Demos fears government terror strategy ‘fuels mistrust’
Secrecy surrounding counter-terrorism operations is fuelling mistrust of authorities, a study by independent think tank Demos suggests.
It urges the government and secret services to be more open to stop extremist groups using conspiracy theories to discredit them.
A Demos spokesman said: “Less-secret services could make Britain safer.”
The study calls for greater communication with trusted community leaders and individuals.
The report – entitled the Power of Unreason – says groups use conspiracy theories to recruit and radicalise people to commit acts of violence.
An example of one such theory is that the bombings in New York and London, on 11 September 2001 and 7 July 2005 respectively, were “inside jobs” carried out by authorities in the US and UK.
Other theories highlighted were that “freemasons control the world economy through manipulation of paper currency”, that the UK government is “consciously seeking to destroy Islam” and that a “conspiracy between the Japanese government, the US, and the Jews existed to gain world domination”.
The study claims such theories are frequently adopted by extremist groups to demonise outsiders, discredit moderates and push them in a more extreme and sometimes violent direction.
C.O.C. COMMENTARY: Basically the message here is ‘Believe everything we tell you or you will be labelled a Jew -hating, violent extremist’… I don’t think so. This is 2010, people are seeing through the propaganda.
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