Is the Prevent strategy demonising Muslim schoolchildren?
September 24, 2015 10:23 AM   Subscribe

'You worry they could take your kids' Teachers [in the UK] now have a statutory duty to spot signs of 'non-violent extremism', with children as young as three being referred for anti-radicalisation. Does the policy safeguard vulnerable pupils – or discriminate against Muslims?
posted by jack_mo (35 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ah, yes. Of course the UK is combating non-violent extremism.

Can't let the "Gandhi Incident" happen again, now can we?
posted by schmod at 10:26 AM on September 24, 2015 [25 favorites]


Does this mean that teachers can report the children of UKIP voters, or are their views beyond the realm of "non-violent"?

No, seriously Europe*. Take a fucking long and hard look at yourself before speaking up about "extremism." The past month has left us with incontrovertible proof that extremism and state-sanctioned xenophobia are now the mainstream in Europe. There was an opportunity to handle the situation well, and everybody fucking blew it. Germany, of all places, was the only country that even tried to do the right thing.

* Yes that means you too, Britain. If you take issue with being put in a category with "those people" because they're on the same fucking continent, you're also part of the problem.

posted by schmod at 10:32 AM on September 24, 2015 [26 favorites]


Yeah, schmod. As soon as the teachers start reporting kids from UKIP-friendly homes, I think you'll see this ugly little program quietly disappear.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:35 AM on September 24, 2015


Things that help prevent students from becoming radicalized:
Detaining and questioning them for reading a book about terrorism. While said student is taking a class about it, while enrolled in a masters program that partially focuses on it.

Wasn't there a quote from Cameron about how they needed to focus on people who were simply getting by and not actually committing crimes? Or was that some other politician?
posted by Hactar at 10:36 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It's often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that's helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance. This Government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach.
--David Cameron, shortly after winning the election.

I mean... words fail me, honestly.
posted by metaBugs at 10:41 AM on September 24, 2015 [36 favorites]


Well we all know that Islamophobia and xenophobia are the right way to prevent extremism.
posted by shesbenevolent at 10:50 AM on September 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


A UK Islamic suicide bomber blew up a bus outside the building I used to work in, killing 13 other people. Over 50 people were murdered in London that day by suicide bombers. I am glad the UK government is trying to prevent people from going down that path.
posted by w0mbat at 11:00 AM on September 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


"How do we solve the problem of angry, alienated radicals?"

"Anger them further, sir?"
"Alienate them some more?"
"Justify their radicalization?"
"Come at them with a pointed stick?"

"Precisely!"
posted by Sys Rq at 11:02 AM on September 24, 2015 [14 favorites]


I hope I'm wrong but I suspect that "anti-radicalisation", particularly when being managed by this Govt, will have completely the opposite effect.

I'll bet some money that "Channel" will be out-sourced (if it hasn't been already) to some outfit like Serco in the next couple of years. Because God knows that detention centers like the disgrace of violence and rape at Yarl's Wood hasn't been enough to stop them from selling men, women, and children out at the nearest opportunity.

Oh and: "We are not asking you to spy,” she explains calmly. “But to look out for troubling behaviour."

Teachers do that ALL THE TIME.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 11:02 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've been through (compulsory) Continuous Professional Development sessions for educators led by dismayingly cheerful Home Office drones. They were at great pains to say that radicalisation could come from anywhere (even white people!).

Half the teachers present saw it as the absurd nonsense that it is, the other half took it incredibly seriously and now question kids on a daily basis. It's one of a list of recent changes to education in the UK that's encouraging me to change careers.
posted by brilliantmistake at 11:04 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Detaining and questioning them for reading a book about terrorism.

Books are one thing, but how about being investigated for knowing what the word 'ecoterrorist' means?
posted by effbot at 11:06 AM on September 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


I mean... words fail me, honestly.

They don't fail me. Fuck him and his hypocrisy.
posted by Fizz at 11:11 AM on September 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Half the teachers present saw it as the absurd nonsense that it is, the other half took it incredibly seriously and now question kids on a daily basis. It's one of a list of recent changes to education in the UK that's encouraging me to change careers.

And it's this "other half" that's going to push parents of kids to look for segregated education - a further travesty and maybe a greater risk for radicalisation than there is at the moment.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 11:11 AM on September 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


I'm guessing #2?
posted by gottabefunky at 11:15 AM on September 24, 2015


A UK Islamic suicide bomber blew up a bus outside the building I used to work in, killing 13 other people. Over 50 people were murdered in London that day by suicide bombers. I am glad the UK government is trying to prevent people from going down that path.

I understand what you're saying, but the one of quickest ways to reduce this problem is to remove the Muslim clerics and their supporters who radicalise young British Muslim men and women, in this case Abdullah el-Faisal.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 11:49 AM on September 24, 2015


Why not just place all kids in the custody of the state until they're adults? Then we'll ensure we have exactly the sort of citizens we want.
posted by resurrexit at 11:52 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
~ Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
posted by Fizz at 11:53 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Why not just place all kids in the custody of the state until they're adults? Then we'll ensure we have exactly the sort of citizens we want.

This reminds me of the story plot for the JRPG video game Freedom Wars:
Freedom Wars takes place on Earth, in the year 102014. The world surface lies in ruins and is no longer capable of supporting life. As such, humans live in underground cities called "Panopticons", where they struggle to research how to be able to live on the surface once more. A Panopticon functions as an artificial nation in the form of a city state that provides security for its inhabitants, in exchange for contributions each inhabitant is obligated to make towards the state. This system forms the overall societal structure of each separate Panopticon, which were created following the disintegration and demise of countries. Due to lack of resources, each Panopticon has developed conflicts with others, and large portions of the populace are forced into serving sentences in order for these cities to maintain effective control. All inhabitants of a Panopticon are constantly watched by the state to ensure they abide by the draconian laws put into place, essentially forming a collective of dystopian surveillance societies at war with one another.
posted by Fizz at 11:56 AM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Australian version mentions alternative music and caring about the environment as potential paths to radicalization.
posted by clawsoon at 12:00 PM on September 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


So this is basically the real life version of Jack Chick's paranoid The AntiChrist and his world order are "coming for us Christians", only - it's David "Pigfucker" Cameron as the Dajjal/Antichrist and Muslims in the role of persecuted big-brother victims.

http://media.chick.com/tractimages67491/0094/0094_14.gif
posted by symbioid at 1:03 PM on September 24, 2015


I don't see how this is going to be effective when radicals can simply repair to a private house and be as radical as they want. What's needed is a way to watch them at home. Technology exists to install always-on cameras within the TV console that everyone has. These new devices could be called "telescreens". The people will be most grateful that crimes committed with mere thoughts can now be ferreted out. We could call these violations "thoughtcrimes".
posted by telstar at 1:12 PM on September 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


Nice to see Ben Franklin quoted. Too bad he and his merry founders had nothing to say about owning slaves. Ben did not own any, but some ten of our presidents had owned while in office or when not in office.
posted by Postroad at 1:13 PM on September 24, 2015


Too bad he and his merry founders had nothing to say about owning slaves.

I'm not sure the "we cannot listen to what anyone says about anything, unless they comment on absolutely everything" approach is that practical, really. But there are other problems using that quote in privacy and surveillance contexts, since it originally appeared in an entirely different context: "It is a quotation that defends the authority of a legislature to govern in the interests of collective security. It means, in context, not quite the opposite of what it's almost always quoted as saying but much closer to the opposite than to the thing that people think it means."
posted by effbot at 1:25 PM on September 24, 2015 [5 favorites]


Too bad he and his merry founders had nothing to say about owning slaves.

Since Franklin was the president of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, he had quite a bit to say about owning slaves.

Ben did not own any

He owned two; George and King. He eventually gave that up, but he definitely owned slaves for a significant portion of his life.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:27 PM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


A UK Islamic suicide bomber blew up a bus outside the building I used to work in, killing 13 other people. Over 50 people were murdered in London that day by suicide bombers. I am glad the UK government is trying to prevent people from going down that path.

"Something must be done! This is something. We must do this!"
posted by howfar at 1:30 PM on September 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


I had to go through this training recently. I work at a sixth form that's primarily Muslim. I was happily surprised that my training focused on right-wing extremists, such as neo-Nazis, but I worry that other places had a very different training than I did.
posted by toerinishuman at 1:50 PM on September 24, 2015


A UK Islamic suicide bomber blew up a bus outside the building I used to work in, killing 13 other people. Over 50 people were murdered in London that day by suicide bombers. I am glad the UK government is trying to prevent people from going down that path.

Islamic terrorists blew up a bar I used to hang out at a couple of months after my last visit. Over 200 people were murdered in that attack. I am sad the UK government is trying to prevent people from going down that path by instituting an alienating, useless, discriminatory practice that stands a good chance of increasing radicalization while stamping down on individual freedoms.
posted by dazed_one at 2:14 PM on September 24, 2015 [10 favorites]


Being a more-informed-than-most-dads guy, I went to a presentation my kid's school gave about online safety and privacy. It's a topic that means a lot to me, and I have lots of opinions on the subject.

They used materials given to them by the Met, and it was the steamingest pile of victim-blaming lock-up-your-daughters tripe it has ever been my misfortune to witness.

So yeah, I can well imagine that even a well-meaning "let's watch out for alienation/radicalisation and try to head it off early" programme can immediately turn into "If a Brown kid uses any word beginning in T-E-R, rush them immediately to a High Pressure Alienation Centre for Processing!"

Here's a trippy idea: how about instead of being Big Investigators Investigating Suspicious People, we let our public servants provide a service. How about we just make it so that the local muslim community feels safe bringing their own fears and concerns to the authorities, without threat of all being locked up in the same cell for having spoken Arabic in public.

Because you know what? The people in these communities understand this situation more than outsiders, no matter how shiny the badge.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:26 PM on September 24, 2015 [10 favorites]


Good luck finding non-violent 3 years olds!
posted by srboisvert at 2:31 PM on September 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


Anyone know where I could get a copy of the "if I hadn't intervened" video the teachers are watching at the beginning of this piece (without giving money to right wingers/inspire/ukgov)? Nothing that seemed to fit the bill on inspires site, or maybe I don't know quite what I'm looking for.

Anyhow, the scatalogical humor loving child in me would like to retroscript their go-to teacher indoctrination video and do some "reparative" editing.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 4:31 PM on September 24, 2015


I understand what people mean when they say "extremism" but I think using it to apply actual forceful restraint on others because they are "too extreme" becomes dangerous itself.

I understand why many are afraid of religion and the religious--I used to think religion was the cause of a lot of terrible human behavior and it can be inter-related, but the problem really comes from a myriad of problems that exist in secular human structures- power struggles, abuse, blind obedience to authority, the use of even subtle coercion and force and negative repercussions to create an environment of compliance. Religion can be a tool of these problematic forces, but I don't think they are innately the same thing.

People who practice "extreme" ahimsa, as it was said elsewhere, might be extremely annoying, but are unlikely to form violent militias unless it were absolutely necessary for self defense if even then. I feel like words matter and maybe we can tease out some better words for the problem of seemingly unnecessary violence carried out under religious doctrines- maybe that would help us tease out the real problem and better address it.
Devout Christians are not being targeted which means this isn't about being extremely religious, it's about concerns that violence is coded into a religion, a concern that I think we should be concerned about in ANY religion or social group.

(Onion):
Extremist Buddhists threaten to unleash tranquility on the west
posted by xarnop at 5:02 PM on September 24, 2015


The Australian version mentions alternative music and caring about the environment as potential paths to radicalization.

This has only just hit the news - it's currently trending on Twitter under the hashtag #freekaren, after this insane example in the booklet about a poor misguided girl named Karen who, *gasp*, cares about the environment. I like Junkee's take.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:24 PM on September 24, 2015


Given the fact that men, as a group, commit violence at utterly (insanely) disproportionate rates, where is the course aimed at spotting and preventing extremist masculinity?
posted by howfar at 11:13 PM on September 24, 2015


"I understand what people mean when they say "extremism" but I think using it to apply actual forceful restraint on others because they are "too extreme" becomes dangerous itself."
xarnop, you might like this quote from MLK in "Letter From A Birmingham Jail":
"Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."
posted by Blasdelb at 1:51 AM on September 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Building Distrust: Ethnic Profiling in Primary Schools:
  • The BRIT project was especially focused on children from Muslim backgrounds and constitutes a form of ethnic profiling.
  • The design of the BRIT project appears to draw on models of radicalisation that emphasise struggles over identity and a lack of contact with other ethnic and religious groups as a psychological vulnerability that makes extremism more likely. However, such models lack any substantial evidence base and have been widely discredited by academic researchers...
  • In practice, this is leading to young children from Muslim backgrounds being identified as suspicious on the basis of vague criteria, such as ‘having an identity conflict’, which has no demonstrated link to terrorism.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 3:54 AM on September 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


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