Combating violent extremism

The Government has this year published its strategy for tackling violent extremism (HM Government 2008).  The strategy, informally known as 'The prevent strategy', says that we have faced a sustained threat from terrorism over many years but that terrorists and those who support them are a tiny minority of the population. It says the greatest threat is currently from those who distort the peaceful religion of Islam to attempt to justify murder and attacks on our shared values. The strategy also identifies other extremists on the extreme right of politics who sow division by promoting simplistic and divisive views. The strategy describes what the Government is doing to undermine extremist ideologies, strengthen institutions, support individuals at risk of radicalisation and address the grievances on which extremists prey.

Whilst the prevent strategy is clearly important in terms of public security it should not dominate the community cohesion agenda. The prevent strategy is about dealing with the security threat posed by a tiny minority of people who engage in violent extremism, whereas community cohesion is about the day to day issues faced by a much larger section of the community. Clearly each of these areas of public policy affects the other but we need to keep a clear perspective about the difference.