UK

The Home Office must take greater responsibility for how deradicalisation programmes are working with potential terrorists, a review will recommend.

The review found that Prevent, the government’s counterextremism strategy, was ineffective in some parts of the UK because certain local authorities were involving Muslim groups that actively opposed the programme in the process of deciding whether individuals need to be deradicalised.

… Separately, a report by the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank, has warned of a “fundamental mismatch” between the threat posed by Islamic extremism and the number of referrals to Prevent.

Despite Islamic extremists making up three quarters of offenders in prison for terror-related offences and the vast majority of suspects on the MI5’s terror watchlist, they represent only 22 per cent of all Prevent referrals and 30 per cent of Channel cases.

Calls to overhaul Prevent as it is revealed ‘divisive groups who DON’T believe in counter-terror strategy help decide if individuals need to be deradicalised’ – after Islamists behind four recent attacks were ALL referred to scheme

Prevent is being undermined by activists who are opposed to its very existence being allowed to decide if individuals need to be deradicalised, a review will find – as it emerged Islamists behind four recent attacks were all referred to the scheme.

The review – which will be handed to Priti Patel next month – found that Prevent was ineffective in some parts of the UK because councils were involving Muslim groups with a ‘divisive’ agenda.

… Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and senior adviser at the Counter Extremism Project, said the official narrative that the far-right is the fastest growing threat is a ‘comfort blanket’ obscuring the ‘patently more potent threat of Islamist extremism’.

‘The body count does not lie,’ he said.

Reaction to the death of Sir David Amess has been dispiriting

The reaction from the political establishment to the murder of Sir David Amess has been what you might expect. Politicians and media commentators of all persuasions have been united in their condemnation of the brutal slaying of this evidently popular member of parliament. And that is, of course, how it should be.

But I detect that, deeper in the bowels of political activism, matters aren’t quite so categorical. There hasn’t, it seems to me, been the same kind of grassroots unity of purpose and solidarity accompanying Sir David’s murder as that which we saw in the wake of the dreadful assassination of Jo Cox. Fewer candles and words of unconditional condemnation, no Twitter hashtag, a little more reticence among those who were not of Sir David’s political hue.

The UK does not want the focus to be on the latest terrorist killer’s Islamic ties.

As best I can remember, I’d never heard of Sir David Amess before learning of his murder. That’s a shame, because he appears by all accounts to have been that rare politician who was in it for the right reasons — who, that is, loved his country, cared about his constituents, and made “public service” sound like a fair job description rather than a cynical Clintonian lie. But then I guess that’s precisely the kind of politician who rarely makes the big headlines.

ALMOST 40 hours of rants by hate preacher Anjem Choudary can be found after in seconds on a Google search.

The shocking revelation comes as it was claimed the suspect accused of murdering MP David Amess was radicalised after watching YouTube videos of Choudary.

The murder of a U.K. lawmaker has focused attention on “Prevent,” a program designed to identify people at risk of becoming radicalized, as well as on how to combat “corrosive” online discourse.

U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel said Sunday the counter-terrorism program is undergoing an independent review. The suspect in the deadly stabbing of Conservative MP David Amess had reportedly been referred to “Prevent” several years ago — as had at least two others in the past few years who went on to commit violent or deadly acts.

Harbi Ali Kullane, a former adviser to the prime minister of Somalia, confirmed that his British-born son, Ali Harbi Ali, 25, was in custody. Kullane said that anti-terrorist police from Scotland Yard had visited him.

Speaking at his sister’s home in north London last night, Kullane said: “I’m feeling very traumatised. It’s not something that I expected or even dreamt of.”

… Yesterday Father Jeffrey Woolnough of the nearby St Peter’s Catholic church said he had sprinted to the scene at about 1.45pm, hoping to read the last rites to Amess before he died.

“I went running up the road with my holy oils,” he said. But an officer refused to allow the priest through the police cordon. “He said ‘It’s a crime scene. You can’t go in. There’s evidence that needs to be collected’,” Woolnough said.

“It’s very sad. It’s something that’s necessary in Catholic belief for the soul’s journey to God, to have those last prayers.”

More … Terror suspect Ali Harbi Ali plotted attack on Tory MP Sir David Amess for a week: British Muslim, 25, lives on celebrity-studded London street of £2million houses whose father is a former Somali official left ‘traumatised’ by his son’s arrest

“… The Guardian has revealed the suspect, aged 25, was previously known to the Prevent scheme, the official programme to stop radicalisation. His involvement was short, according to multiple sources. He has no known previous terrorist involvement.”

The death of Sir David Amess was today being treated as a terror attack ‘linked to Islamist extremism’ as officers raided two homes in London and a British Muslim man of Somali descent remained in police custody.

Sir David was holding a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, when a knifeman in the church building launched a frenzied attack. The 69-year-old politician was wounded at least 12 times and died at the scene.

Horrified constituents waiting to see the veteran MP, who has campaigned to help refugees, watched in horror as the assailant leapt on him just after midday. Shortly after midday, the knifeman waited calmly in line after booking in at the constituency surgery before launching the fatal attack, according to witnesses.

A terrorist who murdered three men in a Reading park has been denied permission to appeal his whole-life jail term.

Khairi Saadallah, 27, stabbed James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and 39-year-old Joe Ritchie-Bennett in June last year in Forbury Gardens.

He was sentenced in January after admitting to the murders and three attempted murders.

The Court of Appeal ruled there was “no substance” to Saadallah’s criticisms towards the judge who sentenced him.

A London-based Islamic charity is being investigated after material was found on its website that praised the Taliban and encouraged Muslims to fund jihadists, according to reports

The Miftahul Jannah Academy in Waltham Forest is being investigated by the Charity Commission after the material, by Islamic scholar Muhammad Patel, was flagged by the National Secular Society.

There is also anti-semitic material on there referring to the “dirty qualities” of jews, The Times newspaper reported.

A man has been charged after several women were attacked with a hammer after being sexually assaulted in Regent Street, one of London’s busiest and most famous thoroughfares.

Police were called to Regent Street, which runs from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus, just before 11 p.m. on Friday, 1 October, after receiving 999 calls.

… Morteza Ahmadi, 38, has been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of causing actual bodily harm, two counts of sexual assault by touching and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.