{"id":17639,"date":"2017-11-09T18:27:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T18:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=17639"},"modified":"2017-11-09T18:27:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T18:27:44","slug":"prevent-anti-terrorism-scheme-does-not-prevent-it-only-makes-students-feel-victimised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/prevent-anti-terrorism-scheme-does-not-prevent-it-only-makes-students-feel-victimised\/","title":{"rendered":"Is prevent anti-terrorism scheme victimising Muslim students?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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‘What the Prevent duty means for schools and colleges in England’ Credits: Coventry University<\/p><\/div>\n

A new report suggests that Prevent may not be serving a purpose within education, as students refuse to cooperate with the \u00a0government\u00a0programme aimed at tackling extremism.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Government report<\/a>\u00a0revealed that out of 7,631 people, who were referred to the governments Prevent program between 2015\/16, only 4% of those individuals are currently receiving support.<\/p>\n

Support is offered within the \u00a0Channel Program, where individual issues are discussed as part of a voluntary and confidential process where help, advice and guidance is given to \u2018vulnerable\u2019 people who are susceptible to radicalisation. Out of 381 students that were referred to support, 96% left the process \u2013 according to the Home Office report.<\/p>\n

The education sector is responsible for reporting 2,500 cases – whilst police reports constitute for 2,539 cases.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Voice of London, Riyad Daoudi, 19, from City of Bristol College says:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a sociology lesson and we were having a class discussion about IS and current affairs. I told them how my friend is a refugee and wanted to show me what was happening in his country, about how violent and unlawful IS are – these are things we don\u2019t always see in the media which censors a lot of that stuff out. When I spoke about this event in class I was followed out the room by my teacher when I wanted to get some water. She started interrogating me about why I was watching IS videos. I felt pretty uncomfortable about it and I had to make sure I defended myself properly otherwise she\u2019d think I was a terrorist, when really I was just trying discuss the issue. I believe we should be tackling extremism as there have been terror attacks at my college, but I feel that this is a really ineffective way of preventing terrorism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What exactly does the report show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two-thirds of cases were reported on the premises of Islamic extremism whilst 679\u00a0were referred over concerns over right-wing extremism.\u00a0Out of all the individuals referred, 4,274 or 56% were aged 20 years or under.\"\"<\/a>
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Findings also demonstrate that males are more likely to be reported, making up a considerable majority of 78%.<\/p>\n

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The type of concern was largely identified as Islamic extremism (87 per cent), opposed to right wing extremism (13 per cent).<\/p>\n

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The results suggest that predominately, the most suspected people are Muslim males. The scheme is already controversial since ethical problems arise when officers and police officials start operating within a learning environment, where many would argue that discussion and open debate is a crucial element of feeling safe and accepted within a community.<\/p>\n

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Young activist @hasaanaminmyc @hasaanamin<\/a> on board with our campaign pic.twitter.com\/uFwEXobIed<\/a><\/p>\n

— Prevent prevent (@Preventprevent) August 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n