Counter-terrorism review insists groups must reflect British mainstream values to get funds
Mark Townsend and Hannah Olivennes
Guardian [UK]
4 June 2011
Protesters from Hizb ut-Tahrir demonstrate during the recent visit by Barack Obama. The Prevent review has backed away from proscribing the group. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
David Cameron will emerge as the victor from a bitter cabinet battle over multiculturalism this week as the government unveils a hardline approach to tackling Islamist extremism.
Home Office sources say that Cameron has quashed Nick Clegg‘s argument for a more tolerant attitude to Muslim groups by insisting on a strategy centred upon the notion that violent extremism is incubated within the ideology of non-violent extremism.
The shift in approach will be outlined when the government’s counter-terrorism strategy is unveiled by the home secretary, Theresa May, on Tuesday. Central to the Prevent strategy is a broader definition of extremism that will be extended beyond groups condoning violence to those considered non-violent but whose views, such as the advocacy of sharia law, fail to “reflect British mainstream values”.
A Home Office source said: “There will be a direct challenge to these [non-violent] groups.”…
The article continues at the Guardian.
H/T Weasel Zippers where Zip points out, “And yet the UK has at least 85 sharia courts that operate legally.”
Read also, 40 UK universities are now breeding grounds for terror as hardline groups peddle hate on campus. H/T Blazing Cat Fur.
England’s universities have become a breeding ground for extremism and terrorist recruitment, according to a disturbing government report.
Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’.
A soon to be published Whitehall report – seen by the Daily Mail – will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas…
