On the 4th of October, Al-Jazeera published an article entitled, “Keyword Warning Software in Schools Raises Red Flag.” It discussed a pilot scheme rolled out in a number of UK schools where monitoring software is being used to help teachers identify students at risk of so-called ‘radicalisation’. Children in these schools who search for words such as ‘Caliphate’, ‘Islamism’, ‘apostate’, ‘jihadi’ or even the names of Muslim political activists or groups defined as ‘extremist’ on classroom computers risk being flagged as potential supporters of terrorism. This ‘keyword software’ sends teachers ‘violation’ alerts when a trigger term appears on a student’s screen to help monitor their online activity. Teachers can also save screenshots of a student’s screen which can then be used as evidence to be shared with ‘Channel’, the UK government’s counter-radicalisation programme for young Muslims. The software also includes a ‘confide function’ which enables children to report on any classmates they have concerns about.
Comment:
This ‘surveillance big brother software’ is part of the British government’s notorious counter-extremism PREVENT strategy which has played a prominent role in the criminalisation, marginalisation and discrimination of Muslims in the UK. The far reaching tentacles of this strategy have already infiltrated into the country’s classrooms with teachers now having a statutory duty to monitor children for so-called signs of ‘extremism’ and to report them to the police. However, identifying ‘signs of extremism’ in the language of the British government has become synonymous with looking out for signs of ‘Islamization’. In July of this year, Al-Jazeera also reported on schoolchildren in the UK who face being questioned by police and referred to ‘Channel’ for expressing support for Palestine. It cited the case of a 15 year old school boy who was questioned and accused of holding ‘terrorist-like’ views by a police officer for taking leaflets into school promoting a boycott of Israel. He was told that ‘Free Palestine’ badges were extremist and that he could not discuss the conflict at school with friends. Alex Kenny of the National Union of Teachers stated that teachers were advised by PREVENT officers to even keep an eye on any child who ‘goes on a demonstration against the bombing of Gaza’.
It is clear that in the same way Western governments colonised our Muslim lands and tried to erase the concept of Islamic governance and Muslim unity under the Khilafah from the consciousness of Muslims in the region, they are employing the same strategy upon the Muslim children within their own lands – to colonise their minds and sever them from their rich Islamic culture and history. Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary from 1919 – 1924 once said, “We must put an end to anything which brings about any Islamic unity between the sons of the Muslims. As we have already succeeded in finishing off the Caliphate, so we must ensure that there will never arise again unity for the Muslims, whether it be intellectual or cultural unity.” The current UK government as with previous ones is clearly pursuing the same strategy vocalised by Curzon, even if that means transforming their own teachers and students into informants, stigmatizing young Muslim children and making their own schools an extended arm of their intelligence services to spy on youngsters. Western nations now bear the marks of totalitarian, surveillance states where mind control, even over the young, and draconian anti-terror laws are popular tools being employed by their governments to silence political dissent and crush belief in ideas which differ with the dominant state ideology or narrative. All this is in order to prevent the rise of the Khilafah which would threaten their colonial grip over the politics and economics of the Muslim world.
The extension of the PREVENT strategy into UK classrooms and the use of software to spy on and effectively criminalise students who research subjects such as the ‘Caliphate’, is an admission by the British government of its inability to convince young Muslim minds through strength of argument of the superiority of secular liberal values and the democratic system of governance over the Islamic ideology and Islamic political system of the Khilafah. Furthermore, it is yet more proof that under democracy, ‘freedom of thought and belief’ only extends to those who think within the confines of the narrow secular box.
Belief in the need for a ‘Caliphate’ or Khilafah is not a mark of support for terrorism, radicalisation, or extremism. Rather it is an integral part of Islam and the rich Islamic heritage of the entire Muslim Ummah. Hence, attempts by Western governments to erase this concept from the minds of future Muslim generations, is equivalent to the actions of those who engage in the destruction of the historic artefacts of other beliefs and cultures. However, the endeavour to conceal from the minds of this Ummah and its youth, 1400 years of the rich history of a state that led the world in justice, prosperity, humanitarianism, technological advancement, healthcare provision, rights for women and those of other faiths, and academic excellence, all due to its Islamic laws and system – is an impossible task and will prove to be an utter failure Biithnillah. Despite extensive efforts by successive generations of colonialists to bury the concept of the Khilafah and political unity of the Muslims and their lands, it has once again entered the political discourses of governments and politicians across the world – including in the West. And despite their exhaustive attempts to demonize and fear-monger against the idea of the Khilafah, yearning for its re-establishment has become the overwhelming desire for millions of Muslims across the globe.
يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِؤُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ
“They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His Light, however much the disbelievers dislike it.”
(As-Saff: 8)
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Director of the Women’s Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir