Sheffield: Students Not Suspects: What is PREVENT and how can we oppose it?

Counter Terrorism legislation introduced earlier this year includes a new prevent duty which requires Higher Education staff (and other public sector workers) to monitor students who are suspected of engaging in ‘active opposition to fundamental British values’ and to police ‘extremist’ speakers and students on campus. The duty has been widely condemned by education unions and academics for its chilling effect on open debate, free speech and political dissent and the human rights group Liberty for turning “teachers and doctors into spies” and “blurring the line between dissent and criminality”. Examples of students reported under the programme include Mohammed Farooq a terrorism studies student at Staffs Uni who was questioned about his views on homosexuality, ISIS and Al-Qaeda after reading a textbook on terrorism and a school student who was reported for his activism in support of the Palestinian cause. This comes in the context of rising Islamophobia with the Metropolitan police recording a 70% increase in Islamophobic incidents over the last year. Come and discuss how we can work together to oppose the duty and campaign for the repeal of the legislation. This is a panel discussion to talk about how PREVENT poses a threat to freedom of speech on campus, turning students into suspects and educators into informants. Speakers: – Moazzam Begg (former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and CAGE Outreach Director) – Samayya Afzal (NUS Black Students’ Campaign, NUS National Executive Committee) – Hannah Dee (Defend the Right to Protest) – Chair: Minesh Parekh (Education Officer, Sheffield SU) Date and Time: 22 February at 18:00 – 19:00 Venue: Nelson Mandela Auditorium, Sheffield Students’ Union For further information visit the Facebook event page.