FOCUS ON WESTERN ISLAMISM - Sam Westrop - FEB 10, 2023
Authorities continue to misunderstand and fail to recognize Islamist radicalization, a review of Prevent, Britain’s counter-extremism program, has found. But while many of the published recommendations are encouraging, the government’s review fails to grasp the counter-Islamist measures needed more broadly.
In his government-commissioned report, published on February 8, William Shawcross, the former head of Britain’s Charity Commission, warns that the UK’s Prevent program must “return to its overarching objective: to stop individuals from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.”
The review found that Prevent is “out of kilter with the rest of the counter-terrorism system.” Despite “80% of the Counter Terrorism Police network’s live investigations” focusing on Islamism, “only 22% of Prevent referrals for the year 2020-21 concerned Islamism.”
Shawcross warns of double standards. In contrast to threats posed by the “Extreme Right-Wing, … with Islamism, Prevent tends to take a much narrower approach centred around proscribed organisations, ignoring the contribution of non-violent Islamist narratives and networks to terrorism.”
The review insists an urgent expanded focus be placed on these non-violent Islamist forces: “Challenging extremist ideology should not be limited to proscribed organisations but should also cover domestic extremists operating below the terrorism threshold who can create an environment conducive to terrorism.”
Because the reality of Islamist ideology is underplayed or ignored, in favor of an over-focus on issues such as mental health, not only are authorities missing the warning signs of Islamist radicalization, Shawcross warns, but graduates of the UK government’s de-radicalization effort, the Desistance and Disengagement Programme (DDP), have nonetheless subsequently committed terrorist attacks.
The review calls for a complete overhaul in the way Prevent understands extremism and radicalization, as well as the means by which counter-extremism efforts are delivered.
The Shawcross review includes a long list of recommendations for the UK government to adopt, all of which have now been accepted by Britain’s Home Secretary, Suella Braverman.
Primarily, Shawcross urges national and local government officials to pursue an “improved understanding of ideological threats” that includes far “greater expertise and knowledge about Islamist extremism, and this should extend beyond the ideologies of overseas jihadist organisations to extremist networks in the UK.”