"France raised its terror threat alert to the highest level last Friday after a knife-wielding man of Chechen origin killed a teacher and injured three other people at a school in northern France. Officials described the killing as an Islamist terror attack. The murder put President Macron’s government under severe pressure as officials acknowledged that the main suspect in the attack and various members of his family had been identified by French intelligence services as radicalized or had been convicted on terrorism charges. Should we be concerned about another wave of terror in Europe caused by Islamic extremism? To delve more into the topic, we were joined by Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project."

CEP Strategic Advisor Liam Duffy writes: "The most destructive, spectacular and costly riots in France’s recent history, surpassing even the infamous unrest of 2005, are over. To the Anglophone media and its audiences they were an expression of the anger felt among the children of France’s former overseas possessions – a generational resentment fuelled by experiences of poverty, discrimination and painful colonial legacies."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Is blasphemy a national security threat to the UK? The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) think so. Their soon to be published report, trailed by the Telegraph yesterday, found that Muslim anti-blasphemy preachers imported from Pakistan and Bangladesh had accelerated and toxified the response to perceived insults against Islam."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "It is impossible to imagine how frontline staff operating in this squalor could raise their game enough to manage the inevitable confrontation of denying extremist prisoners the material they need to spread their hateful ideologies. They can’t even keep the bins empty. Taylor observed that ‘there is no better sign of decline in a prison than a lack of cleanliness’. He’s right. It’s one thing to remove any ambiguity in the rules to avoid staff being bamboozled and intimidated by people using religion as an excuse to undermine security. It’s quite another to make sure staff enforce these rules and deal with the kickback."

"Ian Acheson of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) carried out the independent review into Islamist extremism behind bars. His principal recommendation was about Friday Prayers, however it was rejected by the government. Speaking to The Epoch Times, the former prison governor welcomed the measures, but criticised the length of time it had taken the MoJ to put them in place."

CEP Senior Advisor & CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler write: "Political instability in one country will inevitably have a particularly strong spillover effect across its borders. The takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021 and the re-establishment of their regime in Afghanistan represented a shock to regional and transnational security dynamics, with neighbouring countries fearing that activities of Islamist terrorist groups present in Afghanistan would spill over into their territory. The Taliban maintain close ties with Islamist terrorist groups, essentially acting as their protector."

"Home Office officials responsible for the decision to fund groups that have spread Islamic extremism should be sacked, according to a former counterterrorism official.

Professor Ian Acheson, who is now a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, said the UK should take a far tougher approach to non-violent Islamist groups who 'undermine social cohesion' by spreading hatred."