‘Decolonisation’ Hampers Research in Islamist Counter-Terrorism: Expert

A mural bears the logo of the ISIS terrorist group in this undated photo. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

Academics could be self-censoring as universities are increasingly adopting decolonisation policies which some argue are at odds with counter-terrorism research into Islamism and Jihadism.

In February, Steven Greer, a professor at the University of Bristol and a leading authority on human rights, particularly with respect to counter-terrorism legislation, spoke to multiple media outlets about being forced into hiding in fear for his life after students made false “Islamophobia” accusations.

Greer said he was forced to wear a disguise and carry a weapon for his own protection after Bristol University’s Islamic Society (BriSoc) at the University of Bristol Law School complained that elements of his course were “racist” and “discriminatory.”

In October 2021 the university said its investigation into a module taught by Greer “found no evidence of Islamophobic speech.” Bristol Law School still decided to remove his “Islam, China, and the Far East” module from the syllabus to avoid upsetting Muslims.

Greer has since warned that he also fears for academic freedom.

“Many academics, fearing being falsely labelled as hostile to minorities by woke campaigners, are already actively self-censoring to avoid any potential backlash,” he told The Telegraph.

Decolonisation

Henry Jackson Society research fellow and former Prevent practitioner Charlotte Littlewood warned there are funding opportunities attached to decolonisation measures at universities that could hamper counter-terrorism studies.

Prevent is a government-led, multi-agency programme that aims to stop individuals from radicalising and becoming terrorists.

Around seventy percent of UK universities, including Bristol University, are undertaking some form of decolonisation. The term doesn’t have a concrete definition, but it “seeks to rewrite academic curricula as well as reorder the university as an institution, in the name of making them more ‘inclusive.'”

It means that universities are now under considerable pressure to comply and to acknowledge concepts such as “colonialism” and racial bias in all courses.

Littlewood said that teaching through the lens of decolonisation “will have a negative impact on being able to talk about terrorism and radicalisation whilst looking at the Islamist ideology.”

“And if you do look at that, and then it’s negative about Islam in some way, do you then run counter to the decolonisation network?” she asked.

She added that decolonisation advocates are prone to say that the “UK is institutionally racist, racist, rather than actually looking at how we teach things from different perspectives.”

According to an article called “Tracing the Coloniality of Britain’s Counterterrorism Strategy” from the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR), Prevent’s overt focus on Muslims and Islam in the “War on Terror” “has imposed surveillance infrastructures on Muslim communities, serving to energise Islamophobia and the precariousness of the Muslim experience in Britain.”

Prevent

Last month, an independent review of the British government’s Prevent strategy found it is “not doing enough to counter non-violent Islamist extremism” and “has a double standard when dealing with the extreme right-wing and Islamism.”

The report showed that the Prevent strategy had been influenced by “cultural timidity” and “institutional hesitancy” for fear of being accused of Islamophobia.

It concluded that Prevent too often ignores the threat posed by Islamism and disproportionately focuses on right-wing extremism.

This is despite the UK being a high-priority target for Islamist extremists who pose a significant threat to the country.

According to the domestic counter-intelligence and security agency Mi5, terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, including Al Qaeda and ISIS possess “both the intention and the capability to direct attacks against the West.”

It added that the “majority of terrorist attack plots in this country have been planned by British residents.” The security service said there are several thousand individuals in the UK who support violent extremism or are engaged in Islamist extremist activity.

Many major universities that offer international security, security and terrorism courses do not mention specifically Islamism or Jihadism in their course details. Kings College London does mention jihadist terrorist attacks around the world for its Terrorism, Security & Society MA.

Flowers and placards are displayed outside Mireille Knoll's apartment during a silent march in Paris, on March 28, 2018. Thibault Camus/AP Photo file

Antisemitism

Harry Saul Markham, a junior research fellow at Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy Advisory Board, Academics for Academic Freedom told The Epoch Times that there was a reluctance to study what he called “the normalisation of Islamist thinking in swathes of our Muslim communities.”

He said it meant a stark lack of understanding, calling it “antisemitism distortion.”

Markham said that once he gave a talk in a synagogue in Germany, which was surrounded by armed police in 2017.  “It’s like going into a prison,” he said.

Markham pointed to a report by the New York Times that said police statistics in Germany attributed 89 percent of all anti-Semitic crimes to right-wing extremists. However, an EU survey in 2019 found that 41 percent perceived the perpetrator of the most serious incident to be “someone with a Muslim extremist view.”

He said that this was highly problematic as such information leads policymakers and lawmakers to have an inaccurate understanding of what is going on, rendering policies to combat antisemitism ineffective.

“We are up against it,” he said, adding that “If you don’t have an understanding of what’s actually going on, you can’t put policies in place to resolve it.”

Chris Summers contributed to this report.