ironic that when many governments around the wall declare that the fight against terrorism is the number one priority this hasn't stopped. the fia has continued the attacks have continued we have to wonder why is this the case. for the past twenty years i've been working on the question of political violence

and terrorism it's persistence in our lives in our times in our societies begs the question why. could it be that the policies governments think will prevent violent extremism might actually be making things worse in the aftermath of the nine eleven attacks on the united states in two thousand and one you could visibly see that the world has been securitized a certain architecture of things has materialized literally there is a certain presence of the state security that has been increased. the militarized presence has really transformed the scene of the world around us. there has been new legislation that has increased powers of surveillance that have given more of an ability to shrink the privacy space for citizens around the world . news alerts all the time keeping the citizen on their toes a certain friends jala g. of be careful observe with or if you think it doesn't look right take it down

tactically generally a sense of fear from. the threat has been lessened has there been results in terms of addressing it and the paradox is that it has not quite the opposite so clearly something is not working. we must remember that the majority of political violence is not carried out in the name of any particular religion and certainly not only in the name of one in twenty seventeen here in the diverse london area finsbury park a man drove a value to the crowd leaving a mosque saying he wanted to kill all muslims but does the securitized response reflect this complex reality i've come to ask the young people here for their experiences. i was so much more than four or five times within

two months i felt that i was i was came because of my color rather than tradition wise i was actually. search for tongues as in underground as a so-called random searches which i didn't think it was a random search it was a norm in that time and still now i think that you expect every now and then to get a stop it's not nice. but every now and then it happens that the narrative it has been going around for a such a long time if i am writing it here when i see bearded man carrying a bag i get. suspecting that's a reality it's a sad reality you when you have internalized it become like i said if i am a person of muslim faith and i get like that i am the same what the other people might fear as well and if i don't think it's necessary it's the fault of the people is the responsible of the media we've done that people who often dorothy who put this narrative out there bearded man or a man of certain color may cause harm this needs to change we are kind of like

brainwashed to think that one. so that's the step session was security just affect muslims others feel that they are suspects as well looking at post nine eleven and how you have been experiencing a lot of terrorism attack and so how did you live through those years and how do you look at how authorities have been dealing with this it was challenging because people's perspective of the minority group had already been made up and their mindset towards people of color people of faith people from about kwame really didn't understand it was the fear of the unknown and we suffered from the collateral damage of that what's now expected of minorities after the event i feel like they're expected above and beyond decency in a sense to not be perceived as a nuisance or menace or any of these things i think it's clear and devastating in

how. we're automatically labeled with doing so. and activities based on person's actions is not the best example for the younger generation if they have to walk around in fear thinking of cause i look like this automatically i'm going to treat it like this it will be like this in the future about how people are labeled by race gender or religion you well it doesn't have to always be like the more you are probably both you'll be in the so is its core certainly from ferment and living in this traumatized society everybody's doing in fear of being judged being pointed out being accused of being isolated how can we now face tomorrow knowing this is what people think of us. while the british government claims to celebrate diversity many feel that their main policy against violent extremism reinforces these attitudes.

given the right continue or lead you to. be representing terrorism because terrorism and the direction it will go to this place isn't just the end it prevents ponsford the government's contest strategy which the counter terrorism initiative. is for example to identify signs that somebody might be vulnerable to radicalization extremism might be looking for a change in behavior a change in social groups that young people apart so moved for example it might be that people might sound a bit more aggressive they might sound safe it's a concern from from the far right websites or it's in the repeats in knots it could be perhaps a change in drafts and suddenly an increase would say the top three.

commission that's indeed absolutely right so. my son ten six a police officer from her via social wildcat. a lot of questions about his arabic teacher and what he was learning and ira. and i read that my child kept turning to me like well why is he asked me the same question again and again. i didn't know my rights i feel like there's this big dollar hole i fell into knowing because i sent my son to school. we've documented nearly five hundred cases of individuals impacted by prevent to date these cases demonstrate both and

islamophobia framework operates within the policy but also we have now seen how the policy has created a collective trauma to the community including children so that in essence the policy is created what is that supposed to be fighting essentially you have to distance yourself from your family you just feel more and more isolated day by day . just share your constant fear you have to do it alone whether it's teachers or doctors your social workers anybody you have this mistrust of everybody because you don't know anymore who to trust and you don't know what will happen to your children if you go to a doctor or if they were portrayed as someone. it's very interesting to see that which george orwell was wiping out decades ago has in

effect now materialized. it speaks a certain language of authority and speaks a certain language of demonization of certain groups or racialized a certain approach to discrimination that is a name. growing up since nine eleven this generation starts from a completely different perspective than other generations would have had one where it starts from a point of view of fear of a certain vulnerability of having to prove itself almost being paranoid all the time this very sense of uncertainty but also of a certain vulnerability. to find out how this might affect young people psychologically i've come to meet laverne introduce a psychologist who deals with marginalized jumpy. threat is the number was password really you know we're told it's everywhere we're told we're supposed to be

highly suspicious of everybody and everything and i think it has a real impact on one sense of self as we know children are incredibly receptive and perceptive you know if a think that their teacher or staff are or even mental health professionals are screening them that starts to really fragment the way in which you can have a relationship with a young person and yet today we have kids sitting in a class and feeling that they are in a policing system and the impact is you don't belong here you don't fit for a child who's developing and trying to find a way of being in the world that's a huge. sort of rebuff and i think that what i've seen then happens is that the narrative grows of everybody feeling that's difficult with this child suddenly children and then find themselves excluded not in mainstream school they're in people refer units young people that i've worked with can find themselves there and

really have a struggle you know internally about is this me is this is this the person i am well actually yes people are telling them it is that's why you're there and then i think there is this sort of gathering momentum for many of them not all of them to join gangs to join to join because because that's the trajectory and it's very difficult to resist. being labeled threats leads in many ways if the person is not a threat and if they are innocent to a sense of injustice many reports show that injustice and out of your nation are factors in making people susceptible to the appeal from groups like islamic states who have found ways to turn the west glamorization of violence against itself. negotiate a mission impossible type of movie or a homeland type of t.v. series where this is all staged and presented as the logical normal narrative of

the new world we live in. the paradox of the imagery as it is literally downloaded on these youth is that it becomes internalized they look at it that process it and they themselves tend to sometimes have to find ways to act in the video games for hours. and then many of those endings in the military of the united states on forces and in effect replaying those very techniques through the drones that they would send to kill a young man. a hill somewhere in pakistan. you'll be told what to do so in. one of the key innovations of the islamic state was its platform the videos that they have upgraded to a much much more different level of sophistication of quality.

in effect a certain entertainment driven hollywoodized video games the kind of approach which we hadn't seen. recently pacifically when it comes to the group from the western world i think it was kind of a perfect storm of the manner in which an entity like the islamic state spoke was very fishy. and they spoke directly to them there's many many videos by isis saying to these communities you know what kinds of lives are you need even there are you happy that wanted to come here what did you do that you would. love it enough it. would be clearly these people keep they speak to one the realty is they speak to a sense of identities and development they speak to them in connecting it with the . it is of discrimination that they're going through.

do i think there are a lot of issues conflated here so so the first is this idea that you know the muslim community is being spied on frankly most of these cases that we've seen the court cases have been young men whether we like it or not they are the majority of people who are being attracted to these you know narratives that are coming out many would dispute that maybe but i'm just telling you what i've seen in the research that are done of over three hundred court cases the majority of them have been very young and they've been mayo and they've tended to work in networks so they will tend to know each other as well today a young muslim male around the world particularly in europe and north america feels a certain stigmatization this is a fact we've had conversations with educators addressing that and feeling that that's precisely the trigger factor i think it does a great disservice to the same people from the same community the same religion

same background who don't use those grievances as a way to then declare war. whenever you see going far away to kind of unleashed this violence or join causes that seem important to them let's say for instance people leaving france to go to the levant and join islamic state what's interesting with one is that there is constantly a reflection about the dimension back home how to go back to that society and punish. this is a group of people that left went to syria but yet what was seen there must be high on their mind was to pitch an attack where they would ship back that pass on to

that society which is their society where they grew up with which you have grievances. i think it went beyond their wildest dreams in the sense that it became something of a moment of global it's in that sense that it's important what that the kingdom must say or in minneapolis see into that that led them to go and join this it has inevitably points about how they consider themselves and you need to reject that dana gioia t.v. says what she did by the passion was from the east to the west ask yourselves why would thousands who mattered in the ninety's.

and. if one wants to be honest you have to see the relationship with interventionism for instance that played out and seizing me for the past couple of decades you know these operation that took place in iraq and in syria and in the sun held in libya. you cannot see that these actors simply come on the basis of this ideology which is apocalyptic and ignore the fact that in many cases they are linked to these conflicts and led to this generation that had basically violence as a way of life. i am god.

the narrative has been so semantics that this is basically all about religion and islam and these guys are coming from there to attack the western world and these people are totally irrational removing the politics out of that removing the history removing the call on you imprint a room warping the foreign policy the interventionism extracting all of that and they think this as a sort of extra terrestrials descending from the sky and just have a societies. whether it's a mule nato or the united nations and meet with these top policymakers that are working on designing these counterterrorism policies and engaging with them the difficult thing is to have them go beyond that which is familiar to them. particularly problematic is the cultural reading to understand western terrorist of

the one nine hundred seventy s. such as bottom line off in germany. or the italian red brigades one is invited to examine the societal conditions of say post-war germany and italy and their relationship with their rebellious you rightly so to make sense of al-qaeda and the islamic state one is asked to read the koran so clearly what we have right then and there is one yardstick source to understand one type of violence and one yardstick religious to understand something else that in fact may not be that if. the paradox in these policy circles is that all these professionals produce.