UK to put £5 million to build a national coalition against extremism – in communities and online | WPN World People News

•Plans to create a joint industry and government group to do more to tackle proliferation of extremist content online
•The government’s new one-nation Counter-Extremism Strategy to confront and defeat all forms of extremism to be published tomorrow (19 October)

UK government will invest £5 million this year to build a national network of grassroots organisations to challenge all forms of extremist ideology, the Prime Minister announced on 18 October on the eve of the publication of the government’s new Counter-Extremism Strategy.

At the heart of the Strategy is a new partnership approach to strengthen community resilience and promote a coalition to speak out, challenge and ultimately defeat extremism. The new funding, initially for this financial year, will be dedicated to providing direct and in-kind practical support to groups to expand the reach and scale of their work to confront extremism, and develop credible alternative narratives to the dangerous views propagated by extremists. This could include:
•social media training
•technical assistance to enable a small charity to set up a website
•targeting funding for specific projects

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“I said last week that there is one more big social reform in our mission to rebuild Britain as an even greater country. We need to systematically confront and challenge extremism and the ideologies that underpin it, exposing the lies and the destructive consequences it leaves in its wake. We have to stop it at the start – stop this seed of hatred even being planted in people’s minds and cut off the oxygen it needs to grow.

“Tomorrow I will be launching the Counter-Extremism Strategy. It sets out our new approach to tackle this poison: to vigorously counter the ideology that underpins it; to take on the violent and non-violent parts of the creed; actively supporting the mainstream voices to rise above those of the extremists; and tackle the segregation and feelings of alienation that can help provide fertile ground for extremist messages to take root.

“At the core is building a national coalition of all those individuals and groups who are united in their determination to defeat extremism and build a more cohesive society. We will do everything we can to support them – through my new Community Engagement Forum and with practical support and funding to tackle these deep-rooted issues. The scale of the task is immense and that is why we need everyone to play their part.”

The new Strategy also goes further in developing the partnership between industry, police and government to remove terrorist and extremist material online, building on the successful joint industry, government and police work to take down child abuse images online.

The past 18 months has seen a big change in the way that extremists use the internet to target their radical ideology directly at young minds. According to recent research from the Quilliam Foundation, ISIL produces 38 unique pieces of high-quality propaganda every day which is then disseminated widely by a network of thousands of ISIL supporters and sympathisers all over the world. And extremists are increasingly using the internet to inspire radicalisers to groom new recruits through online peer-to-peer relationships.

Source: UK Prime Minister's Office