The British government has unveiled a new official definition of “extremism.” The update, announced by Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove on Thursday, aims to bolster national security measures and prevent the legitimization of extremist factions.
Gove said the British National Socialist Movement and Patriotic Alternative far-right groups, will be evaluated against the new definition, as will groups such as the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Cage, and MEND, which have been accused of links with Islamism. Under the plans, groups deemed “extreme” will be barred from receiving taxpayers’ money and meeting with ministers or senior civil servants.
Gary Mond, chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, told JNS that the revised definition was a significant step forward, adding that it was “a positive development that several Islamist and far-right Jew-hating groups are likely to be included.”
Referring to the controversy over the alleged last-minute decision to remove the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), an umbrella body that has been at the center of several controversies, from the list, Mond said it was “up to the relevant governmental body to determine whether individual groups such as the Muslim Council of Great Britain require banning and this decision should be based on their past actions.”
In February 2009, the MCB’s deputy secretary-general, Daud Abdullah, backed a statement that endorsed Hamas and celebrated its “victory” against “this malicious Jewish Zionist war over Gaza.”
Mond noted that the concept is new and needs to be watched carefully to ensure that groups that do not promote hatred of people or violence are not inadvertently caught under this new definition.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) hailed the announcement as a “decades late” acknowledgment of governmental entanglement with extremist elements. However, they cautioned that the proposal lacks sufficient punitive measures beyond withdrawing state support. They highlighted that the announcement, “proposes no sanction whatsoever for extremists caught by the new definition other than a loss of state support that they should never have had in the first place, and far too many extremists will not be caught under this definition at all.”
CAA also noted the “irony” of the definition drawing on the work of Sir Mark Rowley, who they argued had become “one of the country’s foremost enablers of extremism by his refusal to use his existing powers concerning the weekly pro-Palestinian marches that are threatening the fabric of our society.”
While Gove stressed that free speech will be protected under the definition, Conservative MP Miriam Cates was among those who expressed concerns that its provisions are too vague and could impact people who hold “legitimate” views, including critics of abortion or LGBTQ+ activism. However, she said it was correct that the government name “specific groups that potentially do support terror.”
