Muslims in Britain are almost used to being criminalised. Our subjugation is entrenched in law, our marginalisation woven into policy. We are surveilled and policed by every institution: in the nation’s hospitals, airports and schools. The Prevent strategy turns public sector workers — who should be keeping us safe, treating us when we are ill and getting us through exams — into counter-terror spies. Our very Muslimness makes us a threat.
Prevent, which was created in 2007 to safeguard those vulnerable to radicalisation, has long been criticised by Muslims and their allies. In February this year a People’s Review of Prevent — an alternative to the upcoming Shawcross review, a government-commissioned inquiry — was published, concluding that the programme is “discriminatory in its impact on Muslim communities” and potentially “breaches children’s rights and human rights”. Meanwhile, the Shawcross review, although not yet published, has already come under fire, not least due to the opinion of the man in charge of it. William Shawcross, a former chairman of the Charity Commission, has in the past made statements such as “Europe and Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future”.
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