A special preview of a documentary, followed by a panel discussion, about the anti-terrorist initiative ‘Project Champion’ and how it was successfully opposed. Wednesday 28 September 2011, 8-10pm Birmingham Library Theatre, Paradise Place, Birmingham B3 3HQ Panel discussion: Ken Fero – co-director of Defeat of the Champion Steve Jolly – active campaigner against CCTV Related
Theme: Employment
Caged gems
Haunting poetry written from prison by Talha Ahsan deserves to be widely read. ‘I wish I could trap your laughter in a jar – to unscrew and make me crumble’. This is a line from a love poem, a poem from an unrequited lover, entitled ‘Lines for f – the doted on’, in Talha Ahsan’s
Breivik and Eurabia
Hours before he set out on his murderous spree, Anders Behring Breivik – the man who shot dead 68 young Socialists at a youth camp on Utoeya island after mounting a bomb attack on the centre of Oslo – placed a PDF of his 1,500 page political manifesto online. Entitled 2083: A European Declaration of
Belgian prison teacher vindicated
A Belgian prison teacher has won a two year battle against a work ban on security grounds. Luk Vervaet, who had taught in prisons for five years when he was summarily dismissed from his post in August 2009, was a regular commentator on prison issues for national newspapers and had collaborated with academic research projects
Still spooked
Greater emphasis on the Channel project in the revised Prevent strategy gives much cause for concern. In October 2009, the IRR’s report Spooked: how not to prevent violent extremism first drew attention to concerns over Prevent’s gathering of information on individuals thought to be on a pathway to radicalisation. Now an ongoing research project on
Statewatching Europe
Next weekend, Statewatch, the renowned organisation that examines civil liberties and the state across Europe will be holding its twentieth anniversary conference. Statewatch, despite its small but committed staff, punches above its weight and is a consistent source of information on what the state and its agents are up to. It produces the Statewatch journal,
Anti-terror whistleblower suspended by Nottingham University
Rizwaan Sabir, who was arrested in 2008 as a suspected terrorist whilst conducting postgraduate research at the University of Nottingham, gives his first public reaction on the recent suspension of Dr Rod Thornton. It has now been over three years since my friend, Hicham Yezza and I were arrested for allegedly being involved in the
Report calls for end to international blacklisting regime
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has published a landmark report on the international blacklisting regime. The report, Blacklisted: Targeted sanctions, pre-emptive security and fundamental rights by Gavin Sullivan and Ben Hayes, documents the development of terrorism blacklisting at the UN, European Union (EU) and national levels and critically evaluates the legacy of
Voices against Islamophobia
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) publishes this week two timely reports on the nature, impact and campaigns against Islamophobia across Europe. ‘Islamophobia and progressive values’ This unique report draws attention to the specific role that a discourse on progressive values is playing in shaping Islamophobia. Dr Sabine Schiffer (Institute for Media Responsibility, Erlangen), Murat
Cameron’s Munich speech marks securitisation of race policy
Cameron’s speech signals a fundamental departure in British race relations. Why did British prime minister Cameron choose to attack ‘the doctrine of state multiculturalism’ and indicate the parameters of the government’s new counter-terrorism policy at an international security conference in Munich? The Munich International Security Conference was founded in 1962 and focuses on transatlantic relations