Terrorists exploit anti-extremism scheme’s failure to engage with Muslims, says adviser

ISLAMIST terrorists are exploiting the failures of the Government’s counterextremism Prevent scheme, an adviser has warned.

Dame Sara Khan, the Government’s independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience, said engagement with Muslim communities must be done “in a much better way”. Dame Sara accused the Government of having failed to explain the strategy to communities, which “in essence... left a vacuum” about the purpose of the scheme that was filled by Islamists.

She told the BBC’S Political Thinking podcast: “Those types of challenges have continued and I think continuing to engage with communities, explaining what the programme is, addressing concerns – that’s got to continue in a much better way than we’ve seen previously.”

The scheme, which was launched in 2007 to stop people from being drawn into terrorism, is currently under review by Sir William Shawcross. Leaks from his report indicate that it will conclude Prevent has been too focused on Right-wing extremism.

Dame Sara, a former counter-extremism commissioner who now advises Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, on social cohesion, said: “Good policy has to be ideologically blind… There’s far-right, Islamist, Sikh... Hindu nationalism... there’s far-left...

“You’ve got to deal with all of those types of problems. Only trying to focus on one at the expense of others is totally counterproductive.”

She also cautioned that the Muslim community’s mistrust of Prevent had been fuelled by the Government’s failure to explain its purpose. “They didn’t go out and explain to Muslim communities what Prevent is about,” she said. “In essence, they left a vacuum.”

It comes as Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, paid tribute to victims and members of the emergency services on the fifth anniversary of the London Bridge terror attack yesterday.

Eight people were killed and 48 more injured on June 3, 2017, when three terrorists in a hired van ploughed into pedestrians on the bridge, then ran into the nearby Borough Market where they began stabbing people.

Mr Khan tweeted: “Today, London remembers those whose lives were taken. We also pay tribute to the bravery of our emergency services, who ran towards danger whilst helping others to safety. Londoners will always stand united in the face of terrorism.”