Countering Al Qaeda in London

This book presents an inside account of two pioneering projects in London where Muslim community groups worked in partnership with police to reduce the influence of Al Qaeda-inspired terrorism. One project empowered London Muslims to remove Abu Hamza and his violent hard-core supporters from Finsbury Park Mosque, while the other project bolstered long-term efforts by London Muslims in Brixton to challenge and reduce the influence of Al Qaeda inspired violent extremists including Abu Qatada and Abdullah el-Faisal. Significantly, both projects pre-date government funded Prevent projects and differ from them in being based on partnership, trust and voluntary civic duty as opposed to payment and control.

The two projects serve as exemplars for future community-based counter-terrorism projects that recognise that the hand of central government can often be counter-productive when countering the influence of Al Qaeda: not least when the UK is waging war in Muslim countries. Flagship Prevent projects and their backers reject this analysis and argue that the work of police in these projects was itself counter-productive by empowering Muslim groups they claim are extremist or radical. This book offers a comprehensive defence to these charges and concludes that success was achieved by channelling genuine and reasonable Muslim grievances about UK foreign policy in the Muslim world in ways that are familiar and acceptable to Londoners and anathema to Al Qaeda.