Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Response to the Revised Prevent Strategy

Cageprisoners responds to the revised Prevent strategy - a document that is as flawed as its predecessor.


The UK government has released a revised Prevent strategy in the hope that it can break links to past policies in relation to Muslim communities. Those communities eagerly anticipated the new formulation in the expectation that the government would have listened and positively acted on the advice that had been given over the last six years.

Sunday, 24 July 2011

NORWAY: The Religious and Political Narrative that feeds Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism

Just a couple of months ago the Norwegian Security Services concluded that there was little threat of terrorism from those associated with the far right. The British government in its revised Prevent Strategy also arrived at a similar conclusion. In the wake of the terror in Norway, we need to question whether Western Governments have taken the far right threat seriously enough or indeed understood it.

The UK Home Office seem to have overlooked the fact that it was violent provocation by extreme ring wing activists in 2001 that was the cause of the worst disturbances in this country since the early 1980’s, with appalling consequences for community relations. Somehow thanks to policy makers, the narrative became one of Muslim separate lives and segregation instead of right wing political provocation and violence. Muslim communities were too weak to challenge this narrative.