On 9th March 2015, the Muslim Council of Britain wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister about the Home office’s counter extremism strategy which appears to seek new powers to tackle the growing threat of extremism. It has been suggested that the proposed new strategy, that was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph, has not been signed off by the Liberal Democrats.
The Muslim Council of Britain is extremely concerned that the proposed changes may be an illiberal expansion of government power. The Secretary General of the MCB, Dr Shuja Shafi, wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister about what appears “to be a knee-jerk response to the three school girls going to Syria and the uncovering of a Briton (Mohammed Emwazi) as the so-called “Jihadi John”, rather than based on evidence”.
Dr Shafi wrote, “We are not aware of any consultation with communities and it is not clear how these changes would help prevent these incidents occurring in the first place”. He continued, “We put forward our view as part of the consultation on this legislation (can be seen on our website) and fully share the objective of ensuring the safety of the public from criminals. However, we believe that the government should seriously review its approach to preventing terrorism. Rather than relying on a premise of a conveyor belt from conservative and non-violent extremism to violent extremism that lacks credence, a fresh approach is required.”
Read the full letter here.