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Children targets of terror probes in UK

Tuesday, 26 May 2015 9:10 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 27 May 2015 12:57 PM ]

Amina Taylor

Press TV, London

There are growing concerns about the U-K government’s anti-terror strategy after primary school children in London were given a questionnaire which appeared to target Muslim kids. Civil liberties campaigners object to the questions that risk future sanctions for the children and their families.

Without parental prior notice, young children aged 9-11 at a predominantly Muslim school in east London were asked a series of ‘extremely loaded’ questions which are thought to have been issued as part of government anti-terrorism program.

Some of the questionnaire options included:

Religious books are to be understood word for word.

If a student was making fun of my race or religion, I would try to make them stop – even of it required hurting them.

I believe my religion is the only correct one

The headteacher of the Buxton School as said the questionnaire have been ‘misunderstood’ but that has not stopped the criticism
Buxton School is thought to be one of many educational facilities that have sought to quiz children in this fashion. The revelations come at the same time a senior Metropolitan Police Commander said authorities should ‘move into the private space’ of Muslims because this is where extremism ‘germinates.’

In the pursuit of so-called religious radicals authorities are intruding into spaces that were once thought to be places of sanctuary like educational spaces religious spaces and of course or private homes. Civil Liberties campaigners are warning that this is becoming a very slippery moral and legal slope.

Parents and campaigners are now worried that young children are at now risk of being placed on a government watch list simply for expressing their opinions, and this they say, can only be counter-productive.

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