— Britain’s government is expected to outline a revised strategy Tuesday to tackle home-grown terrorism, saying that tens of millions of pounds spent on anti-extremism projects have failed to steer young Muslims away from violence.
The government is expected to say that costly and controversial initiatives did not produce security benefits for Britain — and could even have helped fund groups that promote hardline beliefs.
The revised approach will focus on identifying extremist threats in prisons, universities and the health service, a new tack for policy that initially focused on supporting mainstream Muslim groups as alternatives to extremism.
The fresh strategy, outlined in an as-yet-unreleased review of the anti-extremism project, also is expected to include proposals to limit the scope of the Internet in fostering radicalization — though it was unclear how far new rules could go.
The anti-extremism initiative, dubbed Prevent, was launched following the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s transport networks. It was aimed at providing alternatives to militant Islamism by supporting mainstream groups through lecture tours by moderate clerics and by funding for outreach work by reformed extremists.
The contentious plan drew criticism from all sides — some Muslims said it involved spying on young people, while taxpayer groups questioned the merit of funding adventure holidays, rap lessons or team-building exercises.
Home Secretary Theresa May in November said the project was not working as well as it could be, and launched a review of the program so the government could take a fresh look at how it was combatting extremism.
On Monday, she pre-empted the findings by accusing universities of complacency in tackling Islamic extremism and radicalization on campus.
She told Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper Monday that universities have not been taking the issue of radicalization seriously and are unwilling to recognize that extremists can form groups on campus “without anyone knowing.”
While a government unit to filter out potentially illegal Internet content was created last year, Tuesday’s report is expected to stress that universities will be closely watched and outline plans to prevent computers in schools, libraries and colleges from accessing unlawful material on the Internet.
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