News
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
UK Muslims fear being spied on by govt scheme
LONDON: British Muslims feel they are being spied on by a government scheme, which aims to stem terrorism, a committee of lawmakers said on Tuesday.
Many also feel that the Prevent scheme has “stigmatised and alienated” them, said a report from the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee.
Ministers were criticised for a “persistent preoccupation” with the alleged theological roots of radicalisation, when “evidence suggests that foreign policy, deprivation and alienation” also play major roles, the scrutiny body’s chair Phyllis Starkey said.
The Prevent scheme is part of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy and aims to stop people supporting terror.
“Many witnesses made plain they believe Prevent has been used to ‘spy’ on Muslim communities,” Starkey said.
“Information required to manage Prevent has been confused with intelligence gathering undertaken by the police to combat crime and surveillance used by the security services to actively pursue terrorism suspects,” he said. “These allegations of spying under Prevent will retain widespread credibility within some communities until the government commissions an independent investigation into the allegations,” Starkey said.
Some British Muslims also believe that the government has been trying to “engineer a moderate form of Islam”, by only supporting groups which follow that model, he said.
A spokesman for the Communities and Local Government department said there was “no substantiated evidence” that Prevent programmes were keeping Muslim communities under surveillance.
He stressed that funding under the project had also been increased to “tackle white racist extremism”.
However, home affairs spokesman for the centre-left opposition Liberal Democrats Chris Huhne, said the programme “exacerbates racist bias and ignorant views.”
“Everyone wants to combat radical Islamism but that should not mean gathering and keeping intelligence on innocent people,” he said. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk