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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > After Attack Stealth Jihadists At Quilliam Foundation Urge UK To Continue Failed PREVENT Strategy Which Funded Terrorist's Brother

After Attack Stealth Jihadists At Quilliam Foundation Urge UK To Continue Failed PREVENT Strategy Which Funded Terrorist's Brother

Saad Butt Was Paid By PREVENT To Help Fight Terrorism
June 7, 2017

MIM: Saad Butt, brother of suicide killer jihadist Khuram Butt was paid 10,000 pounds by PREVENT to fight terrorism.

UK government paid London jihad mass murderer's brother to fight "extremism"


"Killer's brother was PAID to fight extremism: Group that was given government funding to fight terrorism was set up at the London Bridge jihadi's family home," by Joseph Curtis, Mailonline, June 6, 2017 (thanks to the Geller Report)

The brother of the man behind the brutal massacre of seven people in the London Bridge terror attack had actually been paid by police to fight extremism, despite it going on within his own home.

Saad Butt, 29, brother of murderer Khuram, 27, was involved in the Government's ‘Prevent' programme set up to counter extremist groups.

His actions are a far cry from his younger brother, who led the three-man death squad who went on a bloodthirsty stabbing frenzy in Borough Market on Saturday night, injuring a further 48 people.

The news has prompted further questions as to how authorities missed Khuram's bloodthirsty plans when they worked so closely with one of his blood relatives.

He was even being investigated by anti-terror forces in 2015 but was deemed a ‘low priority' with police saying there was ‘no evidence he was planning an attack'.

Today Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has also backed those asking how the killer ‘slipped through the net'.

The brothers were born in Pakistan and came to the UK with their asylum seeker parents.

According to The Times, Saad even set up an anti-extremism group at the Butt family home in east London and successfully applied to join the Young Muslims Advisory Group (YMAG), passing security checks along the way.

The paper reported he was paid ‘under £10,000' by the Association of Chief Police Officers to carry out research on ‘young Muslims' dissatisfaction with police', and registered a research company to the family's address near Forest Gate….

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/06/uk-government-paid-london-jihad-mass-murderers-brother-to-fight-extremism

MIM: The terrorists at the Quilliam Foundation exploited the Manchester attack to urge the goverment to preserve the failed PREVENT program and "called upon" the goverment to appoint "a Counter Extremism Coordinator" which would benefit their activities and obstensibly help them to obtain funding in a desperate and cynical attempt to remain "relevant".

For more on Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation see: "Why Is Anyone Still Listening To Maajid Nawaz?" http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6998

Excerpt from BBC article on PREVENT:

Preventing Violent Extremism - also known as Prevent - has been a government priority for a decade.

But despite millions of pounds, initiative after initiative, the strategy remains deeply controversial, virtually impossible to fully assess and, if its critics are right, fatally compromised and incapable of achieving its goals. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28939555 ( see complete article below)

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MIM: The Quilliam Foundation issued a press release two weeks after the Manchester suicide bombing calling for the preservation and expansion of the government's failed PREVENT program.

PRESS RELEASE

Apparent Jihadist Terror Attack in London – Enough is Enough

Barely two weeks after Manchester, Quilliam's thoughts are with friends and families of the fatalities and over 40 injured in yesterday's barbaric terror attack at London Bridge and Borough Market. Details are continuing to emerge in what is the third terrorist attack in the UK in the last 73 days. This is a suspected jihadist terrorist attack. It fits an unfortunate pattern over recent years in Europe and especially the recent attack in London carried out by an Islamist terrorist. We are 8 days into the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and this is so far, the 7th jihadist terror attack globally. There is a difference between preventing a terrorist attack and stopping one. Quilliam calls on all Politicians and citizens of the UK to fully support the government's CONTEST Strategy and its four P's – PROTECT, PREPARE, PURSUE and PREVENT. We call on whichever Government is elected in the upcoming General Election to make the urgent appointment of a Counter Extremism Coordinator serving under the Prime Minister to coordinate the government's Counter Extremism Policy across all departments.

Quilliam Founder Maajid Nawaz said:

"Some politicians have called for the scrapping of the government's counter-extremism Prevent policy. Scrapping Prevent is naïve, opportunistic and endangers our national security. Any politician that calls for this does not understand extremism, nor the severity of the jihadist terror threat that is facing us. Instead Prevent must benefit from a national counter extremism coordinator."

Quilliam Chief Executive Haras Rafiq said: "Enough is enough – we need action now and not tip-toeing around the issue. The only way to defeat this type of extremism and terrorism is for Government and all British communities to unashamedly name, shame and challenge the threat. That includes the ideology that is underpinning it. The ideology has its roots in Islamist inspired Salafi Jihadism and we must all admit the problem before we can attempt to challenge it"

https://www.quilliaminternational.com/apparent-jihadist-terror-attack-in-london-enough-is-enough/

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Analysis: The Prevent strategy and its problems

Dominic Casciani Home affairs correspondent

August 26, 2014

Preventing Violent Extremism - also known as Prevent - has been a government priority for a decade.

But despite millions of pounds, initiative after initiative, the strategy remains deeply controversial, virtually impossible to fully assess and, if its critics are right, fatally compromised and incapable of achieving its goals.

Prevent is one of the four Ps that make up the government's post 9/11 counter-terrorism strategy, known as Contest: Prepare for attacks, Protect the public, Pursue the attackers and Prevent their radicalisation in the first place.

In the early days of Prevent, Whitehall was divided over what Prevent meant: was it purely about al-Qaeda-inspired extremism or was it about other groups as well?

Was it about tackling violence or the underlying ideology?

Some British Muslims have complained of feeling targeted by the Prevent strategy

Ministers threw cash at Prevent - particularly in the wake of the 2005 London suicide bombings.

In the six years after those attacks, almost £80m was spent on 1,000 schemes across 94 local authorities.

Security officials wanted schemes to prevent young people from following al-Qaeda's world view.

But other officials saw it as a means of funding pet projects on community cohesion.

Many groups that received funding knew what they were doing - focusing on theology and countering the politics of extremism.

But others had no idea about radicalisation at all - and some believed it was a myth because they had no expert experience and were suspicious of the message.

Very few of the schemes could be assessed to show one way or another whether they worked - officials were often taking the word of the people they were funding.

'Stigmatising Muslims'

There were a few total policy disasters along the way.

I remember one really angry imam from the north sending me some materials that officials had presented to him as a proposal for citizenship classes for teenagers.

Local people interpreted the materials as implying that al-Qaeda was behind every street corner, working in every mosque.

You can imagine the fury as government was accused of turning every young Muslim into a suspect.

In turn, some local councils resisted a government attempt to impose a target upon them which would order them to do more to combat extremism.

The councils did not oppose the target because they disagreed with the aim - but they were telling Whitehall that the tactics were stigmatising Muslims.

Some of the groups with the most insight into al-Qaeda complained they couldn't get around the table because they publicly attacked foreign policy.

Prevent was criticised after funds were used to help pay for CCTV cameras in Muslim areas of Birmingham

When the coalition came to power, it promised a clean break.

And one of Prime Minister David Cameron's most important early speeches was a promise to be tough not just on violent extremism - but on the radical "us and them" ideas that underpin it.

Religiously conservative groups that had been funded in Labour's days were cut off.

They were seen as part of the same ideological family tree as al-Qaeda - even if they themselves argued that bin Laden was the black sheep of the family.

But one of the biggest knocks to Prevent came when it emerged four years ago that CCTV cameras in Muslim areas of Birmingham - 72 of them hidden - were partly funded by Home Office counter-terrorism cash.

The loss of confidence and trust in police was enormous.

There have been, however, some successes.

The most discrete part of the broad Prevent agenda is called Channel.

It is an intensive one-to-one mentoring programme to challenge violent views through deprogramming and rewiring an individual.

Channel has turned around some lives - but there will always be some who it cannot help, not least because its resources are limited.

'Suspect community'

Police forces have a specialist network of Prevent officers - and many of them are trying to work out how to combat the pull of Syria.

The latest scheme is a big push to enlist women to help.

Over the weekend Home Secretary Theresa May also proposed changes to the law to tackle extremism and radicalisation in the UK.

She said she was "looking again" at banning "extremist groups" - something first mooted by Tony Blair in the wake of 7/7.

Mrs May has also proposed creating a new power similar to anti-social behaviour orders which would restrict the behaviour of extremists who have a role in radicalisation.

But the deputy head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Harun Khan, has told the BBC that Prevent is still alienating the very people government is trying to reach.

Mr Khan said: "Most young people are seeing [Prevent] as a target on them and the institutions they associate with."

So the real problem with Prevent is this: every time officials try to win trust, they are met with the accusation that they are treating Muslims as a "suspect community".

However, police chiefs say such accusations are not supported when you look at the successes they have recently had.

There has been a five-fold increase in counter-terror-related arrests in the past six months - the majority of these related to events in Syria.

Some of these arrests have come as a result of information provided by the community.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer, says communities are co-operating with the police - but they need more help.

Nearly half of all the people who have travelled to Syria for a jihadist cause were previously unknown to the security services.

That means extremists who are attempting to radicalise young men and women have been succeeding - and that's why the government's Prevent strategy remains such an important part of the story.

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MIM: Excerpt from Policy Paper: 2010 to 2015 Government Policy: Counter - Terrorism

Appendix 2: Prevent

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the government's counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The Prevent strategy:

  • responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views
  • provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support
  • works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with

The strategy covers all forms of terrorism, including far right extremism and some aspects of non-violent extremism. However, we prioritise our work according to the risks we face. For instance, following the death of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, the Prime Minister is leading a task force on tackling extremism and radicalisation. The special committee, which includes senior members of the cabinet and security chiefs, builds on the Prevent strategy.

The Home Office works with local authorities, a wide range of government departments, and community organisations to deliver the Prevent strategy. The police also play a significant role in Prevent, in much the same way as they do when taking a preventative approach to other crimes.

We use a range of measures to challenge extremism in the UK, including:

  • where necessary, we have prevented apologists for terrorism and extremism from travelling to this country
  • giving guidance to local authorities and institutions to understand the threat from extremism and the statutory powers available to them to challenge extremist speakers
  • funding a specialist police unit which works to remove online content that breaches terrorist legislation
  • supporting community based campaigns and activity which can effectively rebut terrorist and extremist propaganda and offer alternative views to our most vulnerable target audiences - in this context we work with a range of civil society organisations
  • supporting people who are at risk of being drawn into terrorist activity through the Channel process, which involves several agencies working together to give individuals access to services such as health and education, specialist mentoring and diversionary activities - more information on Channel can be found in the Channel Guidance and Channel Vulnerability Assessment

Overseas, we work closely with countries where those who support terrorism and promote extremism are most active. Our activity is concentrated on Pakistan, the Middle East and East Africa where radicalising activity can have a direct impact on communities in the UK.

We measure the outputs and impact of our work locally and nationally to make sure the Prevent programme provides value for money.

Further information on Prevent, and the work done to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, can be found in CONTEST, and in the CONTEST Annual Report. Translations of Prevent's Executive Summary in Arabic and Urdu, and the Prevent equality impact assessment are also available.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-counter-terrorism/2010-to-2015-government-policy-counter-terrorism


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