PREVENT: tackling extremism or criminalising dissent

Posted by Ameenur Rasheed on June 1, 2015.

PREVENT: tackling extremism or criminalising dissent?

Location:
Amnesty International’s Human Rights Action Centre,
17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA,

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/0RH1k

Date:
25 June 2015
7:00pm – 9:00pm

“Speaking out for justice and human rights: challenging the government’s Prevent strategy and the Counter-terrorism and Security Act.”

Prevent was introduced as part of the government’s post-9/11 counter-terrorism strategy. Instead of being an effective way of genuinely countering extremism, it is rightly perceived as what Baroness Warsi called a “Cold War against British Muslims.” Now it has been given added legitimacy as part of the Counter-terrorism and Security Act (CTS), passed in 2015.

Now CTS is being used to criminalise legitimate dissent. Under the new government this is only going to get worse. Only a few days after the election, David Cameron announced even more sinister powers under this Act – a taste of what’s to come if we don’t challenge this legislation.

This public meeting will bring together a broad range of speakers from different sectors – journalism, politics, arts, education, health. It will be the start of a process of coalition-building across organisations and sectors to engage people in this issue and start challenging the new and serious threats we face.

Speakers:
Peter Oborne, Associate Editor of the Spectator;
Sally Hunt, General Secretary of UCU;
Karma Nabulsi, Professor at Oxford University;
More to be confirmed

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/prevent/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1014193865260356/