Prevent has been criticised as legitimising and reinforcing Islamophobia, and restricting freedom of expression for Muslims in the UK. Below is some basic information about the Program as well as criticism. I and other Labour councillors stood on a platform of review of the Prevent Program and would like peoples thoughts:
What is Prevent?
The purpose of Prevent is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. “Prevent” includes countering terrorist ideology and challenging those who promote it, supporting individuals who are especially vulnerable to becoming radicalised and working with sectors and institutions where the risk of radicalisation is assessed to be high. The deradicalisation programme is known as Channel. It is led by the police and liberal Muslim mentors who do not espouse any anti-Western violence.
As of February 2015, all National Health Service (NHS) staff are required to undergo basic Prevent Awareness Training, and schools have a statutory duty to have due regard for the prevention of terrorism. This ‘duty’ does not extend to teachers but enables schools to embed safeguard measures against radicalization within their standard safeguarding policies.
Criticism of Prevent
The ‘Prevent’ strategy was criticised in 2009 by Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, as a domestic spying programme collecting intelligence about the beliefs of British Muslims not involved in criminal activity.[16] The Communities and Local Government Committee were also critical of the Prevent programme in 2010, stating that it stigmatised and alienated Muslims the government wanted to work with.
Prevent has been criticised as legitimising and reinforcing Islamophobia, and restricting freedom of expression for Muslims in the UK.
At the National Union of Teachers’ 2016 conference in Brighton, the union members voted overwhelmingly against the Prevent strategy. They supported its abolition, citing concerns over the implementation of the strategy and causing “suspicion in the classroom and confusion in the staff room.”
In June 2016, the MPs Lucy Allan and Norman Lamb introduced a private member’s bill to repeal provisions in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 where it requires staff to report possible signs of extremism or radicalization between primary and nursery school-aged children, following several high-profile cases where the provision was inappropriately used about the Prevent strategy. The Bill did not become law.
In 2017, two brothers, aged seven and five, were paid damages after they were reported to the Prevent program after telling a teacher they had been given toy guns. The children had been kept from parents for two hours. After a legal challenge, the Central Bedfordshire council admitted the children’s human rights were breached and they had been racially discriminated against.
Prevent has also been accused of reducing academic freedom. In November 2018, the University of Reading highlighted the article Our Morals: The Ethics of Revolution by Professor Norman Geras as potentially harmful. Students were instructed not to download the article on personal devices and not to leave the article where it could be visible “inadvertently or otherwise, by those who are not prepared to view it”.[23] In March 2019, the Court of Appeal found that the Prevent guidance on inviting controversial speakers at Universities was unlawfully unbalanced and must be rewritten
Prevent and Tower Hamlets
Many Muslims face discrimination and prejudice on a daily basis. Including certain practices adopted by public bodies which criminalise the entire community, known as the Prevent Program. This is topical now in Tower Hamlets with the Shamima Begum case.
Please find below a link to a video interview with a former teacher, who lost his job along with others due to a baseless allegation under the Prevent Program.
Articles on the hoax:
Trojan horse: the real story behind the fake ‘Islamic plot’ to take over schools
https://www.theguardian.com/…/trojan-horse-the-real-story-b…
Investigate the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/investigate-birmingham-trojan-horse-affair/
Trojan Horse, Prevent, Islamophobia: How the EHRC failed British Muslims
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-ehrc-prevent-equality-islamophobia-failed-muslims
‘Big bad Muslim’: The play that allowed Trojan Horse teachers to start healing
https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/review-trojan-horse-theatre-play-birmingham-scandal
NAMING THE NARRATIVES: THE TROJAN HORSE AFFAIR IN BIRMINGHAM
Link to the interview with a victim of the hoax:
I and other Labour councillors stood on a platform of review of the Prevent Program and would like peoples thoughts.
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