ABSTRACT
Concerns about the Muslim community and the threat from violent Islamists have led to a variety of responses from the British government. Following the 2001 northern riots, which involved both Muslims and young whites, policy mainly focused on ‘community cohesion’ as recommended in official reports by Ted Cantle and others. However, the 2005 London bombings led to high priority being accorded to the Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) programme to counter home-grown terrorists, a policy which critics claim has reinforced negative stereotypes of Muslims and furthered Muslim alienation (see Chapter 6). Indeed, there is now an emerging body of research focused on the question of how public policymakers should respond to Islamism and other issues within the Muslim community (Saggar 2009).
