Drearily predictable, but Amnesty will get results, and the reform of Prevent will be stopped in its tracks. Count on it.
“Prevent review ‘invalid because of Islamophobia’, Amnesty says,” by Hamish Morrison, The National, February 8, 2023:
THE UK Government’s review into its deeply controversial Prevent strategy has “no legitimacy” because it was led by someone with outspoken views on immigration and multiculturalism, a human rights group has said.
William Shawcross’s review into the Government’s anti-extremism strategy was published on Wednesday and found that it was not doing enough to tackle “non-violent Islamist extremism”.
But Amnesty International said the review could not be trusted – accusing Shawcross of making “bigoted comments on Muslims and Islam” in the past.
Ilyas Nagdee, Amnesty International UK’s racial justice director, said: “This review is riddled with biased thinking, errors, and plain anti-Muslim prejudice – frankly, the review has no legitimacy.
“William Shawcross’s history of bigoted comments on Muslims and Islam should have precluded his involvement in this ill-starred review in the first place.
“There’s mounting evidence that Prevent has specifically targeted Muslim communities and activists fighting for social justice and a host of crucial international issues – including topics like the climate crisis and the oppression of Palestinians.
“There is growing evidence that Prevent is having disastrous consequences for many people; eroding freedom of expression, clamping down on activism, creating a compliant generation and impacting on individual rights enshrined in law.
“A proper independent review of Prevent should have looked at the host of human rights violations that the programme has led to – but these have largely been passed over in silence.”
‘Fifth column of Islamists’
Shawcross (below) has a history of being outspoken on Islamism and immigration. Writing in the Jerusalem Post in 2006, he warned Europe was threatened by a “vast fifth column” of Islamist extremists who “who wish to destroy us”.
He added: “Wherever they were born, the men who want to blow up airliners, who want to destroy Israel…are Islamo-fascists who are united in hatred of us.
“The sooner we in Europe understand that, and that they must be defeated, the safer everyone – Christians, Jews, Muslims, and non-believers – will be.”
And in a 2010 article in the National Review, an American conservative magazine, he wrote: “Labour’s bullying ‘multicultural’ ideology has been a catastrophe.
“The government has cosseted extremist Islamist preachers of hatred to a shocking degree. No wonder French security officials talk of ‘Londonistan.'”
In his Prevent review, Shawcross said the programme – which opponents have criticised as authoritarian and anti-Islam – had failed to adequately police extremist Islamist thought.
He wrote: “Prevent takes an expansive approach to the extreme right-wing, capturing a variety of influences that, at times, has been so broad it has included mildly controversial or provocative forms of mainstream, right-wing leaning commentary that have no meaningful connection to terrorism or radicalisation.
“However, with Islamism, Prevent tends to take a much narrower approach centred around proscribed organisations, ignoring the contribution of non-violent Islamist narratives and networks to terrorism.
“Prevent must ensure a consistent and evidence-based approach to setting its threshold and criteria, and ensure it does not overlook key non-violent radicalising influences.”…
tim gallagher says
It must be a good report if Amnesty International disapproves of it. People should wear the disapproval of such groups as a badge of honour. Anything that the left wing sellout crowd think is “islamophobic” must be telling the truth about things.
PRCS says
You misspelled honor.
He! He!
Storyguy says
Actually that’s how we spell Honour here in the UK.
James Lincoln says
PRCS,
“Honour” is the British spelling.
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/honor-honour/
PRCS says
Yes, gents, I know that.
tim gallagher says
PRCS, Australians follow the British in a lot of things and I guess spelling is one of those things. It is strange out here that the Labor party is spelt that way and not the British way as in the Labour party. I had occasionally wondered why so I just googled it and there was an explanation for the spelling. Our left wing propaganda outfit which the poor taxpayer pays for, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was based on the BBC which, from what I hear, is also a left wing propaganda outfit. I wonder if the American spellings broke away from the English spellings because Americans did break away after their war with England whereas Australia is a more recent colony, only since 1788, and never broke away.
PRCS says
Thanks, Tim.
Good question re: U.S. spellings after independence from British governance. Could be.
Interesting, too, about the spelling of HONOUR (in both Oz and the UK) but LABOR PARTY.
I used to work at Heavenly Ski Resort (Lake Tahoe), which hires many Australians for the ski season. Each ski instructor (from around the world) had a picture at the resort entrance listing which language they spoke. Those from Australia were oftentimes jokingly listed as English and Australian.
tim gallagher says
Yeah, I guess that since English and other Europeans have been in North America a lot longer than they have been in Australia, they have therefore changed the way they spell words. What i read about why the Labor party is spelt that way out here didn’t make a lot of sense but there it is. I always liked the TV show “Frasier” and still watch some re-runs of it and I remember that Frasier was in an English type pub in Seattle and insulted the Queen or something and they were going to throw him out and he said “Hey, come on, I didn’t mean it, no one is a greater Anglophile than me, I even spell honour with a “u” or some such thing. I think that Australians probably resemble Americans in many ways. We do have a long time rivalry, in sport, etc, with England, kind of our big brother. I can remember another line from “Frasier” where Daphne, the English woman in it, says something like, “Oh the world of nature full of such strange things, such as, for example, Australians”. I think that Americans might have been just getting used to Australians and I thought it was a funny comment and probably pretty accurate. Probably referred to the Australian accent among other strange things about Australians.
PRCS says
Good chat, Tim.
Thanks.
Joseph M Jackson says
Israeli Settlement and Outpost Legalization Announcement
Blinken said in part “…deeply troubled by Israel’s decision yesterday to advance reportedly nearly 10,000 settlement units and to begin a process to retroactively legalize nine outposts in the West Bank that were previously illegal under Israeli law. …we strongly oppose such unilateral measures, which exacerbate tensions and undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution…”
I write to denounce this position in the strongest terms. It can be summed up simply as “There already was a 2 state solution. It’s called Jordan.”
PRCS says
“Islamist extremism”.
What-ever is that supposed to mean vs what it actually does mean?
OLD GUY says
You’re not supposed to say anything bad or derogatory about Islam.
If you are a Muslim/Islamic you can say and do anything against anyone or group non-islamic and that alright.
Remember non-islamic people are the lowest of humans and need to be enslaved or removed from the earth.
Non-islamic women and children only after they are raped in an attempt to convert them to ISLAM.
ISLAMOPHOBIA what can be wrong with that? SENSORSHIP
Sylvi Louise Christiansen says
So agree to what you Said
Scotsman48 says
How strange it seems that an outfit like Amnesty falls over themselves to defend an outfit that would gladly close them down for their ”Liberal” attitudes.