Daily Times

BIRMINGHAM: Last week, British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, announced the UK government’s anti-radicalisation scheme, Prevent, a success despite Birmingham being identified as a hotspot for extremist recruitment in the UK.

Rudd, was in Ladywood, Birmingham, to meet Birmingham city council, Prevent Leader, Waqar Ahmed, local councilors and other figure heads. She said, “I think that what we have got in Birmingham is actually very good practice. We’ve got some excellent work being done in local communities.” She continued to reaffirm government support to local projects and initiatives that aimed to deter young people from being radicalized. Ahmed, proudly said, “The scheme had saved lives and protected people from exploitation and harming themselves and others.”

Prevent – a voluntary programme, aims to deter people from terrorism before they offend. Public institutions including: Universities, schools and seminaries now have a duty of care to report anyone they suspect are vulnerable of being radicalised.

However, a recent study by the Henry Jackson Society – a think tank, analyzed 269 people convicted of Islamic terrorism offences in the UK between 1998 and 2015. The report concluded: Birmingham is one of the terrorist capitals of Britain, one in ten hailed from just one of the five council neighborhoods in Birmingham. Forty-nine – came from the county of West Midlands, thirty-nine of those convicted terrorists came from Birmingham. The 2011 census found 8.7% of the UK Muslims reside in Birmingham but, study found 14.5% of those convicted of Islamic terrorism hail from there.

Britain’s second – largest city has a population of over one million – splattered with mosques, seminaries and halal butchers. Home to one of the country’s largest expatriate Pakistani communities: 110,000 Pakistanis, 11 per cent of the city’s population, the majority residing in council wards of Springfield, Spark brook, Hodgehill, Washwood Heath and Bordesley Green. The government’s Prevent scheme has drawn sharp criticisms from community members.

Published in Daily Times, September 10^th 2017.