UK Islamic rights groups welcomes PREVENT decision

LONDON: The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) broadly welcomes Tuesday’s select committee report on ‘Preventing Violent Extremism.’ It comes as British Muslims have become outraged over the use of special procedures to interrogate and investigate UK citizens.

IHRC Chair, Massoud Shadjareh, who gave evidence before the committee late last year stated:

“As with our written and verbal submissions to the committee, the report highlights the concerns regarding intelligence gathering under the guise of community cohesion projects, i.e. effectively spying on communities.

“This aspect of PREVENT is very clear to Muslim communities, in particular young people, and as such is deeply alienating.

“We welcome the report’s understanding that PREVENT’s policies appear to be aimed at engineering belief and practice in a theological sense.”

The IHRC hopes the report will lead to the calling of an independent inquiry into the use of PREVENT for intelligence gathering.

PREVENT was established as a means of targeting and following Islamic extremists in the UK, but opponents of the measures have called for the scheme to also target far-right activists, who they say are participating in similar violent activities.

For more information go to IHRC

Republished with permission from Bikya Masr