A GROUP of anti-war and human rights groups came together yesterday to launch a new campaign opposing the government’s “anti-radicalisation” programme Prevent.

Together Against Prevent argues that the 2011-implemented strategy includes “draconian surveillance methods” and “systematic targeting of political dissent, particularly within Muslim communities.”

Policing monitor Netpol co-ordinator Kevin Blowe told the Star that his group joined the campaign “to show their opposition to the arbitrary labelling of people, especially Muslim political activists but also other campaigners, as so-called ‘extremists.’

“Recent evidence of Prevent officers branding Green Party MP Caroline Lucas an extremist shows just how subjective this label has become.

“It is alarming that many are branded as stepping onto an imaginary ‘conveyor belt to terrorism’.”

Other groups involved in the campaign include the Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Islamic Human Rights Commission.