Saleh Mamon, a member of the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), assesses a recent report on the arrest of twelve Asian students on suspicion of terrorism. Twelve Pakistani students were arrested on 8 April 2009 in the North-west following a security leak when confidential papers held by Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the head of the
Theme: Employment
Company’s use of anti-terror laws criticised
The use of anti-terror legislation by an energy company to stop protests by a ‘blacklisted’ worker at one of its plants has been branded ‘fanciful’ by a High Court judge. Under the Terrorism Act, Scottish & Southern Energy brought an injunction against union member Steve Acheson to stop him protesting at the Fiddler’s Ferry power
Spooked: how not to prevent violent extremism
A report published today by the Institute of Race Relations finds that the government’s Prevent programme for tackling extremism fosters division, mistrust and alienation. Entitled Spooked: how not to prevent violent extremism, the report suggests that the Prevent programme has been used to establish one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in
Stop MI5 blackmail!
As MI5 celebrates its centenary, its lack of legal or public accountability was the subject of an important public meeting. On 30 September, a packed meeting at the Camden Centre heard accusations of illegal and secretive activities on the part of the security services, who allegedly tried to blackmail six British youth workers of Somali
Proscription leads to jail for ‘decent man’
A packed meeting of the Bar Human Rights Committee on 16 June heard Mark Muller QC and Gareth Peirce describe how the provisions of the Terrorism Act 2000 forced the jailing of someone the judge said was a ‘thoroughly decent man’. Mark Muller QC and Gareth Peirce were the legal team representing Shanthan (Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar),
France: academic freedom under threat
A campaign to safeguard intellectual freedom has been formed in France to support a researcher who faces disciplinary action in connection with his work on Islamophobia. Vincent Geisser, a researcher who has worked to dispel anti-Muslim prejudices and authoritarianism, is to appear on 29 June before the disciplinary commission of the government’s National Centre for
No to secret evidence
The House of Lords’ ruling on control orders is a victory for the campaign against secret evidence, but the ruling has yet to be applied to deportations and other areas. On 10 June, an extraordinary legal odyssey culminated in nine judges at the House of Lords condemning as illegal the system of secret evidence underpinning
J4NW10
The campaign for Justice for the North West Ten is gaining momentum across the country. Is it a code? Is it a reference number? No, it’s the name of the campaign to free the ten Pakistani students who were among the twelve dramatically arrested as terrorists on 8 April. All were released without charge two
Kenan Malik: journey of an ex-anti-racist
Kenan Malik’s latest book From Fatwa To Jihad: the Rushdie affair and its legacy distorts anti-racist history and plays into the hands of today’s anti-Muslim politics. During the 1980s, Kenan Malik was active with an organisation called East London Workers Against Racism (ELWAR). In response to racist violence, ELWAR organised street patrols and ensured the
The parallel world of Europe’s anti-terror regimen
Below we reproduce the introduction to the latest edition of the European Race Bulletin. In the eighteen months since the European Race Bulletin carried out its last audit of the anti-terrorist laws, national governments, building on the blocks provided by the EU Common and Framework Decisions on Countering Terrorism and the European Union’s list of