British jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria will be forced to attend “deradicalisation” programmes to reverse their warped brainwashing, David Cameron announced.
Dangerous fanatics made subject to court controls will be ordered to engage in anti-extremism schemes as part of a raft of new measures to combat the risk of British Islamists returning to the UK.
The move comes amid growing concern over the threat posed by Britons who have joined the terror group Isil in Syria and Iraq.
At least 500 are believed to have travelled out and half are now back on the streets of the UK, with some feared potentially plotting attacks here.
In a Commons statement, Mr Cameron said: “Adhering to British values is not an option or a choice.
“It is a duty for all those who live in these islands so we will stand up for our values, we will in the end defeat this extremism and we will secure our way of life for generations to come.”
Under the proposals, any terror suspect placed under a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) will now be forced to engage in the Government’s Prevent programme, which tackles radicalisation.
Tpims are court orders that allow restrictions to be placed on the movements and activities of suspects where there is insufficient evidence to bring charges.
The aim will be to reverse the warped perception of Islam that young fanatics have been brainwashed in to believing.
There are a number of different programmes currently running that the government could use to deradicalise terrorists.
The Al Furqan programme, which is run in prisons, uses Imams to challenge the views of extremist Islam through religious teaching.
The Healthy Identities Intervention is a more introspective approach where psychotherapists try to discover what triggered terrorists to become radicalised.
The Channel programme targets people who are vulnerable to radicalisation before they become terrorists.
Mr Cameron said: “I think it is important that Prevent is focused on counter-radicalisation.
“In the past some money was spent on organisations who were part of the problem rather than the solution.
“I believe it’s very important we don’t just target extremism we target the extremist narrative from which the men and women of violence draw succour. I think that is important.”
However, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said the deradicalisation proposals should not be limited to just those placed under Tpims but anyone returning from Iraq or Syria.
He called on the Prime Minister to introduce a “mandatory and comprehensive” programme to deradicalise both terror suspects and those who have been “on the fringes” of extremism.
The Labour leader criticised the Government for making the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy “overly focused” on the police response to terrorism and said there needed to be a focus on parents and communities.
He added: “As we tackle these domestic consequences of Isil, we will work with the Government to tackle the threat we face here at home.
“The events of this summer have underlined how turning our back on the complexities and instability of our world is not an option.”