UK
UK urged to take tougher line on confronting jihadist radicalisation
Recommendations include adding Jew-hatred as a Prevent risk factor and for the Charity Commission to take firmer action
October 13, 2025 14:00
Recommendations include adding Jew-hatred as a Prevent risk factor and for the Charity Commission to take firmer action
October 13, 2025 14:00After the terror attack on Manchester’s Heaton Park synagogue in which two congregants were killed, counter-extremism experts are urging the government to confront the Islamist threat more robustly – and to recognise that antisemitism is a key driver of jihadist radicalisation.
The attacker, Jihad Al-Shamie, who was shot dead at the scene, was born in Syria and came to the UK as a child. His father posted pro-Hamas comments on October 7. Emerging details about Al-Shamie have prompted scrutiny of how radicalisation is monitored and what can be done to prevent it.
Hannah Stuart, director of the Counter Extremism Group, said Islamist antisemitism has been allowed to grow in a “permissive environment”. Antisemitism, she argues, should be treated as a “radicalisation risk factor” when officials assess people under the Prevent strategy. “Sympathy for extremism and antisemitic attitudes – there’s a correlation,” Stuart said. Tracking this would allow authorities to trace patterns of antisemitism geographically and organisationally over time.
Lord Walney, the government’s former independent adviser on political violence and disruption, told the JC that the home secretary should urgently review whether antisemitism is a “definitive and prominent marker for Prevent referrals”.
Stuart suggested that parts of the government fundamentally misunderstand Islamist extremism and its antisemitic ideology, unlike their understanding of antisemitism as a factor of far-right extremism, a point also made in the 2023 William Shawcross review.
She stressed the antisemitism associated with Islamist extremism is not merely a reaction to the Gaza conflict but is “deeply ideological”. Walney echoed this, stating: “The opposition to the current government of Israel is not the primary root of this sense of injustice; it is the temerity of Jews thinking they could have a state and a place in the Middle East, that is what offends them.”
Walney, whose position as an independent adviser was scrapped by the government last February, stated: “Action is needed on a number of levels, including the determination to root out Islamist intolerance inimical to British values.”
The Shawcross review also warned of the risk of attacks by individuals who have come to the UK through the asylum system; he recommended that Prevent be expanded to cover immigration.
This would involve identifying risk and vulnerability at the border, Stuart explained, and might mean a name such as Jihad would raise alarm. Walney believes incorporating Prevent at the border could be “part of the necessary tightening of the immigration system” ensuring that new arrivals uphold “the basic value of a liberal democracy”.
Both Stuart and Walney warned about radicalisation occurring within some mosques, including those operating under charitable status. The JC has previously reported about hate preachers at UK mosques, including one that hosted a speaker who described Jews as “people of envy” who “killed the prophets and the messengers”.
Stuart called for the Charity Commission to take firmer action against “antisemitic Islamist abuse in the charity sector”. She noted that the commission’s current “soft approach” of helping charities regain compliance doesn’t work when they are “deliberately avoiding scrutiny”.
“When dealing with highly radicalised ideologies that are looking to exploit the system, you have to be more rigorous,” she said.
Walney and Stuart also criticised successive governments for engaging with community leaders who have promoted antisemitism. “We have seen time and time again government and partners engaging with self-appointed community leaders who have platformed antisemitic leaders or have posted content that is supportive of the ‘resistance’ or intifada,” Stuart said. “The bar for government engagement should be much higher,” she added.
Walney added that “law enforcement should commit not to consult with extremists, which has happened too often”.
Regulatory framework on campus and in the media also needs to be strengthened, Stuart went on. Ofcom should close channels supportive of Hamas terrorism, and the Office for Students needs to commit to its duty under Prevent. She suggested there had been a failure in terms of “genuinely monitoring universities’ compliance to Prevent”.
Walney urged the government to implement his review’s recommendation to stop marches if they cause cumulative harm or if police resources are not sufficient. The Home Office announced at the weekend it will grant the police new powers to do exactly that.
Finally, Stuart suggested implementing a new low-level terrorism offence to criminalise the celebration of terrorist acts, in addition to the support for proscribed groups. And Walney reiterated calls to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and crack down on its funding by Iran in the UK.
Responding to the recommendations, a Home Office spokesperson told the JC: “Prevent is about stopping people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
“We know hateful antisemitic narratives are prominent within both Islamist and Extreme Right-Wing radicalisation which is why Prevent seeks to address this head on through Intervention Providers who specialise in antisemitism, specific training on antisemitism and targeted projects to tackle the problem at its source in communities.”
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