PM to fast-track terror crackdown
Powers to close fanatics’ mosques New Asbos for terrorists Vile web clips will be blocked
TOUGH new powers to tackle Muslim extremism will be fast-tracked into law – including shutting mosques which shelter fanatics, the Prime Minister will say today. David Cameron pledged to ‘confront head-on the poisonous ideology’ of Islamist hardliners by making a Counter-Extremism Bill the centrepiece of the new Government’s first Queen’s Speech later this month.
He vowed to put traditional British values at the heart of the new Government’s terror crackdown, launched amid a rising threat from Islamic State-inspired jihadists.
In a fresh approach, Mr Cameron will also promise the Government would no longer stand by when communities were at risk of falling prey to extremists – but instead intervene to head off problems.
He will tell the first National Security Council of the new Parliament:
‘Poisonous ideology’
‘For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.
‘It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance.
‘This Government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach.’ The move is part of a sweeping package of measures drawn up by an anti- extremism task force set up by Downing Street in the wake of the May 2013 murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby outside his barracks in Woolwich, south east London.
Frustrated Tory ministers had been blocked from publishing the counter-extremism strategy while in Coalition following a string of bitter rows with the Liberal Democrats.
Leader Nick Clegg made it clear he would resist any attempt to limit free speech. But when Mr Cameron secured a majority victory in last week’s election, it cleared the path for the new Government to press ahead with the ambitious blueprint.
He will tell the NSC, meeting today that new powers will make it ‘much harder for people to promote dangerous extremist views’ in Britain’s communities. The antiterrorist measures set to be placed on the Statute Book include:
Closing premises, including mosques, which harbour fanatics;
Silencing firebrand preachers or groups which ‘seek to undermine democracy or use hate speech’ using new anti-terror orders;
Introducing Extremism Disruption Orders – a kind of Asbo for jihadists to prevent them radicalising vulnerable people;
Toughening up immigration restrictions on extremists to prevent them entering the UK;
Empowering communications watchdog Ofcom to block extremist bile broadcast on the internet.
Other proposals which could be included in the Bill, which were flagged up by Home Secretary Theresa May in a speech in March, include sending teams to isolated communities to teach them English, and a review of sharia courts.
Mrs May also wants public spend- ing on translation services to be cut to encourage all Muslims to speak English and to make it a requirement for religious workers with pastoral responsibilities to learn the language.
The issue of radicalisation hit the headlines earlier this year after it emerged Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamist executioner known as ‘Jihadi John’, may have been lured into extremism while a student at Westminster University in London.
Mr Cameron will tell the NSC: ‘As the party of one nation, we will govern as one nation, and bring our country together. That means actively promoting certain values.
‘Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights regardless of race, gender or sexuality.
‘To belong here is to believe in these things. And it means confronting head- on the poisonous Islamist extremist ideology.
‘ Whether they are violent in their means or not, we must make it impossible for the extremists to succeed.’