Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation

Smith vows to tackle ideology of violent extremists

This article is more than 16 years old
· Internet industry asked to help curb illegal material
· Terror bill proposes new powers against suspects

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, yesterday promised to tackle the "ideology and ideologues of violent extremism", ahead of next week's publication of the counter-terrorism bill, which extends the limit on pre-charge detention to 42 days.

Smith, in a speech in London to the first international conference on radicalisation and political violence, made clear that the government could not "arrest its way out" of the problem. She also announced a drive to tackle promotion of violent extremism that relies on the internet.

The publication of the controversial counter-terror bill will be backed by Gordon Brown.

The prime minister is to present a national security strategy to parliament which will reflect how global changes, including terrorism, energy supply and climate change, affect the safety of British citizens.

Smith said yesterday she believed there was consensus on most of the counter-terrorism bill issues, including the use of post-charge questioning of suspects, tougher sentencing for terrorist-related crimes, and the new power for seizing terrorist cash and property.

She indicated that she would meet internet service providers soon to discuss ways of dealing with social networking sites used by violent extremists to groom vulnerable youngsters. She also hoped the internet industry would cooperate on ways of identifying and removing illegal extremist material from the net.

On the vexed question of extending the current 28-day limit for holding terror suspects without charge, the home secretary said of her proposal for 42 days: "We have made clear we are doing so on a precautionary basis, with strict limits imposed that mean they could only be used [temporarily] in exceptional circumstances."

The bill is not expected to contain any proposals on the use of intercept evidence in terror cases. The privy council inquiry into the use of such evidence is now not expected to report until the second reading of the legislation in early February. Smith yesterday stressed that an effective response to terrorism could never solely depend on the state and law enforcement: "It also depends on us - on the active commitment of individuals and communities to certain rights and responsibilities, to shared values which apply irrespective of religion or culture."

She said terrorist attacks were crimes first and foremost: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief. Indeed, if anything, these actions are 'anti Islamic'."

Five terrorism trials, including that of six people charged over an alleged plot to kidnap and kill a British soldier, and one concerning five people charged following a move against an alleged terrorist facilitation network, were evidence that the threat remained real.

But the ideology of violent extremism also needed to be challenged as a misreading of Islam and a view of history and contemporary politics that justified terrorism, she said.

The Tories' security spokesman, Lilian Pauline Neville-Jones, said the government should have acted sooner to tackle the roots of radicalisation and claimed the government's "failed strategy of multiculturalism" was partly to blame.

Most viewed

Most viewed