Tackling extremism, hate crime, and building cohesion remain important issues for councils. Extremism can have a huge effect on local areas, from devastating terror attacks; to communities divided by harmful ideology, hate and intolerance. If extremist attitudes are left to fester, there can be a destructive impact on social harmony and unity, with communities living in fear, daily lives disrupted, and hatred allowed to prosper.
Working with agency and community partners, councils have a strong track record of responding to community cohesion challenges and are well placed to facilitate partnerships to counter extremism and tackle hate crime. The threats from extremism continue to change, presenting new and evolving challenges – and understanding, responding and building resilience to these requires a dynamic and joined-up approach.
Counter-extremism work plays a vital dual role. Firstly, in addressing the many social harms caused from extremism at a local level, including sowing division across communities, impacting on residents’ sense of safety and place, and affecting local economies; and secondly, as a critical part of early intervention work, in supporting efforts to prevent terrorism through countering ideology and activists that might begin to draw people into radicalisation and criminality.
Whilst radicalisation into supporting terrorist organisations or terrorist acts has perhaps the highest profile of forms of extremism, there is a range of other extremist or polarising behaviour which can impact on local areas. Examples include:
Justifying violence or criminality
For instance, extremists celebrating the violence of terrorist organisations without directly encouraging participation, often through targeting an ‘out group’ – and/or justifying the use of anti-democratic or criminal methods to address their perceived concerns.
Promoting hatred and division
Many hate crimes are motivated by extremist ideologies, with extremist influencers often remaining on the right side of the law whilst promoting intolerance, blaming, dehumanising and ‘othering’ certain groups and conspiracy theories (see below) – this includes the amplification and exploitation of local issues or concerns by other (sometimes national or even international) actors, intent on stoking division. This might manifest as online support, street protest, or criminal activity.
Online extremism
The rapid growth of the internet as a means to share information has led to extremists utilising the opportunities presented to promote extremist content. This can be done passively – by providing material and allowing those interested to access it, or actively, by using the internet as a tool to engage with those vulnerable to radicalisation and groom them into extremism. Algorithms on social media sites can enable a user to develop an echo chamber of extremist content, to the extent that this then normalises extremism to the user. This has been exacerbated due to increased periods of time spent online during the pandemic.
Promoting conspiracy theories
Extremist groups use conspiracy theories as a tool for recruitment and to advance their radical agendas exploiting common uncertainties, fears, socioeconomic issues and mental health disorders amongst those susceptible to indoctrination. These theories foster societal divisions between in-groups and out-groups by exacerbating intolerance against ‘the other’ and delegitimising different voices as being part of the conspiracy. During the pandemic period this has manifested itself in a number of ways with unprecedented levels of interest and support, for example in attacks against 5G masts or in support of anti-vaccination movements, as well as to promote racial hatred against alleged sources of the pandemic.
Encouraging isolation
Extremist ideologies can encourage individuals and communities to distance themselves from mainstream society and sources of information; this environment can allow harmful behaviour to prosper.
Alternate systems of law
Whilst people in Britain are free to follow the structures of their faith, that faith must operate within the rule of law. Extremism occurs where alternate rules of law work in opposition to the tenets of British law.
Rejecting the democratic system
Extremists may seek to coerce people into not participating in our democratic system. Anti-establishmentism can manifest as a distrust in statutory agencies and a loss of faith in democracy and government, perhaps linked to conspiracy theories and spread through online media.
Hate crime
Reported hate crime in the UK has risen every year over the past decade, from 39,000 crimes in 2013 to 114,000 crimes in 2021. Whilst an increase in reporting may be seen as a positive (eg there is an increased trust in the state to respond to reports), short-term trends – including a rise of a third in racially and religiously aggravated offences between 2020 and 2021 – suggests a significant issue damaging community cohesion.
This guidance accompanies a number of case studies which demonstrate a range of activities led by local government in response to emerging issues of extremism and hate crime in their localities. These represent the cutting edge of practice, with creativity driving innovation.
Although the case studies reflect responses to a range of issues, there are consistent themes that emerge, most notably highlighting the importance of working with the community as partners, not as passive recipients of action.
These case studies offer practical advice to local government practitioners when faced with the challenge of countering extremism and tackling hate crime.
There are five consistent elements common across the case studies:
- multi-agency working
- information and intelligence
- community engagement and development
- co-production
- communication.