Matthew d’Ancona: For Cameron, terrorism is the new Cold War

“In truth, this struggle more closely resembles the Cold War than the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The most important argument advanced by the rebooted Prevent strategy is that the struggle against terrorism is, at root, a battle of ideologies.

 

Henry Jackson Society: UK Prevent Review Affirms, Cites HJS Analysis

“HJS thoroughly welcomes the Government’s efforts to seriously engage with the threat posed by Islamist organisations which run counter to British values.”

 

Paul Goodman: The new Prevent policy won’t succeed without an enforcer. I nominate Lord Carlile.

“Some Ministers will welcome the new Prevent policy: Gove, for example, is providing a gold standard at education.”

 

Dr. Robert Lambert: Cameron and Blair: the real counter-terrorism coalition

“This is a policy first prescribed by Michael Gove and his friends at Policy Exchange and set now to become Home Office policy. It is also an extension of the policy that the arch Blairites, Ruth Kelly and Hazel Blears first began to implement when they enjoyed brief control at the Department for Communities and Local Government.”

 

Ben Chu: A dodgy recommendation from Quilliam

“Quilliam, which styles itself as “Britain’s first counter-extremism think tank” and which was founded by a pair of former Islamist zealots, is often accused of being unrepresentative of UK Muslims. The fact that it has the ear of key ministers is attributed to the fact that it is skilled at telling right-wing politicians what they want to hear about the nature of the terror threat and Islam in Britain.”

 

Telegraph View: Promote the right values and prevent extremism

“There is little in the review document that offers any practical assessment of whether – or how – it will work. The approach adopted by the last Labour government and now by the Coalition risks failing to achieve anything while at the same time patronising both Muslims and the rest of the country.”

 

Independent: Leading article: Intolerant views should be confronted, not silenced

“Ms May argued yesterday that the new strategy will prove more effective in eliminating the scourge of domestic terrorism than the one it replaces. Much depends on how carefully it is implemented. But on first inspection, it looks more like a step backwards.”

 

Guardian Editorial: Counter-terrorism: Prevention and cure

“The coalition has fudged its answer to the conundrum of how to contain threats to democracy without damaging democracy itself”

 

Policy research: Prevent review 2011

“Very few policy agendas have been as controversial as Prevent. It could be argued that the lessons from previous Prevent strategies have not been adequately learnt or taken on board – some would have wanted it to be ‘tougher’ and cast the net wider, others think it already goes ‘too far’ and is unfocused.”

 

Craig Murray: PREVENT: A totally illiberal strategy

“The report has many errors. but its fundamental flaw is iits explicit assumption that terrorism is actuated by a hatred of democracy… with stunning intellectual dishonesty the government refuses to tackle in the report the fact that terrorism in the UK has been driven by disgust at British foreign policy, and especially the invasion of Iraq, and the continuing occupation and civilian deaths in Afghanistan.”

 

Reza Pankhurst: PREVENT: Welcome to Totalitarian Britain

“It is now no longer sufficient to abide by the rule of law, you have to give up any alternative moral and political views you may have, and submit to liberal secularism or “muscular liberalism” as defined by ideologues such as May, Gove or Cameron, as well as adopting a view of Western exceptionalism that justifies or at a minimum excuses the violence by the West while demonizing any resistance against it.”

 

Anthony Glees: Universities: The breeding grounds of terror

“The shameful record of complacency towards Islamist radicalisation on Britain’s campuses will no longer wash. But are our universities listening, let alone getting ready to act? I fear not.”

 

FOSIS: FOSIS expresses concern with Home Secretary’s comments

“We find it disrespectful for commentators to throw around accusations of extremism so easily – especially when not only university vice chancellors but David Willets, the Universities Minister, himself have clearly elucidated how extremism is not widespread on campus, and have questioned whether universities are the “trigger” for radicalisation.”

 

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain: PREVENT: Cameron admits defeat by forcing Muslims to convert to liberal values

“At a time when people in the West are seriously questioning the capitalist economic system, the West’s destructive colonial exploits around the world, the sexualisation of youth culture, the breakdown of family life, and the rise of disrespect and antisocial behaviour, does Mr Cameron seriously expect Muslims – in Britain or elsewhere – not to look to Islam for answers that would best suit their community and indeed the wider world?”

MCB: Stigmatising Muslim civil society won’t avert terrorism – Prevent strategy still flawed

“The government has announced that it will no longer support or fund groups that it deems as extremist. It is a continuation of a policy that relies on dispensing government patronage. That is the government’s prerogative. Yet, in a place where the British Muslim community is incredibly diverse in practise and tradition, the government — like its predecessor — engages in state-sponsored sectarianism by setting arbitrary measures on who is, and who isn’t an extremist.”

 

Ramadhan Foundation: Policy is worn out

“To label all Muslims who promote and practice Sharia law as extremists is a dangerous precedent which will be strongly opposed by our community because the real reasons behind this new strategy are to score cheap political points on the back of the Muslim community.”

 

Daily Mash: Doctors to check for anyone who looks a bit bomb-y

“Telltale signs GPs have been asked to look out for include whether the patient has grown a great big beard, complains of back strain from carrying unusually-heavy rucksacks or has covered their body with lots of brown skin.”