'Dubious' terror projects funded by taxpayer

The TaxPayers' Alliance criticised the lack of accountability as figures showed the Foreign Office gave out more than 10m in 2008-09 as part of the Prevent strand of the Government's counter-terrorism strategy.

It represented 74 per cent of the 14.2m of grants given out by the Foreign Office under the Contest strategy.

The campaigners called for a shift away from funding community projects and groups abroad, and for the Government to leave the prevention of violent extremism to the police and intelligence services.

Figures showed the Foreign Office grants included 205,300 to the BBC for an Afghan Women's Hour project for the BBC World Service which looked at gender issues and women's rights.

They also included 22,268 for a "mobile cinema for justice" run by the US-based International Research and Exchanges Board and more than 250,000 for the democracy-building Westminster Foundation's projects aimed at parliamentary reform and "sensitising MPs".

A total of 127,740 went to the Foreign Office's counter-terrorism department for a programme aimed at promoting moderate Islam, more than 100,000 went to the Al-Azhar University in Egypt for a study exchange and university programme, and more than 10,000 to the private Bahcesehir University in Turkey for an "intercultural dialogue project" on extremist messages.

More than 2m was also given to the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Development Fund for Women.

Figures for 2007/08 showed the Foreign Office gave out a total of 194,031 in Prevent grants, including 31,880 to the Metropolitan Police for "crime scene training for Egyptian police".

The research director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, Matthew Sinclair, said: "Taxpayers' money has been given to dubious projects and there is little accountability for this spend.

"The scheme is unpopular with all community groups and has poor results – far too much money has been spent on what is no more than an expensive social experiment.

"The Government now needs to scrap the entire Prevent strategy and focus on our police and intelligence services to combat violent extremism."

A Foreign Office spokesman said its counter-terrorism spending was now "aligned to tackle the threats that the UK faces to its people and interests" and projects such as the BBC's Afghan Women's Hour programme were unlikely to win such grants today.

The Home Office has announced there will be a clear separation in future between counter-terrorism work on individuals directly at risk of becoming radicalised and more general work to combat social exclusion in Muslim communities.

The Prevent strategy was criticised by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee which found that, by focusing solely on one section of the community, it was "stigmatising, potentially alienating, and fails to address the fact that no section of a population exists in isolation from others".

A BBC spokesman said the grant went to the World Service Trust charity, which broadcasts on the World Service in Pashto and Persian in Afghanistan.

Millions went to community groups

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month how millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash designed to prevent the spread of violent extremism under the Prevent initiative has ended up in the hands of councils and community groups which it is claimed are ill-equipped to tackle terrorism.

Critics say the programme has tainted good community cohesion work by linking it with counter-terrorism.

Some fearful Muslims believe they are being "spied on" by councils and even their own organisations which have accepted Prevent money.