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A very stupid way to counter contemptible viewpoints is to ban their adherents from venting them. This not only risks giving the adherents a kind of counter-cultural glamour they formerly lacked, but may also provoke a further hardening of their views, or even a violent reassertion on the part of the adherents themselves (or those who take offense on their behalf).The real issue for counter-terrorism is not extremism, but extreme action. It is those who walk the walk, not noisy blowhards and similar belligerents. It is actual terrorists and their plots we should be concerned about and trying to stop. Outlawing a set of views won't stop anyone from having them, so that plan of action only serves to divide and marginalize. But the government, despite all their resources and expertise, do not seem to recognize this. Instead, they choose to follow a path that may well backfire, worsening the very same concern they seek to contain.Simon Cottee is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Kent University. He is the author of The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam, published by Hurst & Co.