Extremist groups given money from anti-radicalisation budget

Admission by Theresa May comes during launch of revised Prevent strategy, which will target al-Qaida and its affiliates The home secretary, Theresa May, has conceded that money from the £63 million anti-radicalisation budget has been given to “the very extremist organisations that Prevent should have been confronting”. She said Prevent, originally launched in 2007 to counter the growth of home-grown terrorism, “failed to tackle the extremist ideology that not only undermines the cohesion of our society, but also inspires would be terrorists to seek to bring death and destruction to our towns and cities”. The revised strategy, launched on Tuesday, “must be targeted against those forms of terrorism which pose the greatest risk to our national security”, currently al-Qaida and those they inspire, she said. “In trying to reach out to those at risk of radicalisation, funding sometimes even reached the very extremist organisations that Prevent should have been confronting. “We will not make the same mistakes.” May also said the strategy should “recognise and tackle the insidious impact of non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit”. The home secretary said funding would be removed from organisations that “do not support the values of democracy, human rights, equality before the law, participation in society”. “If they don’t accept these fundamental and universal values, then we will not work with them and we will not fund them,” she said. “Prevent has not been without controversy. In the past, it received allegations that it was a cover for spying. These allegations have been found to be false. But now we will make sure that this is seen and known to be the case. “Let me be clear – we will not fund or work with organisations that do not subscribe to the core values of our society. “Our new Prevent strategy will challenge the extremist ideology, it will help protect sectors and institutions from extremists, and it will stop the radicalisation of vulnerable people. Above all, it will tackle the threat from home-grown terrorism.” The review found 30% of people convicted for al–Qaida-associated terrorist offences in the UK between 1999 and 2009 were known to have attended university or a higher education institution. Another 15% studied or achieved a vocational or further education qualification and about 10% were students at the time when they were charged or the incident for which they were convicted took place, the review said. Terrorism policy UK security and terrorism al-Qaida Global terrorism guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 7, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.