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David Cameron outlines ways to defeat the threat of terrorism

Speech on radicalisation and Islamic extremism comes as the Prime Minister tries to tackle the challenge of home grown terrorism

 

Prime Minister David Cameron has delivered a speech on radicalisation and Islamic extremism at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

As he tried to tackle the challenge of home grown terrorism in the UK and Europe, he stated that under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, different cultures have been encouraged to live separate lives and that we have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values.

Cameron stated that Europe needs to strengthen the security aspects of our response, on tracing plots, on stopping them, on counter-surveillance and intelligence gathering.

He outlined ways of defeating the threat of terrorism, such as making it impossible for extremists to succeed, by banning preachers of hate from coming to our countries, to proscribing organisations that incite terrorism against people at home and abroad.

Also, organisations that support or back extremism in any way even though "non-violent" would not receive any funding from the public purse and stopping groups from reaching people in publicly-funded institutions like universities or prisons.

He also stated that we need to get to the root of the problem and be absolutely clear on where the origins of these terrorist attacks lie. That, he announced, is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism - a political ideology supported by a minority and which is distinct from Islam.

Instead of ignoring this extremist ideology, Cameron stated that we – as governments and as societies – have got to confront it, in all its forms and instead of encouraging people to live apart, we need a clear sense of shared national identity that is open to everyone.

Cameron said: "This terrorism is completely indiscriminate and has been thrust upon us. It cannot be ignored or contained; we have to confront it with confidence – confront the ideology that drives it by defeating the ideas that warp so many young minds at their root, and confront the issues of identity that sustain it by standing for a much broader and generous vision of citizenship in our countries."

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