CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Is blasphemy a national security threat to the UK? The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) think so. Their soon to be published report, trailed by the Telegraph yesterday, found that Muslim anti-blasphemy preachers imported from Pakistan and Bangladesh had accelerated and toxified the response to perceived insults against Islam."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "It is impossible to imagine how frontline staff operating in this squalor could raise their game enough to manage the inevitable confrontation of denying extremist prisoners the material they need to spread their hateful ideologies. They can’t even keep the bins empty. Taylor observed that ‘there is no better sign of decline in a prison than a lack of cleanliness’. He’s right. It’s one thing to remove any ambiguity in the rules to avoid staff being bamboozled and intimidated by people using religion as an excuse to undermine security. It’s quite another to make sure staff enforce these rules and deal with the kickback."

"Ian Acheson of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) carried out the independent review into Islamist extremism behind bars. His principal recommendation was about Friday Prayers, however it was rejected by the government. Speaking to The Epoch Times, the former prison governor welcomed the measures, but criticised the length of time it had taken the MoJ to put them in place."

CEP Senior Advisor & CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler write: "Political instability in one country will inevitably have a particularly strong spillover effect across its borders. The takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021 and the re-establishment of their regime in Afghanistan represented a shock to regional and transnational security dynamics, with neighbouring countries fearing that activities of Islamist terrorist groups present in Afghanistan would spill over into their territory. The Taliban maintain close ties with Islamist terrorist groups, essentially acting as their protector."

"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.'"

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "But now, our high-security jails are filled with Islamist extremists who operate by markedly different standards. While the U.K. and Spain grappled with Irish and Basque separatists, these terrorists were not aiming for a worldwide caliphate that would subjugate all other faiths and make war on liberal democracy as such. Nor, despite their immense cruelty, did the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) or Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA) operate under the pretext of divine permission to murder civilians."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Hall’s report critically examines the contemporary threat of violent extremism from within the prison walls – where at the last count reside some 230 offenders convicted of terrorist offences and a greater number who are at risk of radicalisation or already radicalised. The vast majority of these offenders are motivated by Islamist extremism which explains his report’s focus."