In light of Extinction Rebellion being labelled as an extremist ideology, student campaigner Stella Swain argues that much of the outrage surrounding this is misplaced Earlier this month, The Guardian revealed that the climate campaign group, Extinction Rebellion (XR), had been placed on a list of “extremist ideologies” under the Prevent duty. Since then, there has been much discussion about the outrageous labelling of environmental and leftist groups as “extremist,” but we must not forget the way in which Prevent has been impacting Muslim and BME communities for years, and that such legislation will always be most sharply felt by these groups. As Isabella Rooney wrote in her Gal-Dem article on this topic, what Extinction Rebellion fails to mention in their rebuttal of this listing is that it’s not “all” of us who are likely to be impacted by Prevent. Yes, XR are targeted because they present a challenge to the status

Guide listing environment protest groups alongside white supremacists had been widely condemned Scottish counter-terrorism officers sent out a controversial guide listing Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace alongside neo-Nazi groups within the past few weeks, despite widespread condemnation of the document. Police Scotland confirmed to the Guardian that it had circulated documents listing the environment protest groups alongside dozens of extremist neo-Nazi organisations, including several banned for terrorist violence, across the public sector last month. Those include medical staff in the NHS who were sent it in late January by a detective inspector in Police Scotland’s counter-terrorism unit in Edinburgh as part of the UK-wide counter-terrorism Prevent strategy. The officer invited recipients to distribute it widely within their organisations. Source: Police Scotland sent out guide listing Extinction Rebellion with neo-Nazis | UK news | The Guardian

  Police say Rising Up report was commissioned as group had a ‘large following’ and concluded XR was not a threat Counter-terrorism chiefs ordered a formal assessment of whether Extinction Rebellion was a national security threat one year ago and then sent a secret report about the group to police forces, the Guardian has learned. The revelation shows that counter-terrorism police’s interest in the non-violent climate emergency group began earlier and was more extensive than previously thought. Police insist that the confidential assessment, which was titled Rising Up, concluded that XR was not a terrorist or extremist threat, and was sent to regional counter-terrorism units and “policing partners”. They have declined to give any more detail about what it covered. Source: Terror police’s Extinction Rebellion ‘risk report’ sent out a year ago | Environment | The Guardian

Legal action from Rights Watch (UK) comes amid spate of terror attacks in London The government’s failure to appoint an independent reviewer of its Prevent strategy and assess the controversial de-radicalisation programme’s effectiveness is to be challenged in court. The decision by Rights Watch (UK) to initiate legal action against the Home Office comes amid terror attacks in London that raise questions about whether young men can be successfully directed away from terrorist violence. Under the terms of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, a report by an independent review of Prevent must be presented to parliament by mid-August. Source: Government to be challenged in court over Prevent reviewer | UK news | The Guardian