LONDON: The UK’s Prevent strategy, which aims to foil terrorism, should have violence-prevention as a primary focus, according to Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Jonathan Hall.
Hall said that he agreed with concerns that Prevent was failing in its goal of finding and deradicalizing potential terrorist attackers because it was referring a disproportionate number of non-Islamist extremists.
He said that the majority of terrorist attacks were carried out by Islamists “so I can completely understand that when people see the number of people who have been referred from the right-wing side or what they call a mixed unclear or uncertain ideology side, they say, ‘Hang on, there’s some sort of imbalance’ .”
Counter-terrorism experts have previously warned that Prevent was being undermined by too many far-right referrals, distracting from those most likely to turn to terrorism.
Hall said it was vital to continue to monitor everyone who expressed forms of extremism because there was a “new trend in terrorism towards mainly Internet-driven terrorism, often involving very young people.”
He recommended switching Prevent’s main objective from preventing terrorism to preventing violence so it could encompass Islamic extremists, incels and far-right extremists.
“I think you’ve got to think about violence, ultimately, stopping violence. And so if you’re worried about claims of Islamophobia, or talking about matters of faith, which I completely understand are really difficult, if you have in mind the fact that ultimately it’s about preventing violence, that’s a really good way of approaching things,” Hall added in comments to the BBC.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said she intends to overhaul the counter-extremism strategy because of concerns that it does not focus enough on Islamic extremists.
She said that her time as home secretary had shown her that “there are definitely things that we need to change.”
Her comments are confirmation that Prevent, which has a GBP40 million ($52 million) budget, will be overhauled. The strategy has been repeatedly blamed for failing to stop terrorist attacks.
The home secretary is waiting for the outcome of an independent review of the strategy.