Failed policy?

2011-06-07 17:51:20

7 June 2011 Last updated at 17:36 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Preventing violent extremism: A failed policy?   By Dominic Casciani BBC News home affairs correspondent Prayers: Some Muslim groups will lose cash

Over the course of the past three years, a south London project has worked with Muslim teenagers leaving prison, attempting to keep them away from gangs and, more seriously, al-Qaeda's ideology.

But the official funding given to STREET - Strategy to Reach Empower & Educate Teenagers - has now dried up.

Abdul Haqq Baker, the founder, says the Home Office hasn't told him why he has lost £300,000 a year, even though he believes his team have kept vulnerable young people away from terrorism. In the past year, they worked with 30 offenders, some of whom had terrorism-related convictions.

"To my knowledge, none of our referrals has been involved in serious reoffending," says Dr Baker.

"I want an explanation why I've lost the funding - but it's not been forthcoming. So I can only assume it's political.

"I didn't ask the government for money in the first place," he says. "They came to me to see our work and were so impressed they invited us to apply. All we have heard [from every government official] is overwhelmingly positive."

STREET has lost funding as the coalition government reshapes one of the most difficult and controversial politics of Labour's years - Preventing Violent Extremism, or "Prevent".

Developed in the wake of the 7/7 bombings, almost £80m was spent on 1,000 Prevent schemes between 2007 and this year. Some 94 local authorities were tasked with finding the right local people to fund in the battle against al-Qaeda.

But, from its inception it was dogged with controversy, with accusations that money was going to the wrong groups - and it was impossible to establish whether any of what had been spent was doing any good.

But everything is about to change. The revised Prevent strategy effectively says that organisations won't get cash if they are deemed to hold "extremist views".

New direction

Earlier this year, Prime Minister David Cameron set the course on engagement with Muslim groups in a speech in Munich.

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