Preventing Violent Extremism

Since 2003, the UK Government has had a comprehensive strategy in place to counter the threat to this country from international terrorism. This strategy is known as CONTEST. The strategy was recently updated in March 2009 with the launch of Contest 2. The changes were needed due to the evolution of the current threat & the new knowledge that is continually developing in relation to the driving factors of violent extremism.

International Terrorism

The terrorist threat to the UK is not a new phenomenon. Terrorist organisations with a multitude of  motivations have repeatedly attacked UK interests. During 1969 to 1998 over 3,500 people have died in the UK as a result of Irish-related terrorism.

The international terrorist threat to the UK is more recent. In the late seventies & early eighties a new form of terrorism was forming which uses an abusive interpretation of Islam to justify killing innocent people in the name of religion. An example of this was in Egypt when a terrorist organization tried to overthrow the Egyptian Government with it’s rationale being it was too secular and un Islamic. This group was called Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ).

During the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan the EIJ met with Osama Bin Laden and they joined forces. Al Qaeada’s most senior leaders are from Egyptian heritage.

Currently in the UK the biggest threat of violent extremism is coming from Al Qaeda influenced extremism. Although, recently there is real concern over the growth of the far right movement activists such as the BNP & the EDL in the UK.

The Contest strategy recognises and acknowledges the differing threats from violent extremism from the differing groups but the focus of the strategy is on Al Qaeda influenced terrorism as this is currently the biggest threat to our country.

Under the Contest strategy there are four main work streams which are known as the four P’s:

Pursue: To stop terrorist attacks.

Prevent: To stop people becoming terrorists or supporting violent Extremism.

Protect: To strengthen our protection against terrorist attack.

Prepare: Where an attack cannot be stopped, to mitigate it’s impact.