Loopy Lou |

One of the UK government’s responses to terrorism and violent extremism in Britain has been the Prevent program. This program has been running for close to four years now and recent revelations have placed it under the microscope. Some civil liberties groups have expressed their disgust at the program and so have a number of Muslim groups.

The main concerns center mainly on the suspicion that the program is being used as a means of spying on Muslims in general. A newspaper report has stated that the police has been encouraging community workers o give all the information they can on Muslims and using this as a means to grant funding. The government claims that the program is one of, if not the, best in the world today and is so designed to ensure public safety and protect Muslim rights.

Some £140 million has been channeled into this program and hopefully it is money well spent. The challenge here is for many people to realize that most of those who are doing suicide bombings in Britain are Muslims so the government has to take some action in an effort to quell the rise of extremism in the country. Unfortunately anything they do that is not to the Muslims liking, whether real or imagined, is going to be criticized and scoffed at.

Muslims in Britain must realize that most people who are non Muslims see them all as potential terrorists and that’s just the way it is. So if someone is looking at a house for sale in Staffordshire chance are they will ask the real estate agent if Muslims live in the area. The problem is that the Muslims are not doing anything substantial to change this perception. With the absence of any real change in behaviour people become fearful and act accordingly.

Whether or not the program has to do with spying at least the government is trying to do something about terrorism in the country. What are the Muslims doing in this respect?