David Cameron has pledged to “drain the swamp” in which radical Muslims are allowed to hide and develop their extreme views in the wake of the Woolwich terror attack.
The Prime Minister told MPs he would do more to tackle the “conveyor belt to radicalisation” which is poisoning the minds of young Muslims.
Mr Cameron also confirmed a Telegraph report that he is looking at finding ways to allow spies to monitor people over the internet without the need for Commons vote.
In his first Commons statement since the brutal murder in Woolwich, south London last month of Drummer Lee Rigby, Mr Cameron said it was important to learn the lessons from the attack.
He told MPs: “it is not simply enough to target and go after violent extremists after they've become violent. We have to drain the swamp in which they inhabit.”
This meant stopping young Muslims becoming radicalised on university campuses and preventing extremists from taking over Islamic centres. He said: “It means going through all of these elements of the conveyor belt to radicalisation and making sure we deal with them.”
Mr Cameron said the despicable crime had shocked and sickened the country.
He said it was necessary to understand the root causes of radical extremism if the Government was to successfully tackle the problem.
He said: "Those who carried out this callous and abhorrent crime sought to justify their actions by an extremist ideology that perverts and warps Islam to create a culture of victimhood and justify violence. We must confront this ideology in all its forms.”
Mr Cameron said the Government’s Prevent Strategy had closed down websites and helped people vulnerable to radicalisation.
Since 2011, more hate preachers had been excluded from the UK than ever, while 5,700 items of terrorism material had been taken down from the internet with almost 1,000 more blocked when they were hosted overseas, he said.
Mr Cameron added: “But it is clear that we need to do more. When young men born and bred in this country are radicalised and turned into killers, we have to ask some tough questions about what is happening in our country.”
A new Government taskforce on tackling radicalisation would see whether rules for charities were too lax and allowed extremists to prosper, and whether enough was done to disrupt groups that incite hatred or violence, he said.
Mr Cameron also disclosed that he is looking at all “non-legislative options there are” to allow police and security services to spy on people’s activities over the internet.
The Government had considered a new Communications Data Bill, but it was dropped from last month’s Queen’s Speech after it was vetoed by the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Cameron said that “some 95 per cent of serious crimes involve the use of communications data.
“As telephony moves from fixed and mobile telephony on to the internet, our intelligence and police services will have a problem.
“We need to address this problem, we should address it in a sensitive and careful way, we should look at all the non-legislative options there are.”
The Daily Telegraph disclosed last week that a team led by Cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was examining whether they can bring in a large number of the proposed changes using existing legislation, without needing a divisive vote which Liberal Democrat MPs would oppose.
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