1/ Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs operate on delusion. They serve to give govt something to boast about, to advance Islamist and soft science academics claims that ideology is irrelevant, and all while avoiding the real issue. nationalreview.com/2020/09/fighti…
2/ Ludicrously, CVE advocates argue that ideology has nothing to do with ideological violence. (At least, when it relates to Islamism). They even claim that there's "evidence that people who engage in terrorism don’t necessarily hold radical beliefs.”
3/ CVE advocates deny role of ideology, and yet try to use Islam (not Islamism) to provide "theological messaging" to counter radicalization. In doing so, they turn clearcut political extremism into a vague theological problem, all while trying to avoid Islam in the first place.
4/ Some CVE advocates openly champion partnership with Islamists in the battle against....Islamism. One huge government-funded report in 2016 advises turning to "Salafis and Wahhabis" for assistance. Will they next ask KKK for help fighting violent neo-Nazis?
5/ That same report recommends clerics such as infamous Pakistani cleric Tahir Ul Qadri, who calls for blasphemers to be “murdered and kicked like a dog into hellfire." Who was one of the report authors? Why, a senior official of the notorious extremist group @CAIRNational
6/ Nonviolent Islamists are happy to take part in CVE because it means they can distract attention away from their own extremism, and they can reinforce the delusions of politicians, civil servants and social workers that CVE is somehow working.
7/ Actual 'deprogramming' efforts in CVE, meanwhile, are primarily a bureaucratic box-ticking exercise, with many allowing terrorists to graduate by simply taking part. Participants are not even required to give up the networks that radicalized them.
8/ No extensive studies showing efficacy of CVE programs, other than shameless self-reporting. When British government launched an independent study, 95% of CVE programs found to be useless. The fact that they refused to discuss ideology was among the cited reasons.
9/ The list preposterous reasons continues. You can read our full paper on the subject, available here: meforum.org/documents/Reth…
10/ This is not just a delusion of the Left. The Trump administration has just launched a new CVE program, under the named Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP). It's just as feckless as the other programs, just now with a shiny new name.
11/ The focus on radicalization and terrorism may have diminished, but the threat continues to be extreme. How is it that almost 20 years after 9/11, too many Western governments are still too afraid to directly confront Islamism?
12/ How is it possible that we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on programs that we know don't work, and which end up benefiting the very extremists who underpin the radicalization problem?
