When I was told the Prevent referral was not being taken any further, I thought the story was over – until I got stopped at the airport and taken to a small room. But the whole experience has given me a gift that Prevent would never have expected.
I got a knock on my front door from two police officers acting on a Prevent referral. They introduced themselves as being from counter-terrorism.
They said they believed I had been watching terrorist or ‘Islamist’ material. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it; I thought someone had pulled a prank on me.
I just said “no comment”, because I didn’t know what else to say.
They started asking me if I had been looking at terrorist material. But they were very vague about what they meant by this. When I asked for clarification, one of the officers just said they had seen “thousands” of websites I had visited.
This was scary, because it was so ambiguous.
I have nothing to hide
Everyone has been on a million sites and seen a million things. Each time I tried to get specifics, they couldn’t say which “material” was problematic. But I have nothing to hide.
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I found that the way they were asking the questions was also very intrusive – one officer seemed to be judging my body language, while the other was asking questions and taking notes.
They asked me a lot of questions about how I got my information about Islam, and they also asked whether I had experienced any Islamophobia. I answered no to the last question.
Upon reflection, the main questions were around how I learned my religion.
I think a right-wing colleague reported me to Prevent
I have no idea what initiated the Prevent referral, but it might have been a discussion I had with a colleague, who has strong right-wing views.
We actually feel the same about some things, although not political ideology.
I believe he was the one who reported me to Prevent because a day or two after the police came to my house, he said to me: “Let’s have a political discussion.”
I said: “Nah, I’m not interested in these things anymore.”
And he replied: “Oh why’s that? Did something happen?”
Also, after the visit by the officers, he would actively try to speak to me about terrorism, which made me think he knew what had happened.
I truly believe that the officers acting on the referral had nothing on me – no evidence or grounds for any concerns, but they were contacted by my colleague and knew they had to make something up.
That’s why the accusations were so vague and yet very serious. A bit like throwing mud on a wall and hoping it sticks.
I felt harassed to engage with Prevent
After the initial engagement, I read some things online about the Prevent policy.
I thought to myself, I haven’t done anything wrong, and I am not volunteering myself to go through with a programme that makes me look like I have done something wrong.
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The officer who was tasked with getting me to engage with Prevent harassed me repeatedly. Every time she called I could hear her typing every word. She would also begin to argue with me, and ask why I was not engaging yet.
At last, I got an email from them saying that the Prevent case was closed and that there would be no further contact from them.
Stopped and questioned in a room at the airport
Then three months later I was approached by security services at the airport.
I had already traveled a couple of times since the referral, and I was always very anxious that this could happen.
I spent a lot of time thinking about the fact that I was “on the system” and that it would come up if I ever applied for jobs.
I knew instantly when they approached me at the airport that this had something to do with Prevent. When they said “step aside”, my heart just sank.
They led me into this room and said they wanted to have a “brief chat”.
They said things like “there’s something you can help us with”, and “we know you didn’t have a very good experience with Prevent”.
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They also said they “didn’t want to keep me”. I felt that this was contradictory, and I didn’t trust them.
They said they would call me and so the next day, I was waiting for a phone call from them, literally with my eyes on my phone all day.
They asked me to inform them on Muslims in my area
When they called, the officer said they wanted to sit me down and discuss how I could help them by passing them information on people of interest in the community.
I asked about how this would work, and how this would impact my job. They said they couldn’t discuss this on the phone, and it had to be in person.
I knew they were asking me to be a spy. They spoke specifically about the local community; they said they would give me information, and I would then go check it out, then bring back more information.
They said it can be in a mosque, or any place in the area, and about anyone of interest in the local community.
I said, “Let me think about this for two weeks”.
I refused to resume contact with them
The whole thing definitely impacted me. I struggled to sleep, and it changed my perspective of the world.
You hear these things, and we all know that there are spies among us, but you don’t actually think someone would actually approach you, until it happens.
They didn’t offer me cash in the first instance but I think the next conversation would have been about incentives and offers of how they could help me.
I did not call them after two weeks, and I haven’t heard from them in months.
By acting on the Prevent referral, my own government was criminalising me, when I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.
The whole has made me want to leave the country, to be honest.
This experience has given me something else
Terrorism is one of the worst crimes. To even hint that someone might do it, based on subjective assumptions, destroys any sort of trust in the government. This has made me isolate myself; it’s made me super suspicious of people. I lost friends.
I just do my own thing now and keep to myself – and even that, I know, looks suspicious.
But I would never, ever spy for them – even if they gave me the whole world, I would refuse it.
This has just proven to me that Islam is 100% the truth; it’s so crystal clear. This whole experience has given me this clarity.
Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash
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