CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson: "These appointments are effective at providing a conduit between ministers and what’s happening at street level on issues now so serious that they forced the Prime Minister into a rare Downing Street address on extremism not two weeks ago. They marry intent with capability. Speaking truth to power is easier to achieve when your interlocutors are unencumbered by Civil Service machinery that grinds against unpalatable facts. But this week we will see an effort by ministers to update the work to counter-extremism which requires a ‘whole of Government’ response far beyond the purview of the czar."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler writes: "Two decades ago, on March 11, 2004, Europe was shaken by what is still one of the deadliest terror attacks on its soil. 

The Madrid train bombings, which claimed the lives of 191 people and injured over 2,000 others, left an indelible mark on Spain and the global community. 

As we mark the anniversary of this tragic event, it is evident that despite significant advances in counter-terrorism capabilities, the challenges posed by Islamist extremism and terrorism remain as complex and formidable as ever."

"This might be a "necessary step", Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project, told The National. But there is concern that it could inadvertently penalise mainstream Muslim groups, as well as organisations campaigning against gay marriage, transgender rights, environmental groups and even supporters of Scottish independence, said Scottish newspaper The National."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: “Are we being ‘poisoned’ by extremism? The Prime Minister seems to think so. His speech on the steps of Downing Street following the Rochdale by-election described a country where values of tolerance and civility were being deliberately undermined by Islamists and the far right. ‘Islamist extremists and the far right feed off and embolden each other,’ he warned. But in conflating those two threats, the Prime Minister made the same mistake as his predecessors.”

"France raised its terror threat alert to the highest level last Friday after a knife-wielding man of Chechen origin killed a teacher and injured three other people at a school in northern France. Officials described the killing as an Islamist terror attack. The murder put President Macron’s government under severe pressure as officials acknowledged that the main suspect in the attack and various members of his family had been identified by French intelligence services as radicalized or had been convicted on terrorism charges. Should we be concerned about another wave of terror in Europe caused by Islamic extremism? To delve more into the topic, we were joined by Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project."

CEP Strategic Advisor Liam Duffy writes: "The most destructive, spectacular and costly riots in France’s recent history, surpassing even the infamous unrest of 2005, are over. To the Anglophone media and its audiences they were an expression of the anger felt among the children of France’s former overseas possessions – a generational resentment fuelled by experiences of poverty, discrimination and painful colonial legacies."