This Is How the Implementation of UK's Counter-Terrorism Strategy Is Biased and Discriminating

A UN special rapporteur has denounced the UK's Prevent Strategy that targets Muslim communities, emphasizing that its implementation is "inconsistent" with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Since 2011, human rights groups have criticized the anti-terrorism strategy that turned into law for the challenges it poses to the justice system's foundations.

Ahead of a controversial independent review, the UK's anti-terrorism strategy is facing strong criticism and condemnation from a UN special rapporteur for "targeting Muslim communities."

Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, pointed out that: “The strategy has had a negative and discriminatory effect on Muslim communities and its implementation is inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

There has been regular pressure on the government to remove the strategy because of its discriminatory nature against Muslims, especially after the UK government failed to prove that it prevents terrorism.

 

Radicalization Referrals

Prevent strategy orders public authorities such as schools, colleges, universities, and health services to monitor students, patients, and clients for potential signs of radicalization in children as young as 4.

Multiple referrals are made each year, especially from the education sector. For instance, the TRT World revealed the case of a 12-year-old who was reported by her school to counter-terrorism police after showing sympathy towards Palestinians.

The most striking point about the strategy is that there is no independent reviewer to report the problems and drawbacks of its implementation.

Two leading experts on Prevent, Aitlhadj and John Holmwood, shared the largest ever review of Prevent, called "The People's Review of Prevent," highlighting that it is not preventing terrorism but instead it is traumatizing hundreds of innocent people, some young children.

The logic is that "you can stop somebody at age four or five when they're just displaying certain ideas or beliefs, because in 10- or 20-years’ time, they may go on to be a terrorist, which is quite an extraordinary claim," said Aitlhadj.

 

Muslims Beautiful Presence

In an interview with Al-Estiklal, Nadia Bouchaalah, the representative of the ASCA association for social and cultural activities, said: “Although the Prevent strategy is pushing towards collective supervision on Muslims, the British society is still very tolerant and welcoming for differences. this is what every visitor or resident in British can confirm.”

The journalist and management trainer Adnan Hamidan explained that at the first glance, the attention of the visitor to the city of London is drawn by the presence of Muslim veiled females along with Muslims in its various streets, among residents and tourists, and this is not only in London, but it is also the case of Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, and many other cities.

He added that the magnificence of this was evident in the meeting of about 150 memorizers of the Holy Qur’an from young people born, and raised in Britain. In the hall of the East London Mosque - one of the largest mosques in Britain - to study and recite the Quran by heart. Ten of them were able to recite the Holy Quran in full within ten hours.

London is the heart of the world, in which mosques, chapels, and Arabic language schools are spread, which number about 400 schools. Often they move to pray in a larger hall in the hospital because the chapel is not very spacious.

Mosques in Britain are registered as charitable foundations that receive donations from the people and receive annual government support of approximately 28 percent of what they receive from taxpayers.

If you go to Cambridge, which is one of the best-known universities in the world, you will find the Cambridge Central Mosque. The first environmentally friendly mosque in the world with an architectural design and no cooler, to be a competitor among the ten most distinguished buildings in its architecture in Britain for the year 2021.

As for the Dewsbury Mosque in Manchester, it won a royal award due to the excellence of its garden, after great care by a team of women, mostly new Muslims.

By Peoples Dispatch

 

Biased Criteria

The far-right hatred against Muslims has intensified under the pretext of combating terrorism, and with the government Prevent program, which targets 73 percent of Muslims more than others, according to a recent study entitled The People Review of Prevent.

The veiled Muslim woman is present in public life in Britain, as she is a driver of the famous red double-decker bus. She is sometimes the employee you will meet when you arrive at the airport to check your papers and stamp your passport to allow entry to the country, and you may find a very sensitive security inspection service at the airport. These people have full rights, and those who are subjected to abuse sue the abuser, even if the abuser is the government itself.

Among the indicators adopted by Prevent to determine the extent of extremism is “the development of personal identity and a sense of belonging", and this is biased and illogical, as British Muslims have no problems with integrating into society.

The danger in Prevent is also that children are required to submit reports about their parents, teachers about their students, and centers and institutions about their visitors, in a way that loses people's trust in each other and violates their privacy and freedoms.

It is noteworthy that this law was introduced by Tony Blair in 2003 and activated by Theresa May in 2015.

Between the beauty of the Islamic presence in the Britain atmosphere of ​​freedom and justice, and the challenge of fighting Muslims under the pretext of terrorism, the importance of the cooperation of Islamic institutions and centers is evident to enhance the positive aspects and reduce the negative effects that the extreme right exploits to spread its aggressive spirit.

In this regard, Muslims demand a continuous and effective political presence in the country and an increase in the role of centers that provide psychological and legal support to those who are subjected to racist abuse or treatment.