“Extremism” accusations in custody battles: a lose-lose strategy
He accused his ex-wife of extremism in a custody battle. Then they both lost.
Muslims unite for UK’s biggest coalition in almost two decades
Prevent Watch’s Alim Islam details the reason behind the UK’s biggest and broadest coalition of Muslims since 2003.
Imam Shakeel v The BBC: Time for the community to wake up
Imam Shakeel Begg of Lewisham Mosque, London, recently lost his case for libel against the BBC. Firstly, I would like to say that I wish to express my support for Imam Shakeel. He is a model imam who works diligently for his community in keeping with his Islamic principles. He has done excellent work in a number of areas, whether this is developing the mosque he leads or working with the wider community. Moreover, under his stewardship, the mosque was one of the few mosques in the country to make robust statements on contemporary political issues including the proposal to…
PREVENT: Reform or Reject
PREVENT is dying. We have reached a stage where there is widespread agreement that there are systemic problems with PREVENT. Its decline is to the extent that beneficiaries and proponents of the strategy acknowledge the need to change it. It has taken us as a society almost ten years to get here, but at least we have got there. However, the struggle is not yet over. With the landscape changing, there has been a shift in the discussion to reform PREVENT. You may have come across these conversations in your local community or read about them in your newspaper. It…
Breaking Bad: The government’s stance on terrorism law
On the 18th of September, 31-year-old father-of-two Mohammed Ali was sentenced to eight years in prison for trying to buy ricin off of an undercover FBI agent on the Internet, inspired by the TV series Breaking Bad. This was following the Aspergers syndrome sufferer's conviction for the offence after a trial in July. When I read the story last Friday, I thought this was another routine case of someone convicted of “terrorism”, as the headlines led me to believe. As it turns out, the defendant was in fact convicted of attempting to possess a chemical weapon pursuant to the Criminal Attempts Act…
Is BBC’s Panorama Normalising Torture?
Is BBC's Panorama Normalising Torture? On Monday 3 August, the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Panorama broadcast Panorama: Fighting Terror with Torture. The documentary looked at the CIA’s torture programme used on detainees during the War on Terror. I watched the programme because it is an area of interest which I developed during my years at university. However, I was appalled by what had just been broadcast and watched it a second time, this time with a notepad and pen in hand. Why was I appalled? Well, the programme highlights the torture of Mohammad El-Shari’ya, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Abu…
Can we trust the judges?
Can we trust the judges? Introduction The alleged increase in the threat of terrorism has led to an erosion of civil liberties. Successive British governments have implemented measures which infringe upon the most basic rights. What is the best method to protect the rights of the individual in an atmosphere of heightened fear and an increasingly draconian security state? Might judges be the shield of the rule of law? All laws should be compliant with the rule of law and due process. Judges are best placed to ensure that when the executive passes a law which is contrary to such…
Goodbye presumption of innocence, hello pre-crime
A decade on from the 7/7 bombings the country is still feeling the effects of the impulsive reaction by the then Labour Government. The PREVENT Strategy was claimed to be created in response to the 7 July 2005 attacks. The current Conservative Government wished to follow the domestic terrorism policy of their predecessors, with its plans to introduce another piece of counter-terrorism legislation when it announced its “extremism bill.” This will be the twelfth piece of terrorism legislation since the turn of the century. It follows on directly after the draconian Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, which put the PREVENT Strategy…