The Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) has responded to a report which calls for a boycott of the organisation.

Advocacy group CAGE this month released a report which it claims how the CCE is ‘closely tied to the global Islamophobia industry.’  An accusation the CCE refuted and said they ‘utterly reject the criticism’ of their advisory panel and called for 'a constructive, civilised debate' with regards to extremism.

Entitled ‘The CCE Exposed’, the report comes on the first anniversary of the appointment of the Lead Commissioner for the Commission for Countering Extremism, Sara Khan.

Plans to set up the commission were announced by Prime Minister Theresa May in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017- one of five terror attacks in Britain during that year.

Presently the commission is carrying out an intensive exercise of evidence-gathering with a view to publishing the first study on extremism in the UK.

The organisation has been tasked with ‘identifying and challenging all forms of extremism’, advising ministers on new policies.

The CCE says it wants to hear from people with personal experience of extremism, academics, civil society, faith and community groups, counter extremism activists and practitioners.

A CAGE statement read, “The timeliness of the report is that it comes exactly one year after the commissioner was appointed and also during the commission’s ‘evidence’ drive.

“Prevent has long been critiqued and described as a toxic and failed policy. The CCE in its attempts to feign independence and make inroads amongst already marginalised communities, is simply promoting the underlying assumptions and failed arguments of Prevent under a new guise.

“To this end it was necessary to demonstrate the troubling continuum between the CCE and the Prevent policy to our community.

“Furthermore, the problematic ties to the Islamophobia industry within the CCE gives more of an impetus to expose the CCE and its thought and belief policing motivations.”

CAGE revealed the reasoning behind the report, “This bolsters our calls to boycott the CCE and provides a unique resource for our community, academics and activists in understanding the damaging impact the CCE will have on free speech and freedom of belief.”

With regards to the drive to exercise of evidence-gathering CAGE said, “Once considered within the broader objectives of the CCE and in the context of the Islamophobic ties to the CCE as highlighted in our report, this ‘evidence drive’ will only seek to legitimise and expand on an already expansive legal apparatus that has even seen the removal of children from their parents due to ‘extremism’ concerns.

“We believe that this is drive is an attempt to co-opt communities most sharply affected by counter-extremism measures, into the orbit of state bodies by offering crumbs of reform - it will effectively result in communities being consulted on the terms of their own subjugation.”

The CCE said their board was ‘well-known for their impartiality’ and were there to 'advise and challenge us.'

In a statement to Asian Image, Sara Khan, Lead Commissioner for the Commission for Countering Extremism, said, "Our work so far shows many people – including those from Asian communities – are concerned about extremism, whether extremism from the Far Right or from religious extremists.

“We have been engaging, and will continue to engage, widely with all communities to hear about their experiences including concerns about rising ethnicity and religious-based hate crime and the Government’s approach to counter extremism.

“We’re now working on a landmark study which will be presented to Government and we want to hear as many different views as possible. We encourage anyone who is concerned about intolerance, hatred or extremism to take part in our call for evidence.

“We are independent from Government and will be driven by the evidence. Our Expert Group is there to advise and challenge us, and we utterly reject the criticism of them.

“They are all well-known for their impartiality, their willingness to speak out and their commitment to challenging prejudice and hatred in whatever form it takes. Extremism is a complex subject – but one we can’t ignore and we need a constructive, civilised debate.”