Memorandum from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (PVE 22)

 

Summary

 

· This response focuses on the following question only: How appropriate, and how effective, is the Government's strategy for engaging with communities? Has the Government been speaking to the right people? Has its programme reached those at whom it is or should be aimed ?

 

· This response discusses the Inquiry's questions, using evidence gained in a 1 year qualitative research study noted in paragraph 3 below, that analysed grass-roots approaches to countering terrorism in the London area.

 

· This response focuses on the importance of religious knowledge to successful partnership approaches to countering terrorism, and the role that Muslim police officers play.

 

· Also discussed is the role that women and young people play, and some evidence of how they can best be reached and engaged.

 

 

Background Information

 

1. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) welcomes this opportunity to respond to the committee's inquiry. This response does not include or necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

 

2. The AHRC supports research within a huge subject domain from traditional humanities subjects, such as religion, history, modern languages and English literature, to the creative and performing arts. The AHRC funds research and postgraduate study within the UK's higher education institutions.

3. The AHRC and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) provide funding for the Religion and Society Research Programme. One of the projects funded as part of this programme is entitled An examination of partnership approaches to challenging religiously endorsed violence involving Muslim groups and police.

 

4. The information in this response summarises the evidence found by the research team, led by Dr Basia Spalek at the University of Birmingham. The research team includes an Islamic theologian, a criminologist, a sociologist and a former head of the Metropolitan Police's Muslim Contact Unit (MCU). This response should therefore be viewed as a summary of the evidence gathered as part of an independent research study carried out by AHRC/ESRC funded researchers, and not a statement of the AHRC's and ESRC's views on preventing violent extremism.

 

5. The ESRC are submitting a separate response outlining some further research which is also supported by the AHRC.

 

 

Responses to the Inquiry questions

 

How appropriate, and how effective, is the Government's strategy for engaging with communities?

 

6. Community policing models can bring tangible results. Community policing models are increasingly being drawn upon under engagement activities within Prevent as a way of building trust between communities and police. One such model is the 'Neighbourhood Policing' (NP) model in England and Wales which it is being argued that in responding to individuals' routine security concerns around issues such as anti-social behaviour or crime, police officers will be more likely to persuade community members of the benefits of assisting them in establishing the presence of any suspicions about potential terrorist activities.

 

7. The MCU is a good example of successful, direct engagement with communities and those deemed 'at risk' of violent extremism. Working in a multi-agency environment, the MCU has succeeded in reclaiming a mosque from hard-core violent extremist supporters and has introduced Muslim police officers into counter-terrorism policing.

 

8. Initial face-to-face contact with police officers has developed into working relationships that involve police officers working with community members on a host of areas related to counter-terrorism, from issues in relation to community safety and cohesion, to Prevent work with young people and direct challenges to violent extremist propaganda and structures.

 

9. Religious convictions can provide strong motivation for community members to co-operate with the police's efforts to fight religious violence. Individuals' commitment to Islam may provide them with a feeling of moral responsibility or a duty to help the authorities in counter-terrorism work, to form good relations with others and help people around them. They 'want to do good, but want to contextualise this ''Islamically''' within the framework of their own religious values', to solve social justice problems and the issue of religious violence through an Islamic framework. While engaging proactively, such community members also scrutinise the messages of violent extremists, exposing the non-Islamic elements and rejecting the violent approach to political change altogether. In doing so, they draw their answers from within, not without Islam.

 

10. Knowledge of, and experience in, the various ideologies of political Islam is an essential factor in winning the ideological battle and driving preachers who have promoted this ideology out of influential mosques. The success of earlier efforts by some community groups has now resulted in a number of more sophisticated and less conventional projects all based on preventing violent extremism by exposing the illegitimacy of its ideological bases. It is important for community members to clarify that their religious views and beliefs are not to be compromised as a result of their relations with the police and counter-terrorism work.

 

11. The role of Muslim police officers within Prevent is also important to consider. It may be that some police officers are happy to talk openly about how their faith will feature in their work and this can be a source of reassurance in developing open, respectful and equal relationships with their community partners without requiring them to make unwilling compromises. Muslim police officers not only may bring with them operational policing and community policing experience, but also social and cultural capital that might enable police-community partnerships to be built, particularly with those sections of Muslim communities who are generally distrustful of the police. Muslim police officers can play an instrumental role in building bridges with members of mosques, developing trusting relationships with mosque communities and then extending these relationships to non-Muslim police officers.

 

12. In order for Muslim police officers to access certain sections of Muslim communities they must have credibility with those communities and respect for the religious identifications of community members. In order to partner people for whom religion is important, it is often necessary for police officers who are making initial contacts with community members to show religious sincerity and credibility. Interestingly, the number of Muslim police officers engaged in community counter-terrorism work is extremely low - 27 individuals nationally at the time of writing, of whom two are women (NAMP & Demos 2008:8).

 

 

 

 

Has the Government been speaking to the right people?

 

13. Identifying which community groups are best placed to challenge the behaviours and attitudes of individuals deemed at risk of violent extremism is a key issue. It may be that in some instances, it is important for groups to have knowledge about, and shared experience, backgrounds and credibility of the people vulnerable to or already engaged in violent discourse and action. Such a 'street' approach is invaluable to this form of countering terrorism. Indeed, the street credibility of a community member or group, and their in-depth knowledge of Islamic texts and jurisprudence can be crucial in fighting violent extremism on ideological grounds. Groups who have less credentials, less knowledge or who are not trusted by others of the same faith will be easily defeated in the ideological debate and will be unable to sustain the position of a convincing alternative to extremism.

 

 

Has its programme reached those at whom it is or should be aimed ?

 

14. Women and young people are key groups in the Prevent agenda. Another purpose of engagement might be to build trust between police officers and Muslim communities more generally, particularly when activities under Pursue and Disrupt may concern and affect some community members. Counter-terrorism is a context traditionally characterised by secrecy; therefore, part of ongoing engagement between police and Muslim communities can be to dispel fears or suspicions that people may have which may be preventing them from working more closely with the police.

 

15. In the case of young people, who are arguably facing the greatest levels of scrutiny in the counter-terrorism arena, issues of trust and access are paramount. Working with youth workers who have the credibility and expertise to tackle sensitive issues has proven to be highly successful, for example in allowing for preventative interventions with young people both vulnerable to and in some cases already holding violent extremist ideologies. This is not the remit for the vast majority of youth workers, but those experienced at the street level, and with the drivers of violent radicalisation. These experts may have particular theological affiliations and may have been through the process of radicalisation themselves.

 

16. Women are viewed as key stakeholders within the Prevent agenda, with initiatives such as the Muslim Women's Advisory Group well publicised. It could be argued that a number of barriers exist preventing Muslim women at a grassroots level from engaging in Prevent and Pursue strands. Overcoming these barriers would enable greater numbers of community members to engage, and specific to Muslim women, allow for contact through key, experienced individuals with some of the most isolated and potentially vulnerable community members.

 

17. There is a need to focus on individuals rather than whole social groups. Engagement that takes place under the counter-terrorism Pursue and Disrupt strands should be specifically aimed at those individuals undertaking criminal activities rather than being targeted rather diffusely at particular social groupings, in this case Muslim communities. This is because forms of engagement that exist within Purse and Disrupt, if inappropriately carried out, may alienate and erode the trust of the social groupings that are being targeted for intensified street policing or other intrusive tactics, yet trust is crucial for obtaining community intelligence. It is important to establish the purpose of engagement as this will influence decisions about who should be engaged. One purpose might be to provide reassurance to Muslim communities with respect to issues such as racist or Islamophobic attacks, particularly in the aftermath of an attempted or real terror attack. Here, engagement should have a fairly broad remit, being inclusive of all members of Muslim communities.

 

September 2009