The People’s Review of Prevent is an alternative review to the Government Shawcross Review.
This review provides a voice to the people most impacted by the Prevent Duty.
Prevent is described as ‘safeguarding’ children from harms. However, under Prevent, safeguarding is focused on protecting the wider public from children believed to be ‘risky’, rather than protecting children from harms.
Throughout our report we present case studies that show how real these harms can be and the distress they cause to children and their families and carers.
How the Prevent Duty has impacted UK higher education forms the crux of this journal article based on 157 FOI requests to higher education institutions in the UK in 2020.
Using the largest data set collected in the UK at the time (2015–18), Islam on Campus explores how Islam is represented, perceived and lived in UK higher education.
In the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair told a global education forum extremism should be treated as a global problem like climate change. He said: there should be an international agreement to put teaching against extremism into education systems around the world. Following terrorist attacks, it’s understandable politicians want to come up with quick, tangible measures to prevent other incidents and to tackle the problem at what is seen to be its core. There is merit in Blair saying challenging prejudice “needs to begin at an early age” (in schools). But we must also be cautious when promoting kneejerk responses to complex issues, particularly when it involves the welfare and future of children. Read more
The Index on Censorship report into freedom of expression at universities ignores the experience of Muslims, who are facing the brunt of institutional policies to quell their right to free speech, in what amounts to a total erasure of their voice and experiences on campuses. The report arrives at some agreeable conclusions, and takes into consideration the impact of PREVENT on freedom of expression, however it frames Muslim students as either actors in denying free speech to others, or as nameless victims who have no voice. Read more
A counterterrorism strategy has created a “culture of fear” across UK universitieswhere freedom of expression and open debate is being stifled, experts and campaigners warn. The government’s Prevent duty, which requires institutions to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”, is having a “chilling effect” on free speech on campus, critics say. Read more
An essay by a prominent leftwing academic that examines the ethics of socialist revolution has been targeted by a leading university using the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. Students at the University of Reading have been told to take care when reading an essay by the late Professor Norman Geras, in order to avoid falling foul of Prevent. Read more
Major study finds that many Muslim students are self-censoring and disengaging from UK campus life. Read more
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180407-students-march-against-prevent-at-the-university-of-westminster/#.WsjdZGxMLKo.twitter
