For decades, the UK has run Prevent, a counter-extremism programme that places Muslims under suspicion and reinforces prejudice. Thousands are reported to police every year but the UK police admit they are not collecting consistent data about the race or religion of those referred to Prevent. They do not know the programme's potential level of racism or Islamophobia and so can't tackle the problem. We push the police and Home Office to collect better data about Prevent's impact on minorities.
The goal of the Prevent programme is to stop people being drawn into terrorism. However, there is no evidence that it has been effective in stopping violence, but it has reinforced prejudice against Muslims and resulted in the policing of young people, many of whom will have records in police databases when they have done nothing wrong. We know of an 8-year old referred to Prevent because of a wrong assumption about his t-shirt's slogan. The programme may also cause harms to neurodiverse people.
To understand how Prevent both reflects and exacerbates prejudice, we will: Pursue freedom of information requests to expose the data the government has about the impact of Prevent on racial and religious groups; Take action to compel the police to keep better records to allow equality monitoring; Document the police databases where the government compiles sensitive data about people under Prevent; and Develop alternatives to Prevent that respect rights and more effectively prevent violence.
Prevent has been harming people's, especially students' ability to express themselves freely for years, even when they are doing nothing wrong. It also teaches the UK population to be suspicious of 'the other' and report them to the police. More information about how Prevent impacts racial and religious minority groups in the UK will help us and affected communities push for better practices. We will advocate for an end to Prevent and an embrace of evidence-based, effective violence prevention.
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