Social cohesion and counter-terrorism : a policy contradiction? / Charles Husband and Yunis Alam.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-250) and indexes.

Introduction -- Community Cohesion: its development and limitations -- The prevention of violent extremism -- Anti-Muslimism -- The experience of managing Community Cohesion and Prevent -- Conclusion.

Post 9/11, the imposition of policies of counter-terrorism has seen the erosion of support for fundamental human rights. Simultaneously, Muslim communities in European cities have become a focus for state and local policy, leading to a fixation with policies of social cohesion. This book offers a unique research-based contribution to the debate around community cohesion and counter-terrorism policies in Britain. Through privileged access to the senior management and staff of five metropolitan authorities it reveals the contradictions between these policies as they are implemented in tandem at the local level. A robust critique of contemporary policy, this book is for all academics, policy makers and practitioners concerned with the management of ethnic diversity.

Is a cohesive society always a good one? This extraordinary book points to the alarming way 'community cohesion' intiatives elide assimilation and integration, and are implicated in the stripping of the human rights of the 'enemy next door' and in the scrutiny of Muslim communities. An essential read for anyone who wants to understand multicultural life in Britain. Inclusion or exclusion? Engagement or isolation? Contributors to the social whole or threats to the moral order? In this far reaching study of Cohesion and Prevent, two poles of British public policy that have effectively supplanted multiculturalism, Husband and Alam explore British Muslims, social and economic power, and the contemporary meaning of the 'social'. As human rights are sacrificed and economic and social rights disintegrate, social disorder may well be amplified by exactly those policies ostensibly designed to suppress it. A powerful and insightful analysis with global implications.