It was not until after the Birmingham Trojan Horse scandal that a new agenda for Prevent was fully implemented. This article argues that Prevent this has further securitised British Muslims instead of empowering them and recognising their ability to challenge violent narratives, writes Zin Darfoufi.
Since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition set out its intentions to direct counter-terrorism policies towards ‘non-violent extremism’ in 2011, the Prevent strategy has pivoted away from community engagement and towards a stronger focus on the alleged risks of young people being ‘radicalised’ by their own community.
It was not until after the Birmingham Trojan Horse scandal that this new agenda was fully implemented, with a legal duty placed on all those providing public services – employees in education, health and mental health and social work, etc – to monitor service users and report individuals who may be a cause for concern to local Prevent panels.
As this article argues, this has further securitised British Muslims instead of empowering them and recognise their ability to challenge violent narratives. This shift toward targeting so-called ‘non-violent extremists’ reinforces Prevent’s problematic assumption that young Muslims are inherently vulnerable to violent extremism due to ideas that are widely held within their communities which, despite being non-violent, promote detachment from British society and, therefore, makes young people unable to resist engaging in violence.
Read more in The Discover Society.
Photo by Mert Kahveci on Unsplash
Related…
Browse our Trojan Horse page.
