Towards a Society Beyond PREVENT

We, the undersigned, recognise that PREVENT is a failed policy that must be abolished and firmly uprooted from society. 

The latest attempt to ‘independently review’ the policy has emerged as being nothing more than a PR exercise to deal with surface-level issues, whilst the Commission for Countering Extremism’s new report seeks to further entrench the framework of Prevent in all but name. 

The rationale and ‘science’ underpinning the policy have been roundly debunked by academics and experts across the board – yet it still continues to be experimented on communities.

The Government’s insistence on the policy against all facts is not only ideologically-driven but also due to its refusal to engage alternative thinking.

Decades of security-heavy policies have not reduced political violence nor addressed the root causes of it. We believe an alternative approach must break from the endless cycle of review, reform and rhetoric.

We must move beyond the narrow, rigged discussions which begin and end on the terms set by government and the security industry – namely that we need surveillance programmes to combat “extremism” and “radicalisation”. 

Rather, we need to reframe the conversation, broaden our collective horizons, and talk about how we can work towards building a healthy, safe society free from violence. 

To that end, we believe the following framework provides a set of short and long term goals through which we can rebuild that society:

1. Ending PREVENT
2. Abandoning the discredited ‘theoretical’ assumptions underpinning Prevent
3. Decoupling welfare and safeguarding from counter-terrorism
4. Ending austerity and restoring ‘clean’ funding
5. Discarding the idea that social problems can only be dealt with through security measures
6. An end to the criminalisation of communities and suppression of civil liberties
7. Securing an ethical foreign policy
8. Repealing the near-annual counter-terrorism laws amassed since 2000

This framework will provide the policy ‘umbrella’ under which communities can begin the vital work of rebuilding themselves on the principles of trust, support and solidarity.

Signatures:

Signing with institution name is for identification purposes and not for institutional endorsement.

1. Magid Magid, MEP for Yorkshire & the Humber, former Lord Mayor of Sheffield
2. Lowkey – Hip Hop artist
3. Zamzam Ibrahim, NUS President
4. Professor Humayun Ansari OBE, Royal Holloway University
5. Lee Jasper, Former Deputy Mayor of London 
6. Remy Mohammed, President of the Association of Muslim Lawyers.
7. Lily Hall, Showroom Gallery 
8. Raja Faisal, Luton Sunni Council of Mosques
9. NETPOL
10. Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP)
11. CAMPACC (Campaign Against Criminalising Communities)
12. Hollaback! London
13. Professor Adam Gearey, Birkbeck
14. Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck
15. Professor Dave Hill, Emeritus Professor of Education at Anglia Ruskin University
16. Professor David Miller, University of Bristol
17. Professor David Whyte, University of Liverpool
18. Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Professor of Politics, Northwestern University
19. Professor Eric Herring, University of Bristol
20. Professor Julian Petley, Brunel University London
21. Professor Khaled A. Beydoun, Univ. of Arkansas School of Law/UC-Berkeley
22. Professor Les Back, Goldsmiths University
23. Professor Richard Jackson, University of Otago
24. Professor Ruth Blakeley, University of Sheffield
25. Professor Salman Sayyid, University of Leeds 
26. Professor Stellan Vinthagen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst/University of Gothenburg
27. Professor Walter Armbrust -St Anthony’s College
28. Dr. Nadine El-Enany, Senior Lecturer in Law, Birkbeck School of Law.
29. Dr Rizwaan Sabir, Liverpool John Moores University
30. Dr Amani Hassani
31. Dr Anas Altikriti, The Cordoba Foundation
32. Dr Anjana Raghavan, Sheffield Hallam University
33. Dr Bethan Harries, University of Newcastle
34. Dr Charlotte Heath-Kelly, Warwick University
35. Dr Emma O’Dwyer, Kingston University
36. Dr Fahid Qurashi, Staffordshire University
37. Dr Fatima Rajina, UCL
38. Dr Feyzi Ismail, SOAS
39. Dr Joanna Gilmore, University of York
40. Dr Joe Greener, University of Liverpool
41. Dr Karis Campion, University of Manchester
42. Dr Katy Sian, York University
43. Dr Khadijah Elshayyal, University of Edinburgh
44. Dr Layla Hadj, Prevent Watch
45. Dr Leena Robertson, Middlesex University
46. Dr Les Levidow, Open University
47. Dr Lisa Hajjar, University of California, Santa Barbara
48. Dr Muhammad Khan, Ruskin College, Oxford
49. Dr Naaz Rashid, University of Sussex
50. Dr Nadya Ali, Sussex University
51. Dr Narzanin Massoumi, Exeter University
52. Dr Nisha Kapoor, Warwick University
53. Dr Osman Latiff, Royal Holloway University of London
54. Dr Paul-Francois Tremlett, Open University
55. Dr Philip Thomas, Former Professor of Philosophy Diversity and Mental Health, UCLan
56. Dr Sadia Habib
57. Dr Salman Butt, Islam 21c
58. Dr Sarah Earnshaw, University of California, Bekeley 
59. Dr Siema Iqbal, AVOW
60. Dr Tanzil Chowdhury, Queen Mary University
61. Dr Sita Balani, Kings College London
62. Dr Thomas MacManus, Queen Mary University London
63. Dr Tina Managhan, Oxford Brookes University
64. Dr Usaama Al-Azami, University of Oxford
65. Dr Vivian Vignoles, University of Sussex
66. Dr. Graham Smith, University of Manchester
67. Dr Ghazala Mir, University of Leeds
68. Dr. Haitham al-Haddad, Independent Scholar 
69. Dr. Tarek Younis, Middlesex University
70. Dr Asim Qureshi, CAGE
71. Adam Elliot Cooper, Greenwich University
72. Amanda Latimer, Kingston University
73. Jasbinder S. Nijjar, Brunel University
74. Kerem Nişancıoğlu, SOAS University
75. Lisa Redlinski, Brighton University
76. Yahya Birt, University of Leeds
77. Arzu Merali, Islamic Human Rights Commission
78. Mufti Amjad Mohammed, Senior Jurist of Markaz al-Ifta wa’l-Qada
79. Imam Muhammad Shoyaib Nurgat, Masjid-e-Umer, Walthamstow
80. Imam Shakeel Begg, Lewisham Islamic Centre
81. Imam Suliman Gani, Purley Masjid
82. Imran Shah MPAC UK
83. Ismail Patel, Friends of Al Aqsa
84. Attiq Malik, Liberty Law Solicitors 
85. Rob Faure Walker, Prevent Digest
86. Roshan Muhammad Salih, Editor 5 Pillars
87. Richard Haley, SACC
88. Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign
89. Community Action on Prison Expansion
90. Cradle Community
91. Empty Cages Collective
92. Sisters of Frida
93. Malia Bouattia, Former President of the NUS 
94. Fope Olaleye, NUS Black Students Officer
95. Adnan Rahman, NUS National Executive Council
96. Ghulam Haydar, Myriad Foundation
97. Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Maslaha 
98. Hamid Mahmood, Founder and Director of Fatima Elizabeth Phrontistery 
99. Hamza Saghir, Cube Network
100. Mabrur Ahmed, Restless Beings
101. Ms. Anne Mitchell, Retired FE deputy principal
102. Navine Khan-Dossos, Artist 
103. Rahima Begum, Restless Beings
104. Rukon Hassan, Ikhwa
105. Saleh Mamon, CAMPACC
106. Shelley Assiter, Therapist
107. Sue Udry, Defending Rights & Dissent
108. Yusuf Patel, Founder SRE Islamic 
109. Zeyn Thompson, Psychiatrist
110. Kelsey Mohamed
111. Lani Parker
112. Ifhat Smith
113. Nic Aaron
114. Mo Mansfield