LONDON: For the first time, more people were referred to the UK’s de-radicalization program because of extreme-right ideology than because of Islamist beliefs, figures released on Thursday revealed.
Up to March this year, 25 percent of the Prevent program’s 4,915 referrals related to right-wing extremist views, while just 22 percent related to Islamism. The remainders were for individuals with a “mixed, unstable or unclear ideology.”
The figures were even starker for referrals to Channel — a mentorship initiative that sits within the Prevent program for the most serious cases; those deemed to pose a terrorist threat.
Of the 688 Channel referrals, nearly half — 46 percent — were because of fears of right-wing terror, while only 22 percent were interventions aimed at diverting individuals away from Islamist terrorism.
This is the third year in a row that far-right referrals to Channel have outnumbered Islamist referrals.
The Prevent program relies on referrals from police, teachers, friends, family, or others when they notice someone near to them developing extremist views.
Despite the rising far-right referrals, terrorist attacks in the UK are still usually perpetrated by individuals of Islamist ideology.
Last Sunday a Syrian man, whose ideology is still being examined, blew himself up in the back of a taxi in Liverpool. Last month, Ali Harbi Ali stabbed MP David Amess to death in an Islamist-inspired terrorist attack in Amess’ constituency.
Ali had, in the past, been referred to Prevent but was judged not to pose a threat and was discharged.
Amess’ killing prompted renewed scrutiny of the Prevent program, which was already the subject of an independent review following terrorist attacks in the UK toward the end of the last decade.
Ian Acheson, a senior adviser at the Counter Extremism Project, suggested that research was needed about what was driving referrals and why they were “out of kilter” with attacks.
He told MailOnline: “Nobody can dispute these statistics as a matter of fact. Nor is it sensible to ignore extreme right-wing ideology as a driver of violent extremism. But we should also be asking about what is driving these referrals and why they are so out of kilter with the clear and present danger of Islamist extremism which in terms of lethality and potential dwarfs extreme right-wing ones.
“There is probably a lot of concern hiding within the dominant group of mixed, unstable or unclear ideology. Is this group getting the same attention as the others? I’m not at all clear that, for example, alienated young people attracted to the incel sub-culture equate in any meaningful way to religiously inspired extremism that is so inimical to society in terms of threat.”