10:56am Thursday 12th March 2009
A £284,000 Government scheme to prevent Wycombe Muslims becoming terrorists has been slammed in a think tank report backed by Wycombe MP Paul Goodman.
The national Preventing Violent Extremism scheme was failing to have an impact on the community said The Policy Exchange – and could be making matters worse.
Wycombe District Council chose anti-extremism projects and was handed £284,000 of Government cash to put them into action.
It came after terror arrests in High Wycombe in August 2006. Some of the men arrested are now on trial accused of plotting to blow up planes.
Mr Goodman said there was “no proof” the £70m national scheme was having an affect.
The think tank report says: “The problem is that PVE – however well intentioned – isn’t working.
“Not only is it failing to achieve its stated objectives, in many places it is actually making the situation worse.
“A new generation is being radicalised, sometimes with the very funds that are supposed to be countering radicalisation.”
It says the “central flaw” was the belief that moderate Muslims who took the funds could use it to reach out to those vulnerable to extremism.
And it says some of these are “stoking those grievances against British foreign policy” and “underwriting” an anti-Western view.
Councils were not well placed to choose projects to bid for funding, it adds.
It singled out a Wycombe scheme, the Muslimah project, which sought to empower Muslim women’s role in the community.
The report asks: “What if women do not want to play such a role? Can they be citizens outside their Muslim communities?
“What is the prevent strategy doing for those who do not wish to define themselves by their faith?”
Mr Goodman said the think tank was “performing a public service by probing issues relating to extremism so rigorously”.
He said: “There’s no proof to date that the programme is working on a national scale.
“There should be an independent review, as Policy Exchange suggests, to establish if there's any real evidence that it's producing results across the country.”
He said he supported the principle of the scheme but was “deeply sceptical about focusing taxpayers’ money on any particular faith community”.
He did not comment on allegations that the cash could be making the extremism problem worse.
The scheme has previously been attacked by Wycombe Islamic Society, which was today unavailable for comment.
Spokesman Zahid Jawed last year said the fund “inadvertently implies there is a widespread problem of extremism when in fact very few people have ever been involved in such things”.
Yet Councillor Tony Green, responsible for the programme on the council, said Wycombe was a “fairly peaceful, harmonious community”.
He said: “By it’s very definition how do you know if it has ever worked? I suppose you could say it hasn’t worked if you get some incidences of violent extremism.”
Finding those who could fall prey to violent extremism was like finding a “needle in a haystack” he said and it was “too early to tell” whether it was working.
While there are “probably better ways of doing it” he said the cash-strapped council was not in the habit of refusing Government money.
The Wycombe scheme started in 2007. Wycombe projects for 2008-11 are; ]
• Wycombe Youth Action – community cohesion officer, youth forums and workshops £102,660.
• Buckinghamshire County Council – training and development for young people £43,500.
• Action 4 Youth – youth work £8,000.
• Wycombe Race Equality Council – exhibition and workshops £18,000.
• The Karima al-Marwaziyya Foundation – young Muslim women workshops £2,642.
• Jamia Rehmaina Educational Trust – Muslimah project for Muslim women £10,000.
• The Catlefield Oakridge Trust - Muslimah project for Muslim women £9,860.
• Bucks New University – identifying ways of preventing extremism among students £7,000.
• Bucks Association for the Care of Offenders – recruitment of mentors to help offenders settle in the community £3,000.
UPDATE: Wycombe District Council provided an incorrect figure for the Bucks Association for the Care of Offenders. The group was awarded £3,000 and not £33,000. This has amended the overall figure.
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