“Tools other than arrest and prosecution need to be established,” said George Selim, who leads the administration’s Countering Violent Extremism Task Force from DHS. Spurred by the Orlando attack, the House Appropriations Committee late last month approved $49 million (U.S.) for countering violent extremism and related efforts through the Department of Homeland Security. Critics say intervention efforts focused on Muslims, which the Obama administration refers to as “countering violent extremism,” are driven more by politics than by data, heighten distrust and can be powerfully stigmatizing. In this, CAIR-Florida is bucking the policy of its national headquarters, as well as several prominent civil and human rights groups. While crime statistics and surveys indicate that American Muslims have no greater predeliction for violence than any other American religious group, federal programming to counter violent extremism to date has focused almost exclusively on Muslim communities, critics say.

Source: thestar July 04, 2016 19:52 UTC