Like many with an interest in national security, I’ve spent this week closely following the news that there has been yet another delay to the release of the long-anticipated review into the government’s counter-extremism programme, Prevent. But unlike many of my colleagues, these issues feel more intimate and closer to home for me, given my personal experience. In March 2017 I sustained serious injuries in the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack when an Islamist extremist targeted pedestrians, including me and my friends, with an SUV before stabbing a police officer outside Parliament.
The police reckon the car hit me at around 46 miles per hour; I was thrown over the bonnet and hit the windshield, before being thrown into the air and landing back down on the concrete. In the end I fractured my left leg in two places, suffered a shrapnel wound to my thigh, and broke four of the fingers on my left hand as well as fracturing the hand itself.
Even so, I’ve been incredibly lucky, and I was able to make a full recovery from my injuries. But the effects of that day remain with me even now, and likely will for the rest of my life.
This is the raw and visceral reality for those of us who experience terrorism. The violent, selfish acts of a few individuals can shatter lives into a million pieces in only a few seconds, whether someone loses a loved one, or is left with physical and psychological scars. From the Twin Towers to the streets of Kabul; from a shopping mall in Kenya to a concert in Paris, terrorism truly can affect any one of us, anywhere, at any time.
But these threats do not develop in a vacuum. And often many of those who support Islamist extremism take advantage of the values which we cherish most in a liberal society.
Which perhaps explains the disturbing news this week that the Prevent review will reveal that government money intended to go towards organisations that seek to stop young Muslims from becoming radicalised has in fact in some cases ended up in the hands of those who promote Islamist extremism. According to these reports, groups allegedly supporting the Taliban and defending banned radical groups have ended up in receipt of taxpayer funding.
This is deeply troubling and unnerving, and particularly egregious for those of us who have experienced terrorism first-hand. It adds another layer to the revelations earlier this week that the latest delay in the publishing of the full review is due to an apparent rift between Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Communities and Local Government Secretary Michael Gove. Their row, according to reporting covered widely by the Times, Guardian, Telegraph and others, stemmed from the Home Office’s decision to redact from the review the names of individuals and organisations accused of facilitating or supporting Islamist extremism whilst masquerading as civil society and community groups, for fear of leaving the department open to libel action. Whilst these concerns are certainly far from unfounded given France’s recent experience in cracking down on what Macron has deemed ‘Islamist separatism’, we cannot afford to be cowed by those who would seek to scare us into submission.
The Home Office should be bold and unyielding in their approach towards Islamist extremism and all of those who would seek to sympathise with it from the sidelines. For too long many of these non-violent, Islamist organisations have sat comfortably behind the guise of legitimate concern about Prevent, portraying themselves merely as well-meaning charitable organisations or human rights campaigners, whilst furthering their own insidious agenda of dismantling counterterrorism policy in the United Kingdom, and legitimising the very ideology at the root of so much pain and suffering.
To those worried that naming and shaming these organisations would open the department for legal action, I would simply echo the words of Harry S. Truman: ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen’. The only way we can keep this country safe is by being open and forthright about our efforts to do so, and by being resolute in our determination to defeat those who seek to do us harm.
Whilst we can and should look to the future to better understand how we can prevent others from being drawn into terrorism, we only have to look to those who have already been impacted for a very clear reminder of what happens when our efforts fail. No amount of policy or legislation will bring back the five people killed on Westminster Bridge, nor will it eliminate the pain suffered by the hundreds of children who witnessed the Manchester Arena attack. But every action and inaction we take from now on is in our hands, and we should not be afraid to call out hatred and intolerance wherever we see it, and to castigate those who support ideologies seeking to do us harm.
For the survivors of terrorism, it is the very least that we as a society can do.
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