(CNN) -- Following the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, the attempted car bomb in Times Square in May and a number of other domestic cases, including the recent arrest of a Somali-American teenager in Portland, Oregon, U.S. security agencies are sharply focused on the potential "radicalization" of American-Muslims and how to prevent it. Many look across the Atlantic to the experience of Britain. Following the July 2005 attacks on London's transport system, a "counter-radicalization" strategy known as Preventing Violent Extremism was introduced. Dubbed Prevent for short, the strategy aims to intervene in the dynamics of Muslim communities to win over hearts and minds and secure allegiance to Western liberal democracy.
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Arun Kundnani: Some urge a U.S. government program aimed at extreme Muslim views
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He says a British program known as "Prevent" has done more harm than good
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He says government should not target the entire Muslim community
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Government interference in religious debate and views is unwise, he says
@placeholder governments are right to recognize that political legitimacy is a key asset in countering terrorism.