What is CVE? |
Where did it come from? |
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Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) is a framework that institutionalizes the fallacy that Muslims are inherently violent, and especially targets individuals who express signs of religiosity and/or political activism. CVE outsources policing to community leaders by training them to profile people based on behaviors - especially religion, race, and politics.
CVE and counter-extremism models use the discredited radicalization theory - a theory entirely based on the Islamophobic premise that Muslims "radicalize" towards violence and that behavioral profiling can identify those who will enact violence. CVE is driven by national security and federal law enforcement and claims to prevent violence. But CVE does NOT prevent violence. CVE outsources policing to community leaders and helping professionals, recruiting and training them to use behavioral profiling - which embeds a culture of policing and increases racial and religious profiling. CVE recruits these community members, faith leaders, counselors, teachers, doctors, therapists, and other service providers to monitor behaviors and First Amendment protected activities, under the assumption that certain behaviors indicate future violence.. The CVE framework is not supported by sound evidence and instead, this behavioral surveillance encourages dangerous racial, religious, and ideological profiling. |
CVE in the United States was launched under the Obama administration and modeled after the “Prevent” strategy in the United Kingdom. Similarly to Prevent, CVE began with funding from federal law enforcement institutions, like the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, to entice Muslim leaders and organizations to this framework. While it is framed as “soft counterterrorism,” it is a predatory move towards self surveillance and community disruption.
Due to community push back naming CVE as inherently racist and Islamophobic, the Department of Homeland Security has renamed and rebranded the CVE department as the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3). In practice, these programs still reinforce the same harms and violations of civil rights and liberties. Expanding counter-extremism models to tackle white supremacy is not a solution to white supremacist violence. |
OUR DEMANDS ARE SIMPLE:
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DIVEST
End the CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) framework within DHS, DOJ, and the FBI. |
REPAIR
Community forums and congressional hearings led by impacted/Muslim communities on the harms of CVE and reparation |
INVEST
Reallocate all CVE funding under DHS and DOJ to other non-law enforcement federal agencies under guidance of impacted communities |
Whether it’s called #COINTELPRO, #CVE, #TVTP or CP3, we know these "counter-terrorism" programs serve the same goal: criminalizing Muslim, Black, and Brown communities, quelling social movements, and strengthening the prison-industrial-complex under the guise of “national security”. While campaigning, Biden promised to end the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Program (TVTP). Instead, DHS simply rebranded the same Islamophobia and racist CVE framework into a new counterterrorism program named CP3: the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3).