RadicalizationU.K. anti-radicalization strategy is not working: Critics

The surge in young Britons flocking to Syria and the Middle East to join radical Islamist groups, including the Islamic State, is a result of failed policies and inadequate funding for anti-radicalization efforts, according to counterterrorism experts.

British officials are dealing with the issue inadequately, contributing to radicalization in the United Kingdom, says Fiyaz Mughal, a former anti-extremism adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and currently director of interfaith and anti-extremist organization Faith Matters. Mughal insists that while the previous Labor government invested in projects that work with vulnerable Muslim communities, the current government has taken a “laser-type approach,” which has led to major “gaps in adequate anti-radicalization strategy.”

In 2007 the Labor government established Prevent, a counterterrorism strategy, along with other policy elements — Pursue, Protect, and Prepare. Prevent was intended to deter individuals from becoming radicalized, but Mughal believes that the government needs a broader approach to carry out Prevent.

“The laser-type approach is taken to ensure that the government is not seen to be spending public money in a way that is seen as frivolous since that is what this coalition accused the previous government of. In doing so, they also need to review the capacity, penetration, and capability of organizations they are supporting and to also ensure that they are innovative, consistent, proactive, and working on a continuous basis,” Mughal said.

Haras Rafiq, head of counter-extremism think tank Quilliam Foundation, agrees that the U.K. government is failing to tackle radicalism at its roots. He explains that Prevent was designed in two parts — a “sharp” end aimed at providing interventions post-radicalization, and a “soft” end which works with communities and local partners to build resilience amongst young Muslims when they are introduced to radical elements.

“At the sharp end, which was assigned to the Home Office in 2011, they are doing quite a good job since there hasn’t been a terrorist attack since the 7/7 bombings and Lee Rigby. What they have failed to do however, is to prevent radicalism in the first place. And they continue to do so,” Rafiq said.

Newsweek reports that Mughal wants the U.K. government to reexamine its current counter-extremism strategy and allocation of funds. “Some of the groups they fund have no penetration at all into Muslim communities yet they continue to fund them. Also, many are simply not proactive enough.” Mughal’s organization, Faith Matters, does not currently receive government funding for its anti-radicalization efforts, although he believes Faith Matters works with the most vulnerable youths.

Labor MP Hazel Blears, a member of parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee who introduced the Prevent program when she was counterterrorism minister, is also disappointed with the current anti-radicalization strategy. “In recent years I do not feel enough has been done by the government to support councils and other public organizations and community bodies in working with people at risk of being radicalized,” she said. Blears wants the Home Office and local law enforcement agencies better to collaborate and be proactive. The current strategy is “focusing only on people who have already been radicalized,” but she warns, “prevention is better than cure.” Blears adds that more government support for Muslim leaders who are developing a counter-ideology strategy would be helpful.

In response to criticism, the Home Office points out that the prime minister established the Extremism Task Force to improve the government’s approach to fighting extremism. In addition to Prevent, the Home Office will soon initiate a counter-extremism strategy that tackles all forms of extremism. “That strategy will aim to build up the public sector and civil society to identify all forms of extremism, so we can confront it, challenge it and defeat it,” the office wrote in a statement.

Since 2011 the Home Office has trained over 100,000 frontline public sector workers to identify and prevent extremism. The Home Office notes that it has “excluded more preachers of hate than any other government and successfully having taken down over 65,000 pieces of unlawful terrorist-related material from the Internet.”