British Counter-Terrorism After 7/7: Adapting Community Policing to the Fight Against Domestic Terrorism

Abstract

After the Madrid and London train-bombings, perceptions of the sources of Islamic terrorism changed. The British response to domestic jihadism was to apply community-policing principles to counter-terrorism enforcement. This essay describes the origins and intentions of the community-based policing of terrorism and partnership programmes with Muslim faith organisations. Collaboration with Muslim partners has helped to build confidence within government agencies that Muslim leaders are keen to curb terrorism, but has failed to build trust among the general Muslim public. The application of community-policing principles is, it is argued, an effort to bridge steep trade-offs between effective prevention and the social and political integration of Britain's Muslims.

Keywords:

• Counter-Terrorism
• Britain
• France
• Muslims
• Policy-Making
• Community Policing

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the US Institute of Peace and Brandeis University for providing funding for research included in this study. Erik Bleich and an anonymous JEMS reviewer are thanked for their helpful comments.

Notes

1. High-ranking Met or counter-terrorism officials were guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality.

2. See www.radicalmiddleway.co.uk where a list of the invited speakers can be viewed.

3. The letter was posted on the MCB's website at http://www.mcb.org.uk/media/presstext.php?ann_id=228

4. ‘Drive for multi-faith Britain deepens rifts, says Church’, Jonathan Wynne-Jones, The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/08/nfaith08.xml (Filed: 08 October 2006).

5. The Communities and Local Government Unit was made a separate ministry in May 2006, with Hazel Blairs as the Minister.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jytte Klausen

Jytte Klausen is Professor of Comparative Politics at Brandeis University