De-Radicalization: Legal and Policy Framework in the UK

Abstract

The United Kingdom’s Counter-Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism broadly to include all violent acts pursuing the advancement of political, cultural, religious, or racial causes. However, the laws introduced during the last decade, particularly the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, shifted the focus of the counter-terrorism laws towards jihadist terrorism. This over-empahsis on the threats of jihadist terrorism reflects on the operations of the law enforcement authorities, which percieve jihadist terrorism more serious threat than far-right terrorism and thus institutionalises Islamophobia with the law enforcement authorities. The DRad report on 'De-radicalisation and Integration Legal and Policy Framework' in the UK highlights the explicit role of the law enforcement authorities in shaping the counter-terrorism laws and defining what constitutes terrorism. It shows that the determination of the threshold of 'reasonable suspicion' for stop and search by police varies from case to case and constable to constable. This is the main reason police stop and search data, overwhelmingly includes the case of stop and search of individuals of a specific religious and racial profile...