Yet another counter-productive and utterly clueless Western government program in the post 9/11 world:
A key government policy on countering extremism in Britain has “stigmatised and alienated” Muslims and undermined community relations, a Commons report says today.
Many Muslims told the cross-party committee of MPs that they believed the purpose of the Prevent programme was to “spy” on Asian communities, and that the Government was using funding to engineer a moderate form of acceptable Islam.
The Communities and Local Government Committee said ministers should investigate claims the strategy had been hijacked by police and MI5 to gather intelligence on alleged radicals.
Committee chairman Phyllis Starkey said: “Many witnesses believe Prevent has been used to ‘spy’ on Muslim communities. The misuse of terms such as ‘intelligence gathering’ among Prevent partners has clearly discredited the programme and fed distrust.