The UK Government is offering more money to places of worship for capital spending on security, after the terror attack on two mosques in Christchurch.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The horrific events in New Zealand are a direct attack on the values of tolerance and freedom of worship that unite us all. Nobody should ever fear persecution of their faith and it’s vital we stand together to reject those who seek to spread hatred and divide us. I know many Muslim communities are feeling vulnerable and anxious. But they should seek comfort from knowing we are doing everything to tackle hate and extremism. That’s why we are doubling next year’s places of worship fund – providing physical protection as well as peace of mind.”
The Home Office’s places of worship fund, set up in 2016 as part of the government’s hate crime action plan, provides financial support for physical protective security such as fencing, lighting and CCTV; not for day to day security such as manned guarding. The Government previously committed funding of £2.4m over three years. For next year it’s offering £1.6m, ‘double the amount awarded last year’. the Home Secretary said in a written statement. He also announced a new £5m fund (over three years) for security training. A third of grants under the Places of Worship Protective Funding scheme have gone to mosques.
As became plain in a Commons debate on March 18, the fund’s application deadline closed in August 2018; and it was ‘not over-subscribed’ as Home Office minister Ben Wallace put it.
For the next six months, the anti-Muslim incident reporting line Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) will be offering security advice to mosques when requested on a national basis. This will involve providing basic security advice and information, a review of security measures and accessibility assessments. For example, people can walk straight into a mosque without any question or challenge where necessary and this needs to come to an end, according to the service.
Director of Tell MAMA Iman Atta said: “Mosques can contact us in Tell MAMA to get access to these additional services which we have brought into play after the terrible murders in New Zealand. No longer can mosques just assume that everything will be alright. There has been an assumption that nothing will happen, but there are sharpened risks to Islamic institutions and mosques. We, through Tell MAMA, will support these mosques at this time. Support provided will be through advice and information and through the implementation of practical measures. Tell MAMA will be mirroring the support services provided by the CST – the Community Security Trust, that works with Jewish communities.”
Home Office money is administered by CST to pay for commercial security guards and protection at independent and state Jewish schools, nurseries, synagogues and community sites, mainly in London or Manchester.
Harun Khan, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, made the point that £2.4m over three years was equivalent to less than £500 per institution, if only Muslim institutions were considered. He said: “Open seven days a week, especially on Fridays, mosques across the UK are places servicing well-attended congregations. This makes the risk of copy-cat attacks here in the UK a real possibility, especially in a climate where we are now fully appreciating the growth in the far-right. A long-term commitment to ensure Muslim communities are supported similarly to Jewish communities, is absolutely essential in these troubling times as we struggle with how we balance the necessity of security with our desire for continued openness.”
For his letter to Prime Minister Theresa May in full visit the Muslim Council website.
In the House of Commons, in a debate on ‘Far-right Violence and Online Extremism’ on Monday, March 18, Home Office security minister Ben Wallace spoke for Sajid Javid, who was visiting Regent’s Park mosque in London. Wallace described it as ‘perfectly possible’ that a Christchurch-type attack will happen in the UK.
He said: “We are already seeing a growing threat from people moving into the extremist mindset of the extreme right wing and neo-Nazis, and that is the pool that terrorists of the future will recruit from.”
Wallace said the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy Contest was agnostic to the threat: ‘it is not relevant to us in what name terror strikes; it is the use of violence and hate that we seek to stop’. On online harm, what for Nick Thomas-Symonds for Labour called ‘the role of social media platforms in facilitating a growing extremism’; a White Paper will be published, Wallace said: “Social media platforms should be ashamed that they have enabled a terrorist to livestream this evil massacre and spread this mantra of hate to the whole world.”
For the Commons debate visit Hansard.
