Former UK terrorism watchdog calls on government to define extremism
David Anderson voiced 'reservations' over counter-terror laws based on a term the UK government have failed to define
Anderson concluded in 2017 that the Manchester attack could have been prevented (Screengrab)
David Anderson, the UK's former terror legislation reviewer, called on the British government to provide a legal definition of extremism to inform its terrorism laws.
His demand comes a year after Middle East Eye revealed that the UK Home Office had not settled on a precise legal definition of extremism; despite pledging to deliver a counter-terror strategy to "defeat the extremists".
Critics of the UK government's counter-terror laws have also demanded a definition of extremism, as Britain continues to base its policies on multiple definitions of the term extremism.
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The Home Affairs Select Committee convened the session on counter-terrorism on Tuesday in light of the 2017 Manchester attacks that killed 23 people and injured 119.
Anderson voiced his "reservations" over British terror laws that are based on the term extremism during the hour-long committee hearing.
"When you start having coercive laws and say you're going to put someone on extremist disruption orders, to disrupt extremist activity, and you can't define an extremist activity, except for a reference to not promoting British values or something like that, then you will be in trouble," said Anderson.
On Friday, more than 100 Muslim organisations condemned the appointment of Sara Khan to be the UK's first commissioner for countering extremism.
Let’s hope she and her fellow-Commissioners can make something useful of this post, whose intended purpose I have never really understood.
The idea that she is a Government stooge is hard to reconcile with her opposition (strongly shared by me) to its ill-advised 2015/16 plans for a Counter-Extremism Bill.
Anderson, who was the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation for six years, defended Khan on Twitter, saying the idea that she was a "government stooge was hard to reconcile, with her opposition to the counter-extremism bill."
He urged Khan to be given a "fair chance" and for the Muslim community to reserve judgement "till the commission is (fully) assembled."
The former terror watchdog also voiced concerns over the police using Schedule 7 to stop individuals "suspected of being spies or involved in nuclear proliferation" instead of terrorism-related activities.
Introduced as part of the 2000 Terrorism Act, Schedule 7 gives police and some immigration officers the power to hold any person at an airport or port for six hours without any cause of suspicion, to determine if the individual could be a terrorist.
In 2017 David Anderson left his position as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism legislation. During his tenure, Anderson concluded that the Manchester attack could have been prevented and revealed MI5 was actively monitoring the leader of the London Bridge attacks.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/former-uk-terror-reviewer-calls-government-define-extremism-762934757
posted by Satish Sharma at
06:48
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