British Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled a new strategy on Monday to combat extremism, saying the battle was “perhaps the “defining one of this century”, but his proposals were condemned by Muslims as demonising their communities and set to fail”.
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Parents will be able to strip 16 and 17-year-olds of passports if they fear they aim to join Islamic State. Instead they will be confronted “whenever extremists have been given a platform to preach harmful messages and falsehoods without critical challenge”.
The hunt for extremists across the public sector follows the Trojan horse affair in Birmingham schools.
Mr Cameron said politicians could no longer “put our kid gloves on” and hope the threat posed by extremists would go away.
Britain’s media regulator will also be given additional powers to strengthen sanctions against channels that broadcast extremist content or give a platform to hate preachers.
Fahy warned the plans come at a time when British Muslims are feeling under pressure on several fronts.
“This isn’t about people having different views, different beliefs”, Ms May said. At least 700 British citizens have joined Islamist groups fighting in Syria since the war started in 2011.
“So we have a choice – do we choose to turn a blind eye or do we choose to get out there and make the case for our British values?”
The plan has been met with much opposition from the Muslim community in the country.
Downing Street said there were 338 counter-terrorism related arrests in the past year, with 157 linked to Syria and 56 involving suspects under 20.
“In the past, I believe governments made the wrong choice”.
And according to Reuters, an independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation named David Anderson warned that such measures could actually backfire, driving members of the Muslim community toward extremism and terrorism.
“We can not help detecting the McCarthyist undertones in the proposal to create blacklists and exclude and ban people deemed to be extremist”.
The Muslim Council of Britain, the biggest Muslim faith group in the United Kingdom, criticised the new counter-extremism strategy for being based on “fuzzy conceptions of British values” and risked “alienating” the very Muslim communities that are needed to confront the likes of Isis and Al-Qaeda”.
Mr Shafi continued: “Whether it is in mosques, education or charities, the strategy will reinforce perceptions that all aspects of Muslim life must undergo a “compliance” test to prove our loyalty to this country”.
The MCB head called on the government to avoid past mistakes and stop funding to “organisations or individuals whose main or primary qualification is to serve as echo-chambers for what government wishes to hear”.
At a National Security Summit being held in London it was revealed the metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism internet referral unit had removed more than 110,000 online pieces of extremist propaganda since 2010 and more than 38,000 pieces so far this year.
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The drive marks a significant departure from the government’s previous counter-terrorism policies as it will criminalise for the first time “extremists who spread hate but do not break existing laws”.
