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Rayo: PREVENT programme must be strengthened or abandoned, says former Essex MP

The former MP for Southend West and Sir David Amess’ successor tells Greatest Hits Radio the government Prevent programme – aimed at stopping terrorism and radicalisation – does “not to what it says on the tin” and should be “strengthened to protect the public or defunded”. There’s been eleven “lone wolf terrorist attacks” since 2017 all by killers known to the Prevent programme, says Anna Firth. Anna Firth says her “main concern” is the fact there’s been more than one “lone terrorist attack” a year since 2017 – all killers known to the authorities. “We’ve got to look across the piece and find out why this programme fails in the way it does. “If it isn’t strengthened to keep the public safe, then it should be defunded, and that money should be invested into counter-terrorism and policing. “There’s no point have a programme that doesn’t do what it says on […]

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Ramadan Reflection: A mother’s courage and forgiveness meant more people got support against Prevent

After last week’s newsletter, many of you asked to hear about more of our cases. Some of these cases still make me reflect today, not only because of what happened, but because of the lessons they teach. This week, I want to share one of my first Prevent cases. It involves a single mother with several children. She held normative Islamic beliefs that triggered, not one, but multiple Prevent referrals. During one of our conversations, she said: “It wasn’t Prevent – it was how family and friends turned on me after the referral, believing the smears and excluding me and my children from social gatherings. One person even said, ‘I didn’t know you were like that.” Although it shocked me at that moment, it would take some years before I realised the full significance of these words.  In those years, like all oppressive policies, Prevent expanded.  And in time, remarkably, we started to receive calls for help […]