Written Questions: Government Responses
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she intends to provide a substantive answer to question number 204223, tabled for answer on 14 July 2014. [206963]
James Brokenshire: Prevent aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The revised Prevent strategy published in June 2011 has three key objectives. These are to:
respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it;
prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support; and
work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation which we need to address.
The delivery of Prevent requires strong partnerships with a range of local groups in the community, including British Muslims among others.
The Prevent strategy we inherited from the last Government was flawed. It confused the delivery of
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Government policy to promote integration with Government policy to prevent terrorism, which was a source of mistrust. That is why we refocused the Prevent strategy in 2011, to separate Prevent from broader integration work.
Local Prevent co-ordinators across the country work with local services partners such as the police, Charity Commission and members of local faith communities, to understand local risks and needs, and deliver targeted projects and outreach work. We fund 30 Prevent priority areas to work on the frontline and with those vulnerable to extremism, including funding projects tailored to local needs. Prevent co-ordinators provide regular feedback to the Home Office, which helps shape the future development and implementation of the Prevent strategy.
Preventing terrorism means challenging extremist (and non-violent) ideas that are also part of a terrorist ideology. The Prevent strategy focuses on all forms of terrorism, but is clear that the most serious risk to our national security comes from al-Qaeda, its affiliates and like-minded organisations. For this reason, the report of the Prime Minister’s Extremism Task Force (ETF), published last December, set out a definition of Islamist extremism. It noted that this ideology should not be confused with traditional religious practice.
It is based on a distorted interpretation of Islam, which betrays Islam’s peaceful principles and also includes the uncompromising belief that people cannot be Muslim and British, and insists that those who do not agree with them are not true Muslims.