For many of those who are aware, Muslim communities included, Prevent is a common sense, social care approach to an ever-growing global phenomenon. It is difficult to frame Natalie James’ response to my original article avoiding as it does the very heart of the matter, that there are increasing numbers of young people for whom ideology is a… Continue reading “Preventing violent extremism: stepping out of our echo chambers”
For many people affected by Prevent, enough is not being done. In a recent piece by CARR Policy and Practitioner Fellow William Baldet, who is a CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) practitioner in his day to day job, he argues that ‘all individuals who are at risk should be supported’ from being drawn into terrorism. His… Continue reading “We need to talk about Kieron, but also about those around him”
When it comes to preventing people being drawn into terrorism, our responsibility is to offer interventions and support to all individuals who are at risk. It was 4am when the phone call came through. The FBI had contacted Scotland Yard, who in turn had contacted my local Police force who had decided I should immediately… Continue reading “Prevent and the Terrorism Act: we need to talk about Kieron”
The UK education system has, since the statutorisation of Prevent, been legally obliged to both nurture ‘resilient’ students and refer those whose resilience has been or is at risk of being eroded. Resilience being understood as the ability to ‘bounce back from adversity’, or in other words, being able to both reject and remove oneself… Continue reading “A Case for Making Students Resilient to the Far-Right?”
Anti-fascist action has been an inherent part of the British society. Macklin and Busher (2015), who looked at the interactions between far right movements and counter-movements in the period after World War II, referred, for instance, to the activities of the 43 Group in the 1940s, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the 1970s, Anti-Fascist… Continue reading “The Battle of Cable Street: ‘they shall not pass’”
As recently published Prevent data shows, radical right extremism presents a very real threat to the UK’s domestic security. That to date, Prevent – the UK Government’s counter-extremism strategy – has been almost exclusively deployed in response to Islamist-inspired extremism, ensuring it is effective and appropriate for the newly emergent radical right threat presents a… Continue reading “The Counter-Extremism Response to the Radical Right: The Need for New Thinking”
Unless we start to resolve the systemic challenges in our communities, we are doing nothing to mitigate the racist stereotyping articulated by Neeson. A few weeks ago, Liam Neeson, the actor best known for his role as a protective father in the Taken movies and as Obi-Wan Kenobi’s mentor, sparked controversy due to comments he… Continue reading “Liam Neeson And The Prevalence Of Racial Stereotyping”
British values are often comically referred to as the need for orderly queues, a respect for the Queen and cucumber sandwiches with pots of tea, or for one of my participants in my forthcoming PhD thesis, “I’d think of someone getting drunk like on their summer holidays in Ibiza or something”. However, for Government officials,… Continue reading “Mapping the Malleability of British Values”
“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” These fourteen words have been seared into white supremacist folklore. Coined by David Laine, a member of the white supremacist group The Order, they summarise his 88 Manifesto, itself a redaction of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and present an inevitable extinction of… Continue reading “Taking our Children – Why Radical Right Extremists Prey on Our Deepest Human Fears”
As a practitioner working in Prevent I am always grateful for the opportunity to engage with and learn from academia. Whilst I cannot profess to have any theoretical or conceptual expertise in areas such as “cumulative or reciprocal radicalisation” or “interactive escalation,” I do feel that my personal experiences of working in counter terrorism can… Continue reading “Reciprocal Radicalisation – Practical Examples of Prevent Support”