Mosques launch anti-radicalisation scheme as alternative to Prevent

An anti-radicalisation programme billed as an alternative to the government’s much-maligned Prevent strategy has been launched in mosques.

Safe and Secure, which is being backed by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), is the brainchild of former senior Muslim police officer, Dal Babu, and Mike Howes, a former council head of community safety, both strong critics of Prevent.

The government’s flagship anti-radicalisation strategy has attracted condemnation from many Muslims, who see it as a tool for spying on them, but also from teachers and even the government’s former terror watchdog, David Anderson QC.

Safe and Secure is intended to address the same issues as Prevent but without the accompanying negative baggage. It is also intended as a riposte to those who say Muslims are not doing enough to counter the threat posed by extremists.

Babu, who was a chief superintendent with the Metropolitan police before he retired in 2013, said: “We want to make this more about safeguarding than focus just on radicalisation.

“One of the biggest challenges is if you put ‘toxic brand’ into Google, the first thing that comes up is the government’s Prevent strategy.

“It’s about how you engage with a community in a way that is much more inclusive. “They [the architects of Prevent] didn’t get any buy-in from the community.”

Safe and Secure hopes to attract many of the people that Prevent aims to cover – including teachers, social workers, NHS staff, the police and probation workers – and address similar concerns but without stigmatising Muslims.

Howes and Babu are running the workshops at no charge because they feel that the current strategy is foundering. Howes said they initially offered to run the programme for the Home Office but were rebuffed. As a result, they contacted the MCB, which has arranged for mosques to host the events and helped to publicise the workshops.

One of the main distinguishing features they draw between their Safe and Secure programme and Prevent is that they aim to tackle themes other than radicalisation. Howes, who was working at Harrow council before he retired but was at Tower Hamlets council between 1983 and 2000, said it was about the “commonality of vulnerabilities between radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and gang membership … which are about low self-esteem, a sense of belonging”.

The first workshop was held at the London Muslim Centre, part of East London mosque, on Thursday, coincidentally the first anniversary of the Westminster terror attack. Another session was scheduled for Finsbury Park mosque on Thursday evening and 10 more have been booked with the intention that they will eventually be held across the country.

The attendees at the London Muslim Centre, including mosque staff, youth and charity workers, a local reverend and even someone from Prevent, were encouraged to discuss real-life scenarios and what they would have done differently.

These included the infamous case of three Bethnal Green schoolgirls who went to Syria, which, given they are believed to have married jihadi fighters, Babu and Howes suggested should have been treated as a case of child sexual exploitation.

There was lively debate, with concerns raised about the stigma attached to people referred under Prevent, even when the referral is considered inappropriate – which happens in 81% of cases, according to Anderson. In keeping with the emphasis placed on safeguarding by Babu and Howes, one attendee lamented that children who go or think about going to Syria are criminalised rather than helped.

But the discussion around Prevent was not all one way. A local Muslim woman, while admitting she would not like members of her family being monitored, said: “We keep saying people shouldn’t be monitored so much … [but] I do want this scrutiny on people who pose this risk to my children and my family.”

Babu said that, despite the criticism of Prevent, much of the feedback at the end of the workshop was that they were not hard enough on the government programme.

“Ultimately, it makes the Muslim community feel they can’t be suspects and partners at the same time – I am pretty sure no one outside SCO19 [the Met’s firearms unit] and the Home Office thinks Prevent is working,” said Howes. “We thought Prevent is a mess, let’s try to do something different.”