MEND Response to the Times, in full, on Suella Braverman’s Ridiculous Accusation on Extremism

MEND is an organisation that has fought extremism in all its guises since its inception. Unfounded attacks like those of Suella Braverman have resulted in death threats to our staff and volunteers and are totally unwarranted. Any insinuation of extremism will be challenged robustly via the courts if necessary.

This latest attack by Suella Braverman is less to do with our supposed ideology and more to do with the ideology at the heart of the Conservative Party embodied in ministers like Suella Braverman.

Firstly, to be accused of religious extremism by a home secretary who is a member of a highly controversial Buddhist sect, the Triratna order, whose founder was accused of sexual abuse, is hypocritical. Of course, this is not to suggest Ms Braverman was responsible for this, but this is exactly the same as comparing MEND to the atrocities committed by ISIS or sharing its ideology.

Ms Braverman is now delivering this attack at the “Commission for Countering Extremism,” an organisation headed by Robin Simcox. Simcox is a former researcher with the right-wing think tank Henry Jackson Society which has a history of promoting Islamophobic narratives. He also has a long track record of working with right-wing organisations and spoke at an event organised by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a notorious American anti-immigration hate group that promotes anti-Semitic, white nationalist material, including articles by Holocaust deniers.

If we are genuinely concerned about extremism, we should examine Government’s own links with American Islamophobes, anti-semites and right-wing think tanks, such as the Henry Jackson Society and Policy Exchange.

As for the specific accusations of antisemitism and support for attacks on British troops, these are old accusations to which we have responded previously. On the latter, however, it is worth pointing out that at the time of this incident, the individual in question was working for HM Treasury and was reinstated following an investigation. It is unthinkable that had he actually made such comments; he would have kept this post.

On the grievance narrative, Ms Braverman should read the reports from her own department that, for several years, have consistently shown around half of all religious hate crimes are targeted at Muslims.

It seems that Muslim organisations representing mainstream Muslim community opinion that exercise their democratic right to disagree with Government policy on issues like Prevent will now be labelled as ‘extremist’ and ‘Islamist’ for purely political reasons.

Ms Braverman and other ministers should drop their culture war and work with all communities to tackle cohesion issues across the country.