Muslims “genuinely fear” being persecuted by the government’s controversial counterextremism strategy because of the lack of official information, a report has warned.
Research commissioned in Manchester following last year’s bombing found that although Prevent does good work tackling all forms of radicalisation, poor communication has caused a “dangerous perpetuating cycle of fear” and made people less willing to engage with the voluntary scheme.
A commission set up to investigate extremism and social cohesion said that Prevent’s work was “vital to community safety and vulnerable people are being safeguarded from being radicalised”.
But accurate information, statistics and positive news of interventions was are not reaching communities feeling “high levels of distrust and suspicion” towards authorities, it said.
“The lack of information is exploited by those with an anti-Prevent or anti-Islam agenda who maliciously miscommunicated the aims of Prevent or true nature of the issue,” the report concluded. [The Independent] Read more
