Safina Saadat

The Modern Approach to Tolerance and Radicalisation in Moral Education: Case Study of Prevent

The Prevent policy was introduced in the UK in 2003 as one of the four principle strands of an overall post 9/11 counter-terrorism approach (CONTEST), designed to reduce and prevent the radicalisation of individuals to terrorism by referring those at risk to a program of ‘rehabilitation’ known as Channel. In 2015, the Prevent policy became a legal duty for public sector institutions to refer those deemed to be suspect, and as such, its reach has extended much deeper into society. Since its inception, it has come under fierce opposition, with critics arguing that it will not actually prevent extremism but its clear focus on Muslims risks labelling them as a “suspect” community. This has sent a strong signal to wider society about the nature of Muslims in Britain and is influential in shaping people’s assumptions about Muslims and Islam– forming the basis of Islamophobia. The Prevent policy has been counterproductive and particularly damaging to education in its categorical error of assuming that there is a conveyer-belt process that leads from “moderate” religiosity to murderous radicalisation. And herein lies the second problem: how are we to define that extremism?  In 2014, the Department for Education introduced a regulation in schools which required them to “actively promote fundamental British values (FBV) of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”. Despite most Muslim teachers insisting that they saw no conflict between Islamic values and FBV, this article argues how FBV are implicitly defined in opposition to Islam promoting an Us-and-Them mentality.  Attempts are made to examine the impact of the Prevent policy upon British Muslim communities including education and educationalists and ultimately the sense of personal and national identities as British Muslims.