United Kingdom

Hindu nationalism, misogyny and the “manosphere” have been identified as breeding grounds for extremism in a leaked report commissioned by Yvette Cooper after last summer’s riots.

The home secretary’s “rapid analytical sprint” also dismissed claims of “two-tier policing” as a “rightwing extremist narrative”. It argued that the authorities should adopt a “behaviour-based and ideologically agnostic approach” to clamping down on extremism rather than focus resources primarily on “ideologies of concern”.

Cooper commissioned the rapid review in August. For the first time, it identifies Hindu nationalist extremism, and Hindutva, as ideologies of concern after unrest in Leicester in 2022.

“Hindu nationalist extremism is an extremist ideology that advocates for Hindu supremacy and seeks to transform India into an ethno-religious Hindu state.

“Hindutva is a political movement distinct from Hinduism which advocates for the hegemony of Indian Hindus and the establishment of a monolithic Hindu Rastra or state in India,” the report said.

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Under the heading “extreme misogyny”, the report said “an online subculture called the ‘manosphere’ contains a significant amount of content directly focused on misogyny, and sometimes absorbs extremist rightwing tropes. { “The ‘manosphere’ encompasses a wide array of communities that include men’s rights activists; pickup artists; men going their own way; and involuntary celibates or ‘incels’.

“There is an overlap between some manosphere narratives, in particular incel beliefs, and extreme rightwing [ERW] ideology including racist narratives. Globalisation and multiculturalism, which are at the centre of many ERW narratives, are often blamed as factors in incels’ celibacy.” { The report also says that the activity of grooming gangs is frequently exploited by the far right, and that rightwing extremist ideologies and beliefs are “leaking” into the mainstream.

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In a recommendation that will concern activists, the report calls for the creation of a “dedicated national investigations capability” to “coordinate and take on protest and low-level extremism operations and investigations” and a digital “national centre of excellence for the monitoring and disruption of protest”.

It recommends “reversing” a code of practice, brought in by the previous government, to limit the recording of “non-crime hate incidents” against individuals. Non-crime hate incidents have been criticised as a waste of police time and a threat to free speech.

The report follows claims made last week by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, in the wake of the Southport killings, where he equated extreme violence with extremism and likened terrorism to any act that terrorises.

Starmer’s comments were criticised by the former police counter-terror commander Neil Basu and by the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, for bringing too much into scope.