The UK government’s “preventing violent extremism” (PVE), programme was exposed as early as 2010 as being both failed and counter-productive through increasing political and academic scrutiny.
Author Paul Thomas’ journal article was published in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations in August 2010, and it was an early precursor for today’s large body of research illustrating the harms of the UK’s Prevent counter-extremism strategy.
Thomas argues that PVE’s “monocultural focus on Muslims is in stark contradiction to the overriding policy goal of community cohesion, while its implementation has provoked accusations both of surveillance and of engineering ‘value changes’ within Muslim communities”.
This is an interesting read for those wishing to understand how the arguments against Prevent have changed and grown, as the strategy has morphed and extended into public services.
It is also important reading for those encountering PVE in other countries, to whom Prevent is used as a “flagship” programme despite its failings.
The article is available HERE.
Related resources
- The People’s Review of Prevent (Report, 2022)
- Human rights and the globalisation of counter-extremism (Report, 2018)
- State-Muslim engagement: Governing through Prevent (March ,2015)
