04/04/2024
The bulk of anti-terrorism work in the UK is in fighting radical Islamist organisations, which constitutes around seventy five per cent of time and resources, and the far right wing, including anti-gay and anti-trans extremists. So, asked the Guardian on March 8th, why is newly updated guidance from the Prevent Anti-Terrorist strategy listing communism, socialism and anti-fascism as markers of concern for youth workers and teachers. A former head of counter-terrorism said it risked damaging Prevent, and human rights groups said the government was playing political games under the guise of stopping terrorism. Jacob Smith from Rights and Security International, a human rights advocacy group, said: “For years, we have expressed concern about how the government’s broad concept of ‘extremism’ could be open to politicised abuses. It appears that this concern has now been realised through a blatant distinction between how the government wants to treat people on the ‘left’ versus people on the ‘right’ under Prevent. Our concern is only heightened by government rhetoric during the past few days that appears to be targeting British Muslims and protesters for Palestinian rights. If ‘extremism’ can mean anything the government wants it to mean, that’s a clear problem for democracy.” Ilyas Nagdee from Amnesty International said: “This is yet another crackdown from the UK government to stifle freedom of expression – including political speech and activism – using the blunt instrument that is Prevent." Meanwhile, in related news, the National Council for Civil Liberties, or Liberty as it is more recently known, said that the High Court has heard that the Government broke the law by forcing through anti-protest legislation which had already been democratically rejected by Parliament just a few months earlier. Liberty, the human rights organisation bringing the legal challenge, has urged the court to quash the legislation which gives the police almost unlimited power to shut down protests it deems as causing a ‘more than minor’ disturbance. Liberty says the Government deliberately circumvented the will of Parliament and unconstitutionally breached the principle of separation of powers.
