She .... criticised the Federation of Student Islamic Societies for not challenging extremism sufficiently.
“They need to be prepared to stand up and say that organisations that are extreme or support extremism or have extremist speakers should not be part of their grouping,” Mrs May said.
Her remarks follow comments made by Nicola Dandridge, the head of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, claiming there was no evidence that extremist speakers at university encouraged violence.
As part of the Prevent strategy, the Government will define as extremists anyone who “does not subscribe to human rights, equality before the law, democracy and full participation in society”, including those who “promote or implicitly tolerate the killing of British soldiers”.
Mrs May said: “We are looking at a set of values we believe we have here in the UK and those people opposed to those values are people who the Government won’t be funding or engaging with.”
It is understood that the strategy will also name 25 boroughs that are most at risk from Islamist extremism, including areas of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and Manchester.
There will also be a move to limit access to extremist websites from public buildings, particularly schools and public libraries.
Details of partnerships with YouTube and AOL to try to tackle extremism online, using lessons learned from anti-paedophile policing will be made public.
As well as fighting violent extremism, the Government will tackle extremist philosophies in general, including groups that can act as a “stepping stone” to terrorism.
“There’s an ideology out there that we need to challenge and when we first came in as a government one of the things we were very clear about here at the Home Office was we needed to look at extremism, not just violent extremism,” Mrs May said.
As a result of Prevent’s review of government support, about 20 out of 1,800 organisations that received funding over the past three years, will have their cash withdrawn.
“It’s a result of a close look at the values of the organisations themselves,” Mrs May said. “There’s more that we will be doing because it is very clear that we are going to be much more focused on effective monitoring and the effectiveness of groups and making sure that they are having an outcome.
“This isn’t just about giving money to groups and the number of people they deal with, it’s about a proper outcome.”
The strategy will also seek to counter radical Right-wing terrorists following a rise in the threat from such extremists.
“We should not just look at one particular type of terrorism but look at violent extremism and terrorism more widely as well,” Mrs May said.
The Home Secretary said the Prime Minister gave “a very clear message” in a speech in Munich in February when he spoke of the failure of multiculturalism. “We are putting into play what comes out of that Munich speech,” she said.
The Government will produce two strategies, with the second “integration strategy” to be published by the Department for Communities and Local Government later in the year.
“In the past the brand of Prevent has become slightly tainted and we want to separate those strands of community cohesion,” Mrs May said.
Prevent has been criticised in some quarters as a means to spy on the Muslim community, but Mrs May said: “I don’t see anything wrong with identifying people who are vulnerable to being taken down a certain route, who could become a threat to members of the public.
“We need to encourage people to be willing to identify vulnerable individuals. Most people recognise the value of using all the tools available to prevent terrorist activity and encourage people to actively talk to the police.
“Everyone who has an interest in being part of British society should recognise that we are all in this together.”
The strategy will also incorporate the Prime Minister’s pet project, the Big Society, promoting the idea of mobilising the “silent majority” of Muslims.
“Sending clear messages about our values is part of the information we want to put out,” said Mrs May.
The Daily Telegraph followed up with an editorial, linked at the top of the page. Among the tidbits:
Multiculturalism is more than a failed ideology: it threatens our safety. Several former students at British colleges have already been caught planning murder: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, ex-president of UCL’s Islamic Society, tried to blow up a plane in 2009.
So the Crotch Bomber over Detroit was "president" of the UCL [University College of London, I believe] Islamic Society. What a fine and "prestigious" organization that human sewer must be....!!!
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