at greatest risks and ensuring they can live a safe life.”

Home Office figures last week showed that of the 7,631 individuals thought to be at risk of being drawn into terrorism from April 2015 to March 2016, almost a third were children.

In 2015-16, one of four extreme rightwing concerns received support through Channel, a voluntary initiative that works with individuals vulnerable into being drawn into terrorism.

Security minister Ben Wallace MP said: “At its heart, the Prevent programme is just one of a number of ways to safeguard vulnerable people from exploitation. The voluntary Channel scheme has seen real results in helping divert people away from terrorism and violence. The programme is helping to save lives and keep us safe.”

Writing in Eastern Eye, Wallace added: “I am steadfast in my determination to focus as equally on the threat from the neo-Nazi and farright as I am from Daesh and Al Qaeda.

“While there are critics who are determined to undermine the Prevent strategy, I would argue they are the ones sowing the seeds of division and creating mistrust.

“Prevent is simply part of safeguarding. We know that to protect our young people, engagement and support from Muslim communities is key. We should also remember that Prevent explicitly addresses the threat posed by far-right extremists.”

Data also showed that those with extreme right-wing related concerns were proportionately more likely to receive support, with 52 per cent of individuals being referred to Channel compared to 32 per cent of Islamist-related concerns.

One case study that has been revealed by Home Office officials is the case of a nine-yearold boy who had been referred to the scheme after he announced his support of Islamic State in front of his class.

The boy, who had been bullied at school, had apparently been watching IS execution videos online. After a year of support, his life was turned around, a Home Office official said.

Labour MP from Birmingham Edgbaston, Preet Gill, and a member of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee, said Prevent could be more effective.

“Until it is rooted in communities and unless you have a bottom-up approach, in my view, it is not working,” Gill said. “We’ve seen that neighbourhood policing has been decimated, so we have lost that sense of local intelligence in communities which police used to do very well.

“Communities know the issue far better than us and they know where there are concerns and risk – at the end of the day, fighting terrorism, fighting any form of radicalisation/grooming has got to be a collective effort of all of us.”

Afzal said that part of the programme’s problem was poor engagement with communities, but welcomed the release of the statistics and case studies.

He added the misconception about Prevent among some communities was “a work in progress” and described the Home Office engagement policies as “very poor” when it comes to communicating with the people most affected.

“[The Home Office] need to go and explain what this is about,” Afzal said. “People make out this is some kind of special project and it isn’t – it’s safeguarding… that kind of message needs to be reinforced and confidently articulated, and you have to tackle the myths.”

Sajda Mughal OBE, director of Jan Trust and founder of Web Guardians, a support system for Muslim women to learn how to safeguard their children and loved ones from extremism, believes Prevent is viewed incorrectly as its initial focus was indeed on the Muslin community.

“That is unfortunate, but I can say that over the years it has developed to consider a number of forms of extremism and hence, far-right extremism,” she told Eastern Eye.

Mughal said she experienced abuse from extreme far-right groups, receiving death threats and hate mail.

“I can tell you, as someone who listens to Muslim women on a regular basis who have suffered some sort of far-right extremist abuse or violence, it is a growing issue,” she said. “I am a victim of [abuse] myself.”

Jake Butterworth, a Prevent Education Officer (PEO) for a local authority in west London, said he “flat out [denies]” claims of the strategy primarily targeting Muslims.

“It is about all forms of extremism,” he said. “We focus a lot of our resources on the extreme far-right. Muslims do tend to be targets of extreme far-right, so we are ultimately trying to protect them from it as well.”

However, Butterworth, who has worked with Prevent for over two years, acknowledged that there is a high proportion of Muslim individuals whom the strategy engages with.

He explained: “We know that Daesh targets vulnerable, young, Muslim people, so we work with them to ensure they are more supported. We make sure we are not unfairly targeting (a community) and that is where the training comes in – to stop people jumping to conclusions, which is what I want to avoid.

“It explains that extremism is across the board and it is not specific to a certain specific religion and I think that’s the key part.”

Butterworth said he hoped that as more information regarding the scheme was released, more people will understand what Prevent is really about.

“I do acknowledge that the Prevent duty came in very quickly and, so you’ve got a statutory duty for hundreds of thousands of people to do and it will take time for that knowledge to come through,” he said. “But I think it is coming through. It is absolutely key that all these different professionals in various different sectors have an awareness of what Prevent is; which essentially is safeguarding people from being drawn into this very unpleasant thing.”

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, said he feels the strategy has “lost trust” from certain communities due to its initial setup and discussion.

“The reality is dealing with communities, particularly in such sensitive issues, is that once you’ve lost trust, it is extraordinary difficult to rebuild it, and that is the fundamental problem,” he said.

“Sometimes, people involved in the programme who are doing lots of good work don’t necessarily recognise that there is a different perception from other groups.”