Letter from William Shawcross to the Guardian
Published 11 March 2021
© Crown copyright 2021
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letter-from-william-shawcross-to-the-guardian/letter-from-william-shawcross-to-the-guardian
On 3 March 2021, the Guardian published a letter by the Independent Reviewer of Prevent, William Shawcross. The letter was in response to an article published on 1 March and the text is set out below.
As Sadakat Kadri’s article showed (Why is the government trying to undermine its anti-terror programme?, 1 March), Prevent arouses strong views. This is not surprising. The stakes are very high.
As a writer and journalist, I have seen that terrorism comes from many sources, and inflicts terrible wounds on souls as well as bodies. I have attempted to deal head-on with the thorny moral and legal issues that emerged as the West responded to the threat of Islamist terrorism after 9/11. This has led to some of my views being misrepresented or misinterpreted.
Muslims are the principal victims of Islamist terrorism and, as chair of the Charity Commission between 2012 and 2018, I am proud of what we did to help protect Muslim charities from exploitation by ISIS and other extremist organisations during the Syrian conflict.
Mr Kadri shows that the extreme-right terrorism threat in the UK and elsewhere is growing. Islamist terrorism remains an enduring global threat. The Review will consider what role Prevent can and should play in helping address such threats. I want to hear the case for and against Prevent based on evidence that can be tested. I approach this Review in a spirit of collaboration in seeking to protect people as effectively as possible from being drawn into terrorism, whatever its source.
William Shawcross
Independent Reviewer of Prevent