Over the last two years, the Obama administration and Congress have promoted Countering Violent Extremism or “CVE” as a “soft” counterterrorism methodology designed to empower communities and build resilience to extremism. But CVE isn’t a new concept, and the flawed foundation on which these programs are built all but ensures that they have negative impacts, including: stigmatizing Muslims and reinforcing Islamophobic stereotypes, facilitating covert intelligence-gathering, suppressing dissent against government policies, and sowing discord in targeted communities. As more CVE programs are implemented, the more important it is shed light on the myths on which they are based: