CEP Strategic Advisor Liam Duffy writes: "Britain’s blasphemy incidents are catching authorities off guard, leaving teachers, mothers and cinema managers alone to face intimidating and disorientating campaigns. The first step in a coherent response is understanding that this is not Islamism and it is not something animating all Barelvis, much less all Muslims. It is a particular phenomenon with a fundamental supply and demand issue, making trivial and accidental “transgressions” such as the Wakefield incident more likely, especially when authorities acquiesce to complaints. This means blasphemy controversies are likely to continue, and with them the looming risk of violence and unrest."

"That being said, we must guard against those in senior positions who say that it is inevitable people like Abedi will fall through the net. That rather depends on the strength of net. This report sets out clear failings in the handling of intelligence that may have contributed to one of the most heinous acts of terrorism this country has ever endured. These failures aren’t new, they are part of a dispiriting trend that needs urgent and decisive attention, not window-dressing and bromides about ‘lessons learned’."

CEP resources and experts quoted throughout: "Read William Shawcross CVO, the Independent Reviewer of Prevent’s report and how the government is responding to the recommendations outlined in the report."

"The recommendation was welcomed by Professor Ian Acheson, a senior adviser to the Counter-Extremism Project and a former prisoner governor.

'It’s the idea that everyone can be redeemed that is infecting the approach, which is always looking for improvement and for reduction of risk,' he said.

'It means officials are particularly vulnerable to psychologically sophisticated, ideologically-motivated terrorists. The terrorists don’t have to be particularly intelligent, they just have to be cunning and adept at hiding their true motivations.'"

"Home Office officials responsible for the decision to fund groups that have spread Islamic extremism should be sacked, according to a former counterterrorism official.

Professor Ian Acheson, who is now a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, said the UK should take a far tougher approach to non-violent Islamist groups who 'undermine social cohesion' by spreading hatred."

"Prof. Ian Acheson, a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, which contributed to the long-delayed Shawcross review of the government’s anti-extremism Prevent program due to be released this week, called for a stricter approach to Muslim groups that 'undermine social cohesion.'"

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, of New York-based think tank the Counter Extremism Project told Metro.co.uk that a large-scale attack is unlikely due to the coordinated security approach...
‘But as far as a big, headline-making attack goes, the risk is very low. There is just too much riding on it for the Qatari government and they have quite effective international cooperation systems to prevent this from happening.’"

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "For me, as a counter-extremism expert and former prison governor, with long experience of serious-incident command, it made depressing reading. I once coined the phrase ‘institutional timidity’ to describe the risk-averse, buck-passing paralysis that can seize some public organisations. In hiding behind bureaucracy, hierarchy, rules and ideology, they lose their sense of purpose."