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The Prevent Duty mandates that public authorities must work to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. In this article we review how 158 UK Higher Education Institutions have responded to this new duty by examining their public-facing webpages and Prevent policy documentation. In doing this we draw upon de Certeau's notions of the everyday to highlight how such initiatives are presented publicly to viewing audiences, and how messages seep into and deepen security measures within UK Higher Education. In reviewing the performative element of Prevent, specifically how information is displayed, we find that the majority of UK Higher Education Institutions have approached their new roles through the prism of 'compliance' and/or 'safeguarding'. The article argues presentations of safeguarding, reassurance and reluctance offer a telling insight into how the Duty has been adopted in Higher Education Institutions' everyday practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon 157 responses to Freedom of Information Requests sent to Higher Education Institutions across England, Scotland and Wales, this article explores how the Prevent Duty has been enacted within UK higher education. The article shows how the duty has seen considerable repositioning and restructuring across the sector, conflated counterterrorism with safeguarding and introduced further bureaucracy. The article also explores the low number of Channel referrals, the justifications provided for these and the several instances in which institutions refused to disclose this information. We argue that these disproportionate developments have brought harmful depoliticising effects while also enhancing the mechanisms of surveillance and governance. Furthermore, we argue that our findings demonstrate the value in Freedom of Information Requests as a means of approach and suggest a continued need for critical researchers to explore the specific functioning of the duty to complement the broader critiques that are levelled at the policy as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mounting tide of foreign fighters leaving Britain for the Middle East to fight, sacrifice or find new lives has blighted European governments and led to the further tightening up of counter-terrorism measures. Since the first British arrest of a Syrian returnee (Choudhury) in 2014, the latest figures of foreign fighter returnees have surged to approximately 800. A number of strategies aimed at thwarting these trends have surfaced including a call upon Muslim parents to scrutinise their children’s attitudes and behaviour and to be watchful of their radicalization. Based on a study in the West Midlands (in the UK), the paper provides a snapshot of how Muslim parents have received calls upon them to report their actual or potentially radicalized children to the police. We argue that current practices are likely to be ineffective unless more democratic spaces are provided for free political expression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UK Government has recently announced a new Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 to facilitate tackling the threat of violent extremism. In light of this and previous initiatives, this paper provides a critical assessment of UK counterterrorism policy. This policy has created a notion of 'suspect communities' such that it has alienated young Muslims at the community engagement level, conceivably and empirically, potentially further exacerbating concerns government and communities have over questions of radicalisation, extremism, and the associated political and criminal violence. This paper argues that such policies can lead to the institutionalisation of Islamophobia, acting as an echo chamber for far right extremism to flourish. Significant gaps in government policy in this area can only be addressed by fostering effective relations between communities and policy makers, with enablers such as police officers, youth workers, activists and faith leaders empowered to formulate nuanced approaches in various local area settings. Given the social, cultural and political situation regarding British Muslim youth, including those presently thought to be fighting in parts of Iraq and Syria, as well as ongoing threats on UK soil presented as imminent and dangerous by UK government, there remain acute challenges with limited opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent UK media reports have often portrayed Muslim communities in a negative light (Allen, 2010). Indeed, the frequent media focus of Muslim's being arrested for counter-terrorism offences have been reported in great length. Yet the Muslim community remains diverse and is one of the longest established UK communities within Britain. However, previous studies show that there remains a tense relationship with the police and Muslim communities (Awan, 2011) with negative attitudes held by many young British Muslims towards the police (Kundnani, 2009), and indeed negativity remains stronger from young people from minority ethnic communities. The focus and aim of this research was to gather perceptions from the Muslim community in Birmingham as regards whether they would choose or recommend a career within the police service. Thus the objective for the study was to try and get a better understanding of Muslim perceptions about police recruitment. This article reports on the findings and implications of a small-scale study conducted in 2011 comprising of interviews with two Muslim groups namely the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities from Birmingham (in the UK), where 20 people were interviewed in four groups consisting of (5) par-ticipants. The categories included Young People (aged between 15 years and 18 years); Community Leaders; Mosque Representatives and Female Groups (aged between 18 years and 30 years) which aimed to identify and gather the views of Muslim communities in respect to their views about choosing a career with the police service. Analysis revealed that the Muslim community responded in a fairly homogeneous way: they had a lack of trust towards the police and also issues were raised about the legality of counter-terrorism policing operations; a perception that the police service were a racist organisation and that the police had failed to engage with the Muslim community in Birmingham which had left a negative experience of Muslim communities and the police.3 Recommendations to improve the image and recruitment into the police service include more pro-active work with local communities and the use of community policing as a means to reach out to otherwise 'hard to reach groups'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The former Chief Inspector of Prisons in Britain, Dame Anne Owers, raised a number of serious questions about the treatment and safety of Muslim prisoners. In light of these concerns, it is important to examine the role of the potential radicalization of Muslim prisoners in Britain. Indeed, British prisons have become integral institutions that must focus on rehabilitation as well as resettlement programs within Muslim communities in order to successfully change ideology and perception. However, there are problems with many de-radicalization programs in prison as they are viewed with suspicion and are deemed to be used to provide intelligence and unnecessary surveillance upon all Muslim prisoners regardless of the offense they may have committed. The paper examines the risk of radicalization in UK prisons and concludes that prison staff must work on building trust with Muslim prisoners and de-radicalization programs must focus on using religion as a means to tackling the problem of radicalization amongst prisoners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this article is to examine the new Prevent Strategy 2011 in the United Kingdom and critically analyze its impact upon British Muslim communities. The U.K. government's controversial Prevent Strategy 2011 has come under fierce opposition, with critics arguing that it will not actually prevent extremism but risks labeling the Muslim community as a 'suspect' community. Following the British government review of counterterrorism policies and strategies in 2010, the article examines the key question: Will the new Prevent policy actually work? Recent studies show that previous Prevent policies have risked alienating the Muslim community ( Kundnani). Indeed, the new Prevent Strategy 2011 also has the risk of the depoliticization of Muslim communities from wider civic society and risks creating a mosaic for extremist ideologies. The article argues that, in practice, Prevent is not particularly efficacious, and that the new strategy risks further marginalizing and stigmatizing Muslim communities. Related Articles [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed by the West Midlands Police in England in the Muslim suburbs in Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook areas in Birmingham, England. It states that the camera installation aimed to perceive terrorist attacks and reduce terrorism in the state. It also says that the installation caused violent extremism to some members of the communities because of anger and dissatisfaction and caused alienation of the communities.