"Home Office officials responsible for the decision to fund groups that have spread Islamic extremism should be sacked, according to a former counterterrorism official.

Professor Ian Acheson, who is now a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, said the UK should take a far tougher approach to non-violent Islamist groups who 'undermine social cohesion' by spreading hatred."

"Prof. Ian Acheson, a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, which contributed to the long-delayed Shawcross review of the government’s anti-extremism Prevent program due to be released this week, called for a stricter approach to Muslim groups that 'undermine social cohesion.'"

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "But now, our high-security jails are filled with Islamist extremists who operate by markedly different standards. While the U.K. and Spain grappled with Irish and Basque separatists, these terrorists were not aiming for a worldwide caliphate that would subjugate all other faiths and make war on liberal democracy as such. Nor, despite their immense cruelty, did the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) or Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA) operate under the pretext of divine permission to murder civilians."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Hall’s report critically examines the contemporary threat of violent extremism from within the prison walls – where at the last count reside some 230 offenders convicted of terrorist offences and a greater number who are at risk of radicalisation or already radicalised. The vast majority of these offenders are motivated by Islamist extremism which explains his report’s focus."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "The headline findings of this latest report — which included the incredible fact that terrorists are setting up Sharia courts inside — did not surprise me though. 

Six years ago I led an independent review of the same problem and made 69 recommendations for change, many of which were either ignored or watered down."

"Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and senior adviser at the Counter Extremism Project, said the official narrative that the far-right is the fastest growing threat is a 'comfort blanket' obscuring the 'patently more potent threat of Islamist extremism'."