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"Countering Extremism Program" Re-Shaped to Only Focus on Islamist Extremism; Funds Pulled From Fighting KKK, neo-Nazis
The White House is changing the purpose of the “Countering Extremism Program” which is a Department of Homeland Security program dedicated to combating ALL types of extremist ideologies. The DHS announced changes to the $10 million grant program that will take money away from groups that work to combat domestic-based extremism (neo-Nazi / KKK), diverting those funds solely to fighting Islamist extremism-related groups.
In an update to awards announced in January by former President Barack Obama's administration, the department released a new list of grant recipients and amounts, shifting money to law enforcement offices and away from groups that combat U.S.-based extremism.
The most visible example losing funding is Life After Hate, a group that provides counseling to help young people who express a desire to leave far-right extremism.
The administration slashed $400,000 in federal funding for one Chicago-based group that combats white extremism with programs to help people leaving including neo-Nazi organizations and the Ku Klux Klan.
Christian Picciolini, a co-founder of Life After Hate, told Reuters his group was planning to use its $400,000 grant to scale up its counselor network of former extremists to "meet the highly increased requests for our services since Election Day.... The current administration's lack of focus on domestic white extremist terrorism, let alone its denial to even acknowledge it exists, is highly troubling," Picciolini wrote in an email.
Another high-quality group that also lost their funding for no good reason:
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a nonprofit group that works to improve public understanding and policies that affect American Muslims, said the Trump administration revoked its nearly $400,000 grant because the group "did not meet the criteria of working with law enforcement to counter violent extremism."
Sources: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-extremism-grants-idUSKBN19E2NF