Asked by Baroness Warsi To ask Her Majesty’s Government
whether the Prevent strand of CONTEST is part of a counterterrorism
strategy or counterextremism strategy. The Minister of
State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con) My
Lords, Prevent is part of the UK’s counterterrorism strategy,
Contest. It safeguards...Request free
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Asked by
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The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, Prevent is part of the UK’s counterterrorism
strategy, Contest. It safeguards people from being drawn
into terrorism.
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(Con)
I thank my noble friend for that Answer. I also welcome the
Government’s statement that they intend to tackle all forms
of extremism. Does my noble friend agree that, to tackle
hate crime effectively, we must define those acts, words,
conduct and attitudes that we consider to be extreme?
Therefore, what is the Government’s working definition of
Islamophobia? When, if at all, do they intend to agree and
publish a definition of far-right extremism?
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I thank my noble friend for that question. On Islamophobia,
the Government are absolutely clear that hatred and
intolerance on the grounds of race, religion, sexual
orientation, disability or transgender identity have
absolutely no place in our society. Our hate crime action
plan sets out our commitment to defeating all forms of
hatred. Generally, the Government’s counterextremism
strategy defines extremism as,
“vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values,
including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty
and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and
beliefs”.
This applies to all forms of extremism, including the far
and extreme right wing.
-
(Lab)
Of course, the Prevent strategy to counteract extremism and
acts likely to incite extremism applies across the board
and to the whole community. Recently, some of our national
media have carried a news story about alleged cultural
impositions on a Christian child in the care of Muslim
foster parents— a story that was subsequently revealed,
following court proceedings, to be inaccurate in
significant aspects, as well as being accompanied by a
contentious mocked-up photograph. The way the story was
presented and headlined was hardly designed to lower the
temperature as far as attitudes about extremism are
concerned. How exactly does the Prevent strategy apply to
misleading reporting of such stories in our national media?
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My Lords, it is extremely unhelpful and can be divisive
when such stories hit the media. With regard to how that
might fit into Prevent, the Prevent programme is
fundamentally about supporting vulnerable individuals and
safeguarding them from being drawn into terrorism. It is
safeguarding in a similar way to how we would safeguard
people from drug abuse or physical and sexual abuse. I will
not comment on individual cases, but that would be the
clear distinction between the two.
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(LD)
My Lords, can the Minister remind the House why the
Government refuse to allow an independent review of
Prevent, as recommended by the former reviewer of terrorism
legislation, and why they refuse to publish their own
review? At the moment, we have criticism of Prevent which
the Government say is without foundation, but that
assertion is in itself without foundation.
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My Lords, we are absolutely clear that Prevent is working.
Since 2010, 280,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material have
been removed from the internet. A thousand people have
received support through the Channel programme. In addition,
we have absolute evidence of delivery of Prevent working
across sectors. We have 850,000 frontline staff, including
NHS staff and teachers, trained in spotting signs of
radicalisation, so we are happy that Prevent is actually
working.
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(CB)
My Lords, are the Government aware that, by defining Muslims
as the real focus of Prevent, Prevent has an incentive to be
an agent provocateur—to actually find Muslims who are defined
as other and as potential terrorists? This in itself creates
a sense of otherisation which alienates many law-abiding
Muslims and makes them feel as if they are defined as the
enemy within.
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My Lords, we need to be absolutely clear that Prevent is in
no way targeting Muslims. Prevent is aiming to safeguard
people who are actually vulnerable to radicalisation, so it
is a mechanism to protect people and not to target them. I
think it is incumbent upon all of us to try not to make that
connection.
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(Non-Afl)
My Lords, the noble Baroness will be aware of the arrest of
four serving members of the British armed services belonging
to a neo-Nazi terror group. Could the Minister assure the
House that there will be adequate measures taken to make sure
that there are no extremists serving in the armed services?
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My Lords, the Government take all the steps possible to make
sure that there are not extremists serving in the Armed
Forces. Clearly, some people hide those sentiments and the
events of yesterday were clear to see. Just as we are
tackling Islamist extremism, so we must tackle the far right.
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(Con)
My Lords, is my noble friend’s Question not in danger of
making a distinction where there is actually little
difference? In the case of political Islam, which she
referred to, is this not rather well represented in both
cases by the Muslim Brotherhood, which seems to me to be
rather like Sinn Fein was to the IRA?
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My Lords, there clearly is a distinction between people who
hold extremist views and promote those views to others, and
those who actually go on to commit acts of terrorism. That is
why we make a distinction between the two, with the former
group being tackled on all sides by some of the programmes
and engagement that we have with communities throughout this
country.
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