A new government anti-extremist strategy will ban thousands of Britons from traveling to conflict zones, target Sharia courts, and make it harder to obtain citizenship. The reforms come alongside news that 320 ISIS fighters have returned to the UK.
“In the past, there has been a risk that the Government sends an ambivalent and dangerous message – that it doesn’t really matter if you don’t believe in democracy,” says the text of the leaked Home Office-authored draft document, quoted in the Telegraph.
“We need to stand up and be more assertive in promoting our values and challenging the extremists who fundamentally oppose them.”
The strategy is expected to be made public in the coming weeks, and will become effective as soon as it is rubberstamped by the government. It represents a fundamental retrenchment against Islamists – both, those at home, and potential recruits for international terrorist conflicts abroad. Repeatedly mentioning “British values,” it contains a foreword by Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May, and is a culmination of her campaign to “undermine and eliminate extremism in all its forms,” which resulted in tough new legislation being passed in Parliament last November.
