A ‘perpetual lack of information’ about the government’s counter-terrorism strategy has led to ‘genuine fears’ of persecution among Muslims in Greater Manchester, a report has found.
Although Prevent was said to be ‘working well’ in the region, the report said it was not getting its message across to communities where ‘high levels of distrust and suspicion of statutory agencies continue to exist’.
The independent Preventing Hateful Extremism and Promoting Social Cohesion report was commissioned by the region’s mayor Andy Burnham following the Arena bombing, which left 22 people dead and left dozens more seriously injured.
It concluded there should be an effort to move Prevent - which aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism - away from the police and law enforcement to wider safeguarding.
“Most people agreed that the safeguarding principles that underpin Prevent are correct,” the report added.
“However, there is a perpetuating cycle of lack of information available to communities regarding Prevent and circulation of inaccurate information. This leads to fear developing within communities.
“It was strongly felt that the positive work going on across Greater Manchester was not being appropriately disseminated into communities, where high levels of distrust and suspicion of statutory agencies continues to exist.
“It was felt that the lack of information was exploited by those with an anti-Prevent or anti-Islam agenda who maliciously miscommunicated the aims of Prevent or true nature of the issue without evidence to support their claims.
“Organisations and individuals found it difficult to challenge this narrative without statistics to refute the claims. This has perpetuated the problem, leading to the creation of suspect communities and fear of persecution amongst Muslim communities.”
The report added: “From the people that were involved in the commission’s engagement, there was a strong feeling from the members of the Muslim community that Prevent targets Muslim communities and that this was a genuine fear felt by Greater Manchester Muslims.”
Prevent is one of the four strands of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It is designed to support people at risk of joining extremist groups and carrying out terrorist activity.
It has been criticised in the past by MPs and the Muslim Council of Britain, who have said it can make Muslims feel isolated and even more open to turning to radicalisation.
