Govt. Audit: 95 Per Cent of UK Extremist Deradicalisation Programmes Fail

Islamist March
Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Liam Deacon

More than 95 per cent of government “deradicalisation” initiatives fail to work, with the people delivering them often too scared to mention religious extremist context and choosing to talk about “Islamophobia” instead, a government report has found.

The study, commissioned by the Home Office, raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the Prevent programme and exposes politically correct failings in tackling Islamist extremism in schools, clubs, and English-language classes.

Thirty-three deradicalisation programmes across the country, mostly part of Prevent, were accessed by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), which is linked to the Cabinet Office.

According to their report, seen by Police Professional magazine and reported in The Times, only two initiatives were a success, with one defying political correctness and tackling difficult issues head-on and the other directly addressing extremism in religious texts.

However, in another case in a school, researchers concluded it was ineffective because it was too restricted and treated groups of Muslim and non-Muslim students as the same, despite the obvious relevance of Islam.

The study also found that those delivering the work often shied away from sensitive topics and would often refuse to engage entirely when they were mentioned.

Some teachers were too afraid to even mention matters of race, religion, and radical Islam with students and sought to avoid politically correct accusations of discrimination, so key topics were sidestepped completely.

Other schemes placed too much emphasis on hurt feelings, offence, and so-called “Islamophobia” which had the counterproductive result of convincing Muslim participants to turn on the principle of free speech after being painted as victims, the authors say.

Security minister Ben Wallace commented: “I am interested by the results of the BIT evaluation but they do not show the full picture. Their findings will help improve future interventions.”

In recent years, a massive anti-Prevent campaign pushed by Islamists, Muslim groups, leftist teachers’ unions, and senior Labour politicians has claimed it unfairly targets Muslims and is even “racist”.

Britain’s most prominent Muslim lawyer has claimed such groups are hindering the fight against terror by “undermining” authorities and spreading misinformation about Prevent.

However, police have reacted by publicising cases where they target so-called “far right” extremists, and 50 per cent of the Prevent caseload in some regions is now taken up with the “far right”.

Those targeted alongside potential terrorists included people who oppose the full-face Islamic veil and school children supporting UKIP and making jokes about transgenderism.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.