I have been working with PREVENT for nine years and I am not afraid to say it - Here's why

I was genuinely touched by his comment to me “you manage to express and say what many of us are thinking. Terrorists don’t represent us Muslims - we need people like you to continue challenging radicalisation.”

But reactions to my work vary - from eyes rolling, to suspicion, to being thanked by parents in the playground for the work I do.

As somebody whose work is focused on understanding and combatting radicalisation, nothing provokes a reaction more than the mention of the 'P' word, Prevent.

Prevent has become a political football and popular discussion topic - it often feels like I spend my life talking about radicalisation, violent extremism, terrorism and how we can counter it.

I have 9 years’ experience working on Prevent, originally as a volunteer and having worked in the third sector, local government and now freelance.

I have worked through different governments and changes in political direction over the years. One message I have consistently focused on is the need to engage and to develop local solutions that do not alienate, stigmatise and marginalise communities.

As Prevent has evolved and improved, it has moved away from being Muslim centric and is now focused on pertinent threats – namely the far-right and da’esh.

There is also greater focus placed on engaging local communities – not just to build understanding of the programme and break down myths or misconceptions about Prevent, but to encourage participation and leadership among civil society organisations who have an active role to play in building resilience to radicalisation.

I feel like a broken record as I mention time and time again - we need a bottom-up approach led by local communities to tackle radicalisation; working with them in partnership rather than being problematized.

My project, Community Reach aims to do just this and has been funded through Prevent for the last five years.

Our focus is to create a safe space to have difficult conversations about radicalisation, terrorism, grievances, ideology, the far right, da’esh and how we can empower local communities and practitioner to counter without alienating, stigmatising and marginalising.

This is the only project that takes participants across to Northern Ireland to learn from the Troubles, the conflict, former combatants, survivors and peace makers/builders.

We have had over 300 practitioners, teachers, youth workers, mental health workers, elected members, Imams, priests, leaders, activists, women’s groups, third sector employees, YOT officers, lecturers, drug and alcohol workers, safeguarding leads and more.

Our emphasis is creating local solutions, this has included the development of a youth work project working with young people at risk of radicalisation by the far right, family support, teachers creating safe spaces for difficult conversations and emphasising the need for shared values.

The four terrorist attacks earlier this year in Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park demonstrate why communities need to work together and find solutions to the very real threat of radicalisation has never been greater.

I passionately believe that we need to take a constructively critical approach to create a middle way, which emphasises the need to actively listen to the concerns and fears of communities and practitioners, challenge bad practice, while taking a community development and empowerment approach to the challenge of radicalisation.

Unfortunately there are many people whose actions appear to be disrupting efforts at collaboration, without offering any real solutions to this challenge. I recently experienced this first hand when I was interviewed for JUST Yorkshire’s report, ‘Rethinking Prevent’. 

Despite spending two hours being interviewed on my constructively critical approach to Prevent I was left very disappointed at how my views were cherry-picked in the final report – despite the researcher, who I respect, reassuring me they would take a balanced approach.

I am left somewhat frustrated when I am quoted to reinforce a pre-existing conclusion and narrative. Instead of offering an alternative approach, the report simply reinforces the polarised and problematic view that Prevent is institutionally Islamophobic and needs to end.

Throughout my interview I emphasised the need to grab the bull by the horns, understand the context of radicalisation and how to challenge. Unfortunately this report is another missed opportunity to offer an alternative.

The challenge posed by radicalisation and what we as a society can do to tackle it was not considered a major theme and therefore simply ignored.

There is a need for credible research. Unfortunately, JUST Yorkshire has purposely set out to ignore diverse voices, has a small sample size of 35 and focused solely on those voices who reinforce the anti-Prevent narrative. We need honesty and integrity in how we measure the impact and capture the voices of practitioners and young people.

We need a greater investment into research and the publication of an evidence base for Prevent policy and practice. This report commissioned by the Aziz Foundation is a step in the right direction and an example of credible, rigorous and independent research.

I emphasised the need for training that challenged conscious and unconscious bias, which was grossly ignored.

Reach has effectively demonstrated that teachers and youth workers need an opportunity to delve deep into the complexities and given the confidence to empower young people, give them a voice and build resilience.

Young people should not be problematized, or simply seen as vulnerable but worked with as co-creators who are an important part of the solution.

After the recent terror attacks, it is essential that we create safe spaces for young people to “make sense of terrorism and build peace”. There’s a need to “Demystify Prevent” as much as there is to “Rethink Prevent”!

Mohammed Ali Amla is a freelance researcher and consultant, with over ten years’ experience in working with communities having worked for local government and the third sector across the Northwest.