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lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime PreventionInitiatives Involving Muslim YoungPeople in the UK Research and PolicyContextsBasia SpalekPublished online 22 Sep 2011

To cite this article Basia Spalek (2011) lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives InvolvingMuslim Young People in the UK Research and Policy Contexts Religion State and Society 392-3191-207 DOI 101080096374942011577202

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101080096374942011577202

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lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives Involving

Muslim Young People in the UK Research and Policy

Contexts

BASIA SPALEK

ABSTRACT

This article draws upon a research study exploring engagement and partnership work betweenMuslim communities and the police within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo First I set out theways in which lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has influenced security agendas and the impacts of

securitisation policies on Muslim communities here I argue that there is a danger that Islamicbeliefs and practices can be stigmatised I then consider the issue of researching Islam andMuslim communities within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and discuss the importance of buildingtrust between the researcher and the researched and the particular challenges associated with

trust-building in a lsquonew terrorismrsquo context Lastly I consider the relevance of grassroots-levellsquostreetrsquo-based contexts involving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Isuggest that local Al-Qaeda (AQ) recruiters and others potentially involved in terror crimes can

exploit wider global events to generate powerful emotions among young people in the UK in orderto promote violent causes that some important preventative work with Muslim young people isbeing undertaken in the UK by individuals who understand the push-and-pull factors facing young

people within local contexts in the UK and that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contextscharacterised by social and economic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for thoseworking with young people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility This isimportant given that there has been considerable debate regarding whether existing religious

leaders exercise authority within Muslim communities and with Muslim young people inparticular The findings of the study I report here suggest that it is important for prevention workinvolving communities to involve those community members who have credibility with those young

people deemed at risk

Introduction

Muslims as minorities generate substantial amounts of research and policy interestThis is partly due to the increasing presence of Muslim minorities across Europe andalso in other parts of the world but is also a result of interesting intersectionalities ofage gender ethnicity and faith within these populations which shed important lightupon key questions that liberal state democracies are increasingly grappling with in

Religion State amp Society Vol 39 Nos 23 JuneSeptember 2011

ISSN 0963-7494 print ISSN 1465-3974 online112-30191-17 2011 Taylor amp Francis

httpdxdoiorg101080096374942011577202

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relation to multiculturalism citizenship equality secularism and religiosity At thesame time lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse in a post-911 and post-77 context has helpedinstigate an increased state focus upon questions of national security involving agrowth in counter-terrorism legislation policies and practices aimed at counteringlsquonewrsquo forms of terrorism considered to be indiscriminate in nature having been linkedto particular strands within Islam and global in their reach It is important tohighlight that lsquonew terrorismrsquo has helped to securitise Islam as a religion wheresecuritisation might be thought of as the instigation of emergency politics a particularsocial issue that becomes securitised is responded to above and beyond establishedrules and frameworks that exist within what might be termed lsquonormal politicsrsquo (Jutila2006)

The dominance of lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse within security strategies by statesraises the question of whether it is at all appropriate to conduct any research with orabout Muslim communities in relation to questions of security for there is a dangerthat such research will be used in order to further promote and propagate state-ledagendas which may at times involve the violation or suspension of human rightsparticularly those of Muslim minorities However it may be the case that within alsquonew terrorismrsquo context a context often characterised by fear suspicion and distrustbetween Muslim communities and the state (Spalek 2010) there is space for criticalscholarship not only to challenge those state-led agendas that are inappropriate1 butalso to consider ways in which communities can be empowered within the context of aresponse to lsquonew terrorismrsquo exploring dynamics between communities and the statethat can be characterised as being based on trust and partnership where these exist2

At the same time research here can help shed important light upon the extent towhich the values associated with liberal democracies ndash with respect to pluralismfreedom of speech and privacy ndash may be considered to be under threat through theperspectives and experiences of communities that have been deemed lsquosuspectrsquo and atrisk of being radicalised

In this article I draw upon a recently completed research project funded by the Artsand Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social ResearchCouncil (ESRC) and carried out under the auspices of the Religion and SocietyProgramme exploring engagement and partnership work between Muslim commu-nities and the police within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo First I set out the ways inwhich lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has influenced security agendas and the impacts ofsecuritisation policies on Muslim communities and I argue that there is a danger thatIslamic beliefs and practices can be stigmatised I then consider the issue ofresearching Islam and Muslim communities within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo anddiscuss the importance of building trust between the researcher and the researchedand the particular challenges associated with trust-building in a lsquonew terrorismrsquocontext Last I consider the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based contextsinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I presentempirical data from the AHRCESRC-funded study in order first to highlight howlocal Al-Qaeda (AQ) recruiters and others potentially involved in terror crimes canexploit wider global events to generate powerful emotions among young people inthe UK in order to promote violent causes second to highlight the fact that someimportant preventative work with Muslim young people is being undertaken in theUK involving individuals who understand the push-and-pull factors facing youngpeople within local contexts in the UK and third to suggest that in order to counterAQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social and economic deprivation atlsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with young people deemed at risk to

192 Basia Spalek

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possess street know-how and credibility This is an important point given that thePrevent programme within CONTEST the UK governmentrsquos counter-terrorismpolicy has been criticised for funding projects that have little reach into and impactupon marginalised young people Moreover there has been considerable debate as towhether existing religious leaders exercise authority within Muslim communities andwith Muslim young people in particular For example a study by Lowe and Innes(2008) has found that some Muslim young people have reported feeling angry andresentful towards elders and community leaders The findings of the study beingreported in this article suggest that it is important for prevention work involvingcommunities to involve those community members who have credibility with thoseyoung people deemed at risk Therefore it is not necessarily a question of the age orstatus of the particular community member working with the young person deemed atrisk but rather of his or her credibility with the young person concerned Animportant dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is that of targetedwork with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorism involvingcommunity members and the police Furthermore it is important for research todocument the perspectives and experiences of those individuals involved in theseinitiatives as through individualsrsquo narratives it is possible to explore some of the mostinnovative terror crime prevention programmes involving Muslim young peoplecurrently being developed in the UK Before addressing each of these themes in turn Ishall first describe the research study that was undertaken under the auspices of theReligion and Society Programme

The Research Study

This was a small-scale but in-depth research study utilising qualitative researchmethods involving semi-structured interviews and participant observations ofcommunity and police meetings (Spalek et al 2009) Two case studies were focusedupon in particular the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) and the Muslim Safety Forum(MSF) The MCU is a counter-terrorism policing unit within the Metropolitan PoliceService in London formed in the aftermath of 911 by two Special Branch officersThe work of the MCU was underpinned by a community policing philosophy ndashpolicing by consent ndash and in this context MCU police officers worked with Muslimcommunities as partners rather than informants (see Lambert 2010 Spalek 2010)The MSF is an established point of policendashcommunity contact an umbrellaorganisation made up of a large number of Muslim organisations and acting as anlsquoadvisory body to the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers(ACPO) on issues concerning British Muslimsrsquo3 In total 42 individuals wereinterviewed Thirteen of these participants were police officers ndash members of theMCU the National Communities Tensions Team (NCTT) and the ACPO ndash and 29were members of Muslim communities and organisations involved to varying levels inengagement work with the police either through the MSF or directly with the MCUor NCTT Some of these individuals included people that might self-classifythemselves or be classified by government agencies as Salafi and Islamist Interviewstook place between December 2007 and July 2008 At the same time researchersattended and observed three MSF community meetings and three MSF meetings withsenior police officers in New Scotland Yard

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken from a concern to document theexperiences and perceptions of police officers and Muslim community members whoare involved in engagement for the purposes of the prevention of terrorism Both

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 193

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police officers and Muslim community members were asked questions aboutexperiences and perceptions of policendashcommunity engagement and partnership workthe role if any of religious knowledge and communication between police officersand Muslim community members Similar questions were asked of both police officersand community members however the semi-structured nature of the interviewingallowed for space for participants to talk about their perceptions and experiencesat length All interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis Theresearchers identified key themes which arose from the interview transcripts through alsquobottom-uprsquo approach that focused upon highlighting the key issues that individualsspoke about in their interviews The thematic analysis that was used here involvedelements of grounded theory in that the first few interview transcripts were comparedand interrogated so that analytical categories could be established which couldencompass a large amount of data with subsequent interview data being used to refinethese initial categories (Arksey and Knight 1999) It is important to highlight that akey theme that emerged from the research data was that the broader socio-politicalcontext of this research study is of great significance in relation to the construct oflsquonew terrorismrsquo as will be explained below

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and the Construction of Islamic Beliefs and Practices as Dangerous

Within terrorism studies there has been significant discussion of lsquooldrsquo and lsquonewrsquo typesof terrorism with Neumann (2009) arguing that nowadays there is a new kind ofterrorism as a result of factors associated with globalisation importantly Al-Qaeda(AQ) terrorism may or may not constitute a lsquonewrsquo form of terrorism Nonetheless it isimportant to stress that since 911 the notion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo has gained increasingascendancy across numerous policy security policing media and other contexts bothnationally and internationally particularly in relation to AQ lsquoNew terrorismrsquoconstitutes a set of rationalities and technologies in relation to a so-called new form ofterrorism that is global and indiscriminate linked to groups associated with orinfluenced by AQ Importantly this new form of terrorism as constructed by lsquonewterrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as a religion thereby settingit largely outside understandings of terror crime as being a feature of national- andethnic-based struggles around the globe rather the lsquonew terrorismrsquo is said to beunbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretations of Islamic texts andconcepts are said to be used not only as a moral foundation but as sacred motivatorsand legitimisers Jackson (2005 p 10) has argued that Islam is viewed in a number ofnormative discourses including academic discussions to be the source of lsquothe threatrsquo

The impact upon Muslim communities of the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has beena distrust of government policy in relation to countering terrorism For example in asurvey carried out in 2006 by the 1990 Trust based on a sample of 1213 BritishMuslims 91 per cent of British Muslims surveyed disagreed with UK governmentforeign policy 93 per cent felt that UK government policy on terrorism was dictatedby the USA and 81 per cent believed the lsquoWar on Terrorrsquo to be a war on Muslims(Thiel 2009 p 27) Scholars working on questions about why some young BritishMuslims have committed terror acts have challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse andhave stressed the need for specific research that looks at specific local contexts andtheir links to wider global geopolitical dynamics These researchers argue that it isimportant to focus upon British foreign policy and the social and economicreverberations of a colonial past rather than focusing upon a socially constructednotion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo that tends to view AQ-related or AQ-linked attacks as part

194 Basia Spalek

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of some kind of global war against the West involving Islam (Githens-Mazer 2009Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010)

lsquoNew terrorismrsquo has led to increased counter-terrorism powers the creation andotherisation of suspect communities particularly of Muslim communities and humanrights abuses across the globe4 Within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo young Muslim men inparticular have been viewed as constituting a lsquoproblem grouprsquo and a lsquofifth columnenemy withinrsquo by media politicians the security services and criminal justice agenciesThey have become the predominant targets of anti-terrorist legislation and counter-terrorism surveillance policing in Britain (Poynting and Mason 2006) and othercountries including Germany (Bakir and Harburg 2005) France (Body-Gendrot2008) the USA (Harris 2006) Australia (Poynting et al 2004) and Canada(Poynting and Perry 2007) It is important to highlight here that the problematisationof Muslim identities goes beyond the problematisation of Muslim ethnic and culturalidentities (in particular those of young Muslims from Yemen Somalia and Pakistan5)to the problematisation of Islamic religious identities within wider discussionsregarding citizenship and social cohesion In the UK within the Prevent strand of thegovernmentrsquos main counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST 2 police and localauthorities are leading strategies aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE)working with wide-ranging bodies including representatives from the education sectorchildrenrsquos and youth services probation and prison services with Muslim commu-nities being viewed as key partners (HM Government 2006) Potential statepenetration of Muslim communities through Prevent programmes carries thepotential risk that Islamic religious identities are viewed as problematic For exampleaccording to Spalek and McDonald (2010) who argue that it has becomecommonplace to construct Islamic practices and beliefs as potentially dangerousand a potential barrier to social cohesion factors such as political activism narrowinterpretations of the Quran travelling abroad and glorification of martyrdom andmartyrs have been used by state agencies working with academics to assess risk interms of individualsrsquo potential movements towards committing terror crime None-theless the validity of such risk assessments is questionable especially when one takesinto consideration the broader political context that directly influences the counter-terrorism policies and practices that are developed Neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo this approach being underpinnedby the rhetoric of neo-conservative research institutions (Spalek and McDonald2010) This issue has broader roots and according to Cesari (2005) Muslimsrsquosettlement in Europe and their claims for public recognition can be viewed as a threatby western secular states which separate politics from religion According to Silvestri(2007) Salafism has in particular been used as a synonym for jihadism and terrorismthereby neglecting the nuances and multiple positionings of Salafis and the evolutionof different currents of Islamic thought To draw upon and use Islamic identities andpractices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in some cases may besimply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real or a perceivedopposition to established secular values (see Spalek Haqq Baker and Lambert 2009))runs the risk that these are negatively labelled and attract the attention of approachesto security that might be considered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics According to Kilcullen (2007 pp 112ndash13) counter-insurgencyinvolves lsquoall measures adopted to suppress an insurgencyrsquo where insurgency islsquoa struggle to control a contested political space between a state (or group of statesor occupying powers) and one or more popularly based non-state challengersrsquo

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 195

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According to Lambert (2009) a counter-subversion perspective in the UK posits thatthose described as being Islamist whether or not they are suspected of terrorism orviolent extremism are to be targeted and stigmatised in the same way as terroristsinfluenced or directed by AQ Thus there is a danger that the expression of Islamicidentities considered to be lsquoradicalrsquo may attract the attention of certain security sectorsand groupings that are striving to influence the kinds of Islamic identities that aremade manifest in the UK and in other western democratic contexts Islamic identitiesmay be influenced through the penetration of Muslim communities by covert andlargely ungoverned and ungovernable security operatives that draw upon multi-mediaand other strategies that aim to influence the kinds of Muslim identities and Islamicpractices that are being expressed and practised

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Researching Islam and Muslim Communities

In the UK since 911 there has been an unprecedented enlargement of securitypolicies and practices with continuous growth in the funding of security intelligence(Bennett et al 2007 Moran and Phythian 2008 Youngs 2009) In many ways thishas led to the mainstreaming of counter-terrorism policies and practices into a widerange of institutions including schools universities probation services youth servicesand prisons It would therefore be naive not to take into consideration the fact that allresearch in relation to Muslim communities and Islam whether exploring questions ofeducation family crime identity attitudes social and economic exclusion gendercitizenship and multiculturalism or more directly looking at issues of lsquoradicalisationrsquoandor political mobilisation could potentially be part of an unprecedentedenlargement of the securitisation framework The danger is that academic workfocusing on Muslim minorities may through an insubstantial consideration of thewider socio-political context be used to further support the dominance of the conceptof lsquonew terrorismrsquo thereby having potentially very real consequences for Muslimcommunities It is important to stress here that this does not mean that all research inrelation to Muslims and Islam including research that focuses on lsquoradicalisationrsquo andcounter-terrorism is unwarranted or unhelpful rather I am arguing here that in orderto conduct ethically informed research it is important for academics to reflect criticallyupon the nature and terms of their engagement with broader theoretical frameworksof analysis with research participants and also with the state state agencies policiesand practices

The lsquonew terrorismrsquo context might be considered to be a lsquolow trustrsquo environment(Spalek 2010) For example participants in the AHRCESRC study spoke about theeffects of being detained without charge and the effects of people having their homesraided these lsquohardrsquo policing strategies having significant consequences uponindividualsrsquo lives leading to ostracisation from their wider communities familybreakdown and job losses The following is an extract from an interview6

A lot of the people who they arrested later on were found to be innocent Soall the damage that was caused you know and the whole stigma as well inthe community is not something thatrsquos easy for people just to say okay youknow last night the police came and raided my house and today Irsquom justnormal It affects the children when they go to school it affects the elderlywhen they go to the mosque It affects the woman when she goes shoppingso all of those things you know itrsquos like all the emotional effect of theaftermath of it is not taken into consideration and police theyrsquove done their

196 Basia Spalek

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 197

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

198 Basia Spalek

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 199

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

202 Basia Spalek

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

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relation to multiculturalism citizenship equality secularism and religiosity At thesame time lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse in a post-911 and post-77 context has helpedinstigate an increased state focus upon questions of national security involving agrowth in counter-terrorism legislation policies and practices aimed at counteringlsquonewrsquo forms of terrorism considered to be indiscriminate in nature having been linkedto particular strands within Islam and global in their reach It is important tohighlight that lsquonew terrorismrsquo has helped to securitise Islam as a religion wheresecuritisation might be thought of as the instigation of emergency politics a particularsocial issue that becomes securitised is responded to above and beyond establishedrules and frameworks that exist within what might be termed lsquonormal politicsrsquo (Jutila2006)

The dominance of lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse within security strategies by statesraises the question of whether it is at all appropriate to conduct any research with orabout Muslim communities in relation to questions of security for there is a dangerthat such research will be used in order to further promote and propagate state-ledagendas which may at times involve the violation or suspension of human rightsparticularly those of Muslim minorities However it may be the case that within alsquonew terrorismrsquo context a context often characterised by fear suspicion and distrustbetween Muslim communities and the state (Spalek 2010) there is space for criticalscholarship not only to challenge those state-led agendas that are inappropriate1 butalso to consider ways in which communities can be empowered within the context of aresponse to lsquonew terrorismrsquo exploring dynamics between communities and the statethat can be characterised as being based on trust and partnership where these exist2

At the same time research here can help shed important light upon the extent towhich the values associated with liberal democracies ndash with respect to pluralismfreedom of speech and privacy ndash may be considered to be under threat through theperspectives and experiences of communities that have been deemed lsquosuspectrsquo and atrisk of being radicalised

In this article I draw upon a recently completed research project funded by the Artsand Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social ResearchCouncil (ESRC) and carried out under the auspices of the Religion and SocietyProgramme exploring engagement and partnership work between Muslim commu-nities and the police within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo First I set out the ways inwhich lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has influenced security agendas and the impacts ofsecuritisation policies on Muslim communities and I argue that there is a danger thatIslamic beliefs and practices can be stigmatised I then consider the issue ofresearching Islam and Muslim communities within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo anddiscuss the importance of building trust between the researcher and the researchedand the particular challenges associated with trust-building in a lsquonew terrorismrsquocontext Last I consider the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based contextsinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I presentempirical data from the AHRCESRC-funded study in order first to highlight howlocal Al-Qaeda (AQ) recruiters and others potentially involved in terror crimes canexploit wider global events to generate powerful emotions among young people inthe UK in order to promote violent causes second to highlight the fact that someimportant preventative work with Muslim young people is being undertaken in theUK involving individuals who understand the push-and-pull factors facing youngpeople within local contexts in the UK and third to suggest that in order to counterAQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social and economic deprivation atlsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with young people deemed at risk to

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possess street know-how and credibility This is an important point given that thePrevent programme within CONTEST the UK governmentrsquos counter-terrorismpolicy has been criticised for funding projects that have little reach into and impactupon marginalised young people Moreover there has been considerable debate as towhether existing religious leaders exercise authority within Muslim communities andwith Muslim young people in particular For example a study by Lowe and Innes(2008) has found that some Muslim young people have reported feeling angry andresentful towards elders and community leaders The findings of the study beingreported in this article suggest that it is important for prevention work involvingcommunities to involve those community members who have credibility with thoseyoung people deemed at risk Therefore it is not necessarily a question of the age orstatus of the particular community member working with the young person deemed atrisk but rather of his or her credibility with the young person concerned Animportant dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is that of targetedwork with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorism involvingcommunity members and the police Furthermore it is important for research todocument the perspectives and experiences of those individuals involved in theseinitiatives as through individualsrsquo narratives it is possible to explore some of the mostinnovative terror crime prevention programmes involving Muslim young peoplecurrently being developed in the UK Before addressing each of these themes in turn Ishall first describe the research study that was undertaken under the auspices of theReligion and Society Programme

The Research Study

This was a small-scale but in-depth research study utilising qualitative researchmethods involving semi-structured interviews and participant observations ofcommunity and police meetings (Spalek et al 2009) Two case studies were focusedupon in particular the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) and the Muslim Safety Forum(MSF) The MCU is a counter-terrorism policing unit within the Metropolitan PoliceService in London formed in the aftermath of 911 by two Special Branch officersThe work of the MCU was underpinned by a community policing philosophy ndashpolicing by consent ndash and in this context MCU police officers worked with Muslimcommunities as partners rather than informants (see Lambert 2010 Spalek 2010)The MSF is an established point of policendashcommunity contact an umbrellaorganisation made up of a large number of Muslim organisations and acting as anlsquoadvisory body to the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers(ACPO) on issues concerning British Muslimsrsquo3 In total 42 individuals wereinterviewed Thirteen of these participants were police officers ndash members of theMCU the National Communities Tensions Team (NCTT) and the ACPO ndash and 29were members of Muslim communities and organisations involved to varying levels inengagement work with the police either through the MSF or directly with the MCUor NCTT Some of these individuals included people that might self-classifythemselves or be classified by government agencies as Salafi and Islamist Interviewstook place between December 2007 and July 2008 At the same time researchersattended and observed three MSF community meetings and three MSF meetings withsenior police officers in New Scotland Yard

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken from a concern to document theexperiences and perceptions of police officers and Muslim community members whoare involved in engagement for the purposes of the prevention of terrorism Both

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police officers and Muslim community members were asked questions aboutexperiences and perceptions of policendashcommunity engagement and partnership workthe role if any of religious knowledge and communication between police officersand Muslim community members Similar questions were asked of both police officersand community members however the semi-structured nature of the interviewingallowed for space for participants to talk about their perceptions and experiencesat length All interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis Theresearchers identified key themes which arose from the interview transcripts through alsquobottom-uprsquo approach that focused upon highlighting the key issues that individualsspoke about in their interviews The thematic analysis that was used here involvedelements of grounded theory in that the first few interview transcripts were comparedand interrogated so that analytical categories could be established which couldencompass a large amount of data with subsequent interview data being used to refinethese initial categories (Arksey and Knight 1999) It is important to highlight that akey theme that emerged from the research data was that the broader socio-politicalcontext of this research study is of great significance in relation to the construct oflsquonew terrorismrsquo as will be explained below

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and the Construction of Islamic Beliefs and Practices as Dangerous

Within terrorism studies there has been significant discussion of lsquooldrsquo and lsquonewrsquo typesof terrorism with Neumann (2009) arguing that nowadays there is a new kind ofterrorism as a result of factors associated with globalisation importantly Al-Qaeda(AQ) terrorism may or may not constitute a lsquonewrsquo form of terrorism Nonetheless it isimportant to stress that since 911 the notion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo has gained increasingascendancy across numerous policy security policing media and other contexts bothnationally and internationally particularly in relation to AQ lsquoNew terrorismrsquoconstitutes a set of rationalities and technologies in relation to a so-called new form ofterrorism that is global and indiscriminate linked to groups associated with orinfluenced by AQ Importantly this new form of terrorism as constructed by lsquonewterrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as a religion thereby settingit largely outside understandings of terror crime as being a feature of national- andethnic-based struggles around the globe rather the lsquonew terrorismrsquo is said to beunbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretations of Islamic texts andconcepts are said to be used not only as a moral foundation but as sacred motivatorsand legitimisers Jackson (2005 p 10) has argued that Islam is viewed in a number ofnormative discourses including academic discussions to be the source of lsquothe threatrsquo

The impact upon Muslim communities of the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has beena distrust of government policy in relation to countering terrorism For example in asurvey carried out in 2006 by the 1990 Trust based on a sample of 1213 BritishMuslims 91 per cent of British Muslims surveyed disagreed with UK governmentforeign policy 93 per cent felt that UK government policy on terrorism was dictatedby the USA and 81 per cent believed the lsquoWar on Terrorrsquo to be a war on Muslims(Thiel 2009 p 27) Scholars working on questions about why some young BritishMuslims have committed terror acts have challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse andhave stressed the need for specific research that looks at specific local contexts andtheir links to wider global geopolitical dynamics These researchers argue that it isimportant to focus upon British foreign policy and the social and economicreverberations of a colonial past rather than focusing upon a socially constructednotion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo that tends to view AQ-related or AQ-linked attacks as part

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of some kind of global war against the West involving Islam (Githens-Mazer 2009Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010)

lsquoNew terrorismrsquo has led to increased counter-terrorism powers the creation andotherisation of suspect communities particularly of Muslim communities and humanrights abuses across the globe4 Within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo young Muslim men inparticular have been viewed as constituting a lsquoproblem grouprsquo and a lsquofifth columnenemy withinrsquo by media politicians the security services and criminal justice agenciesThey have become the predominant targets of anti-terrorist legislation and counter-terrorism surveillance policing in Britain (Poynting and Mason 2006) and othercountries including Germany (Bakir and Harburg 2005) France (Body-Gendrot2008) the USA (Harris 2006) Australia (Poynting et al 2004) and Canada(Poynting and Perry 2007) It is important to highlight here that the problematisationof Muslim identities goes beyond the problematisation of Muslim ethnic and culturalidentities (in particular those of young Muslims from Yemen Somalia and Pakistan5)to the problematisation of Islamic religious identities within wider discussionsregarding citizenship and social cohesion In the UK within the Prevent strand of thegovernmentrsquos main counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST 2 police and localauthorities are leading strategies aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE)working with wide-ranging bodies including representatives from the education sectorchildrenrsquos and youth services probation and prison services with Muslim commu-nities being viewed as key partners (HM Government 2006) Potential statepenetration of Muslim communities through Prevent programmes carries thepotential risk that Islamic religious identities are viewed as problematic For exampleaccording to Spalek and McDonald (2010) who argue that it has becomecommonplace to construct Islamic practices and beliefs as potentially dangerousand a potential barrier to social cohesion factors such as political activism narrowinterpretations of the Quran travelling abroad and glorification of martyrdom andmartyrs have been used by state agencies working with academics to assess risk interms of individualsrsquo potential movements towards committing terror crime None-theless the validity of such risk assessments is questionable especially when one takesinto consideration the broader political context that directly influences the counter-terrorism policies and practices that are developed Neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo this approach being underpinnedby the rhetoric of neo-conservative research institutions (Spalek and McDonald2010) This issue has broader roots and according to Cesari (2005) Muslimsrsquosettlement in Europe and their claims for public recognition can be viewed as a threatby western secular states which separate politics from religion According to Silvestri(2007) Salafism has in particular been used as a synonym for jihadism and terrorismthereby neglecting the nuances and multiple positionings of Salafis and the evolutionof different currents of Islamic thought To draw upon and use Islamic identities andpractices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in some cases may besimply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real or a perceivedopposition to established secular values (see Spalek Haqq Baker and Lambert 2009))runs the risk that these are negatively labelled and attract the attention of approachesto security that might be considered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics According to Kilcullen (2007 pp 112ndash13) counter-insurgencyinvolves lsquoall measures adopted to suppress an insurgencyrsquo where insurgency islsquoa struggle to control a contested political space between a state (or group of statesor occupying powers) and one or more popularly based non-state challengersrsquo

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 195

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According to Lambert (2009) a counter-subversion perspective in the UK posits thatthose described as being Islamist whether or not they are suspected of terrorism orviolent extremism are to be targeted and stigmatised in the same way as terroristsinfluenced or directed by AQ Thus there is a danger that the expression of Islamicidentities considered to be lsquoradicalrsquo may attract the attention of certain security sectorsand groupings that are striving to influence the kinds of Islamic identities that aremade manifest in the UK and in other western democratic contexts Islamic identitiesmay be influenced through the penetration of Muslim communities by covert andlargely ungoverned and ungovernable security operatives that draw upon multi-mediaand other strategies that aim to influence the kinds of Muslim identities and Islamicpractices that are being expressed and practised

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Researching Islam and Muslim Communities

In the UK since 911 there has been an unprecedented enlargement of securitypolicies and practices with continuous growth in the funding of security intelligence(Bennett et al 2007 Moran and Phythian 2008 Youngs 2009) In many ways thishas led to the mainstreaming of counter-terrorism policies and practices into a widerange of institutions including schools universities probation services youth servicesand prisons It would therefore be naive not to take into consideration the fact that allresearch in relation to Muslim communities and Islam whether exploring questions ofeducation family crime identity attitudes social and economic exclusion gendercitizenship and multiculturalism or more directly looking at issues of lsquoradicalisationrsquoandor political mobilisation could potentially be part of an unprecedentedenlargement of the securitisation framework The danger is that academic workfocusing on Muslim minorities may through an insubstantial consideration of thewider socio-political context be used to further support the dominance of the conceptof lsquonew terrorismrsquo thereby having potentially very real consequences for Muslimcommunities It is important to stress here that this does not mean that all research inrelation to Muslims and Islam including research that focuses on lsquoradicalisationrsquo andcounter-terrorism is unwarranted or unhelpful rather I am arguing here that in orderto conduct ethically informed research it is important for academics to reflect criticallyupon the nature and terms of their engagement with broader theoretical frameworksof analysis with research participants and also with the state state agencies policiesand practices

The lsquonew terrorismrsquo context might be considered to be a lsquolow trustrsquo environment(Spalek 2010) For example participants in the AHRCESRC study spoke about theeffects of being detained without charge and the effects of people having their homesraided these lsquohardrsquo policing strategies having significant consequences uponindividualsrsquo lives leading to ostracisation from their wider communities familybreakdown and job losses The following is an extract from an interview6

A lot of the people who they arrested later on were found to be innocent Soall the damage that was caused you know and the whole stigma as well inthe community is not something thatrsquos easy for people just to say okay youknow last night the police came and raided my house and today Irsquom justnormal It affects the children when they go to school it affects the elderlywhen they go to the mosque It affects the woman when she goes shoppingso all of those things you know itrsquos like all the emotional effect of theaftermath of it is not taken into consideration and police theyrsquove done their

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 199

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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possess street know-how and credibility This is an important point given that thePrevent programme within CONTEST the UK governmentrsquos counter-terrorismpolicy has been criticised for funding projects that have little reach into and impactupon marginalised young people Moreover there has been considerable debate as towhether existing religious leaders exercise authority within Muslim communities andwith Muslim young people in particular For example a study by Lowe and Innes(2008) has found that some Muslim young people have reported feeling angry andresentful towards elders and community leaders The findings of the study beingreported in this article suggest that it is important for prevention work involvingcommunities to involve those community members who have credibility with thoseyoung people deemed at risk Therefore it is not necessarily a question of the age orstatus of the particular community member working with the young person deemed atrisk but rather of his or her credibility with the young person concerned Animportant dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is that of targetedwork with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorism involvingcommunity members and the police Furthermore it is important for research todocument the perspectives and experiences of those individuals involved in theseinitiatives as through individualsrsquo narratives it is possible to explore some of the mostinnovative terror crime prevention programmes involving Muslim young peoplecurrently being developed in the UK Before addressing each of these themes in turn Ishall first describe the research study that was undertaken under the auspices of theReligion and Society Programme

The Research Study

This was a small-scale but in-depth research study utilising qualitative researchmethods involving semi-structured interviews and participant observations ofcommunity and police meetings (Spalek et al 2009) Two case studies were focusedupon in particular the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) and the Muslim Safety Forum(MSF) The MCU is a counter-terrorism policing unit within the Metropolitan PoliceService in London formed in the aftermath of 911 by two Special Branch officersThe work of the MCU was underpinned by a community policing philosophy ndashpolicing by consent ndash and in this context MCU police officers worked with Muslimcommunities as partners rather than informants (see Lambert 2010 Spalek 2010)The MSF is an established point of policendashcommunity contact an umbrellaorganisation made up of a large number of Muslim organisations and acting as anlsquoadvisory body to the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers(ACPO) on issues concerning British Muslimsrsquo3 In total 42 individuals wereinterviewed Thirteen of these participants were police officers ndash members of theMCU the National Communities Tensions Team (NCTT) and the ACPO ndash and 29were members of Muslim communities and organisations involved to varying levels inengagement work with the police either through the MSF or directly with the MCUor NCTT Some of these individuals included people that might self-classifythemselves or be classified by government agencies as Salafi and Islamist Interviewstook place between December 2007 and July 2008 At the same time researchersattended and observed three MSF community meetings and three MSF meetings withsenior police officers in New Scotland Yard

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken from a concern to document theexperiences and perceptions of police officers and Muslim community members whoare involved in engagement for the purposes of the prevention of terrorism Both

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police officers and Muslim community members were asked questions aboutexperiences and perceptions of policendashcommunity engagement and partnership workthe role if any of religious knowledge and communication between police officersand Muslim community members Similar questions were asked of both police officersand community members however the semi-structured nature of the interviewingallowed for space for participants to talk about their perceptions and experiencesat length All interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis Theresearchers identified key themes which arose from the interview transcripts through alsquobottom-uprsquo approach that focused upon highlighting the key issues that individualsspoke about in their interviews The thematic analysis that was used here involvedelements of grounded theory in that the first few interview transcripts were comparedand interrogated so that analytical categories could be established which couldencompass a large amount of data with subsequent interview data being used to refinethese initial categories (Arksey and Knight 1999) It is important to highlight that akey theme that emerged from the research data was that the broader socio-politicalcontext of this research study is of great significance in relation to the construct oflsquonew terrorismrsquo as will be explained below

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and the Construction of Islamic Beliefs and Practices as Dangerous

Within terrorism studies there has been significant discussion of lsquooldrsquo and lsquonewrsquo typesof terrorism with Neumann (2009) arguing that nowadays there is a new kind ofterrorism as a result of factors associated with globalisation importantly Al-Qaeda(AQ) terrorism may or may not constitute a lsquonewrsquo form of terrorism Nonetheless it isimportant to stress that since 911 the notion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo has gained increasingascendancy across numerous policy security policing media and other contexts bothnationally and internationally particularly in relation to AQ lsquoNew terrorismrsquoconstitutes a set of rationalities and technologies in relation to a so-called new form ofterrorism that is global and indiscriminate linked to groups associated with orinfluenced by AQ Importantly this new form of terrorism as constructed by lsquonewterrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as a religion thereby settingit largely outside understandings of terror crime as being a feature of national- andethnic-based struggles around the globe rather the lsquonew terrorismrsquo is said to beunbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretations of Islamic texts andconcepts are said to be used not only as a moral foundation but as sacred motivatorsand legitimisers Jackson (2005 p 10) has argued that Islam is viewed in a number ofnormative discourses including academic discussions to be the source of lsquothe threatrsquo

The impact upon Muslim communities of the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has beena distrust of government policy in relation to countering terrorism For example in asurvey carried out in 2006 by the 1990 Trust based on a sample of 1213 BritishMuslims 91 per cent of British Muslims surveyed disagreed with UK governmentforeign policy 93 per cent felt that UK government policy on terrorism was dictatedby the USA and 81 per cent believed the lsquoWar on Terrorrsquo to be a war on Muslims(Thiel 2009 p 27) Scholars working on questions about why some young BritishMuslims have committed terror acts have challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse andhave stressed the need for specific research that looks at specific local contexts andtheir links to wider global geopolitical dynamics These researchers argue that it isimportant to focus upon British foreign policy and the social and economicreverberations of a colonial past rather than focusing upon a socially constructednotion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo that tends to view AQ-related or AQ-linked attacks as part

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of some kind of global war against the West involving Islam (Githens-Mazer 2009Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010)

lsquoNew terrorismrsquo has led to increased counter-terrorism powers the creation andotherisation of suspect communities particularly of Muslim communities and humanrights abuses across the globe4 Within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo young Muslim men inparticular have been viewed as constituting a lsquoproblem grouprsquo and a lsquofifth columnenemy withinrsquo by media politicians the security services and criminal justice agenciesThey have become the predominant targets of anti-terrorist legislation and counter-terrorism surveillance policing in Britain (Poynting and Mason 2006) and othercountries including Germany (Bakir and Harburg 2005) France (Body-Gendrot2008) the USA (Harris 2006) Australia (Poynting et al 2004) and Canada(Poynting and Perry 2007) It is important to highlight here that the problematisationof Muslim identities goes beyond the problematisation of Muslim ethnic and culturalidentities (in particular those of young Muslims from Yemen Somalia and Pakistan5)to the problematisation of Islamic religious identities within wider discussionsregarding citizenship and social cohesion In the UK within the Prevent strand of thegovernmentrsquos main counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST 2 police and localauthorities are leading strategies aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE)working with wide-ranging bodies including representatives from the education sectorchildrenrsquos and youth services probation and prison services with Muslim commu-nities being viewed as key partners (HM Government 2006) Potential statepenetration of Muslim communities through Prevent programmes carries thepotential risk that Islamic religious identities are viewed as problematic For exampleaccording to Spalek and McDonald (2010) who argue that it has becomecommonplace to construct Islamic practices and beliefs as potentially dangerousand a potential barrier to social cohesion factors such as political activism narrowinterpretations of the Quran travelling abroad and glorification of martyrdom andmartyrs have been used by state agencies working with academics to assess risk interms of individualsrsquo potential movements towards committing terror crime None-theless the validity of such risk assessments is questionable especially when one takesinto consideration the broader political context that directly influences the counter-terrorism policies and practices that are developed Neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo this approach being underpinnedby the rhetoric of neo-conservative research institutions (Spalek and McDonald2010) This issue has broader roots and according to Cesari (2005) Muslimsrsquosettlement in Europe and their claims for public recognition can be viewed as a threatby western secular states which separate politics from religion According to Silvestri(2007) Salafism has in particular been used as a synonym for jihadism and terrorismthereby neglecting the nuances and multiple positionings of Salafis and the evolutionof different currents of Islamic thought To draw upon and use Islamic identities andpractices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in some cases may besimply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real or a perceivedopposition to established secular values (see Spalek Haqq Baker and Lambert 2009))runs the risk that these are negatively labelled and attract the attention of approachesto security that might be considered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics According to Kilcullen (2007 pp 112ndash13) counter-insurgencyinvolves lsquoall measures adopted to suppress an insurgencyrsquo where insurgency islsquoa struggle to control a contested political space between a state (or group of statesor occupying powers) and one or more popularly based non-state challengersrsquo

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 195

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According to Lambert (2009) a counter-subversion perspective in the UK posits thatthose described as being Islamist whether or not they are suspected of terrorism orviolent extremism are to be targeted and stigmatised in the same way as terroristsinfluenced or directed by AQ Thus there is a danger that the expression of Islamicidentities considered to be lsquoradicalrsquo may attract the attention of certain security sectorsand groupings that are striving to influence the kinds of Islamic identities that aremade manifest in the UK and in other western democratic contexts Islamic identitiesmay be influenced through the penetration of Muslim communities by covert andlargely ungoverned and ungovernable security operatives that draw upon multi-mediaand other strategies that aim to influence the kinds of Muslim identities and Islamicpractices that are being expressed and practised

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Researching Islam and Muslim Communities

In the UK since 911 there has been an unprecedented enlargement of securitypolicies and practices with continuous growth in the funding of security intelligence(Bennett et al 2007 Moran and Phythian 2008 Youngs 2009) In many ways thishas led to the mainstreaming of counter-terrorism policies and practices into a widerange of institutions including schools universities probation services youth servicesand prisons It would therefore be naive not to take into consideration the fact that allresearch in relation to Muslim communities and Islam whether exploring questions ofeducation family crime identity attitudes social and economic exclusion gendercitizenship and multiculturalism or more directly looking at issues of lsquoradicalisationrsquoandor political mobilisation could potentially be part of an unprecedentedenlargement of the securitisation framework The danger is that academic workfocusing on Muslim minorities may through an insubstantial consideration of thewider socio-political context be used to further support the dominance of the conceptof lsquonew terrorismrsquo thereby having potentially very real consequences for Muslimcommunities It is important to stress here that this does not mean that all research inrelation to Muslims and Islam including research that focuses on lsquoradicalisationrsquo andcounter-terrorism is unwarranted or unhelpful rather I am arguing here that in orderto conduct ethically informed research it is important for academics to reflect criticallyupon the nature and terms of their engagement with broader theoretical frameworksof analysis with research participants and also with the state state agencies policiesand practices

The lsquonew terrorismrsquo context might be considered to be a lsquolow trustrsquo environment(Spalek 2010) For example participants in the AHRCESRC study spoke about theeffects of being detained without charge and the effects of people having their homesraided these lsquohardrsquo policing strategies having significant consequences uponindividualsrsquo lives leading to ostracisation from their wider communities familybreakdown and job losses The following is an extract from an interview6

A lot of the people who they arrested later on were found to be innocent Soall the damage that was caused you know and the whole stigma as well inthe community is not something thatrsquos easy for people just to say okay youknow last night the police came and raided my house and today Irsquom justnormal It affects the children when they go to school it affects the elderlywhen they go to the mosque It affects the woman when she goes shoppingso all of those things you know itrsquos like all the emotional effect of theaftermath of it is not taken into consideration and police theyrsquove done their

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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police officers and Muslim community members were asked questions aboutexperiences and perceptions of policendashcommunity engagement and partnership workthe role if any of religious knowledge and communication between police officersand Muslim community members Similar questions were asked of both police officersand community members however the semi-structured nature of the interviewingallowed for space for participants to talk about their perceptions and experiencesat length All interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis Theresearchers identified key themes which arose from the interview transcripts through alsquobottom-uprsquo approach that focused upon highlighting the key issues that individualsspoke about in their interviews The thematic analysis that was used here involvedelements of grounded theory in that the first few interview transcripts were comparedand interrogated so that analytical categories could be established which couldencompass a large amount of data with subsequent interview data being used to refinethese initial categories (Arksey and Knight 1999) It is important to highlight that akey theme that emerged from the research data was that the broader socio-politicalcontext of this research study is of great significance in relation to the construct oflsquonew terrorismrsquo as will be explained below

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and the Construction of Islamic Beliefs and Practices as Dangerous

Within terrorism studies there has been significant discussion of lsquooldrsquo and lsquonewrsquo typesof terrorism with Neumann (2009) arguing that nowadays there is a new kind ofterrorism as a result of factors associated with globalisation importantly Al-Qaeda(AQ) terrorism may or may not constitute a lsquonewrsquo form of terrorism Nonetheless it isimportant to stress that since 911 the notion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo has gained increasingascendancy across numerous policy security policing media and other contexts bothnationally and internationally particularly in relation to AQ lsquoNew terrorismrsquoconstitutes a set of rationalities and technologies in relation to a so-called new form ofterrorism that is global and indiscriminate linked to groups associated with orinfluenced by AQ Importantly this new form of terrorism as constructed by lsquonewterrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as a religion thereby settingit largely outside understandings of terror crime as being a feature of national- andethnic-based struggles around the globe rather the lsquonew terrorismrsquo is said to beunbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretations of Islamic texts andconcepts are said to be used not only as a moral foundation but as sacred motivatorsand legitimisers Jackson (2005 p 10) has argued that Islam is viewed in a number ofnormative discourses including academic discussions to be the source of lsquothe threatrsquo

The impact upon Muslim communities of the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse has beena distrust of government policy in relation to countering terrorism For example in asurvey carried out in 2006 by the 1990 Trust based on a sample of 1213 BritishMuslims 91 per cent of British Muslims surveyed disagreed with UK governmentforeign policy 93 per cent felt that UK government policy on terrorism was dictatedby the USA and 81 per cent believed the lsquoWar on Terrorrsquo to be a war on Muslims(Thiel 2009 p 27) Scholars working on questions about why some young BritishMuslims have committed terror acts have challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse andhave stressed the need for specific research that looks at specific local contexts andtheir links to wider global geopolitical dynamics These researchers argue that it isimportant to focus upon British foreign policy and the social and economicreverberations of a colonial past rather than focusing upon a socially constructednotion of lsquonew terrorismrsquo that tends to view AQ-related or AQ-linked attacks as part

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of some kind of global war against the West involving Islam (Githens-Mazer 2009Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010)

lsquoNew terrorismrsquo has led to increased counter-terrorism powers the creation andotherisation of suspect communities particularly of Muslim communities and humanrights abuses across the globe4 Within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo young Muslim men inparticular have been viewed as constituting a lsquoproblem grouprsquo and a lsquofifth columnenemy withinrsquo by media politicians the security services and criminal justice agenciesThey have become the predominant targets of anti-terrorist legislation and counter-terrorism surveillance policing in Britain (Poynting and Mason 2006) and othercountries including Germany (Bakir and Harburg 2005) France (Body-Gendrot2008) the USA (Harris 2006) Australia (Poynting et al 2004) and Canada(Poynting and Perry 2007) It is important to highlight here that the problematisationof Muslim identities goes beyond the problematisation of Muslim ethnic and culturalidentities (in particular those of young Muslims from Yemen Somalia and Pakistan5)to the problematisation of Islamic religious identities within wider discussionsregarding citizenship and social cohesion In the UK within the Prevent strand of thegovernmentrsquos main counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST 2 police and localauthorities are leading strategies aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE)working with wide-ranging bodies including representatives from the education sectorchildrenrsquos and youth services probation and prison services with Muslim commu-nities being viewed as key partners (HM Government 2006) Potential statepenetration of Muslim communities through Prevent programmes carries thepotential risk that Islamic religious identities are viewed as problematic For exampleaccording to Spalek and McDonald (2010) who argue that it has becomecommonplace to construct Islamic practices and beliefs as potentially dangerousand a potential barrier to social cohesion factors such as political activism narrowinterpretations of the Quran travelling abroad and glorification of martyrdom andmartyrs have been used by state agencies working with academics to assess risk interms of individualsrsquo potential movements towards committing terror crime None-theless the validity of such risk assessments is questionable especially when one takesinto consideration the broader political context that directly influences the counter-terrorism policies and practices that are developed Neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo this approach being underpinnedby the rhetoric of neo-conservative research institutions (Spalek and McDonald2010) This issue has broader roots and according to Cesari (2005) Muslimsrsquosettlement in Europe and their claims for public recognition can be viewed as a threatby western secular states which separate politics from religion According to Silvestri(2007) Salafism has in particular been used as a synonym for jihadism and terrorismthereby neglecting the nuances and multiple positionings of Salafis and the evolutionof different currents of Islamic thought To draw upon and use Islamic identities andpractices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in some cases may besimply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real or a perceivedopposition to established secular values (see Spalek Haqq Baker and Lambert 2009))runs the risk that these are negatively labelled and attract the attention of approachesto security that might be considered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics According to Kilcullen (2007 pp 112ndash13) counter-insurgencyinvolves lsquoall measures adopted to suppress an insurgencyrsquo where insurgency islsquoa struggle to control a contested political space between a state (or group of statesor occupying powers) and one or more popularly based non-state challengersrsquo

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 195

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According to Lambert (2009) a counter-subversion perspective in the UK posits thatthose described as being Islamist whether or not they are suspected of terrorism orviolent extremism are to be targeted and stigmatised in the same way as terroristsinfluenced or directed by AQ Thus there is a danger that the expression of Islamicidentities considered to be lsquoradicalrsquo may attract the attention of certain security sectorsand groupings that are striving to influence the kinds of Islamic identities that aremade manifest in the UK and in other western democratic contexts Islamic identitiesmay be influenced through the penetration of Muslim communities by covert andlargely ungoverned and ungovernable security operatives that draw upon multi-mediaand other strategies that aim to influence the kinds of Muslim identities and Islamicpractices that are being expressed and practised

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Researching Islam and Muslim Communities

In the UK since 911 there has been an unprecedented enlargement of securitypolicies and practices with continuous growth in the funding of security intelligence(Bennett et al 2007 Moran and Phythian 2008 Youngs 2009) In many ways thishas led to the mainstreaming of counter-terrorism policies and practices into a widerange of institutions including schools universities probation services youth servicesand prisons It would therefore be naive not to take into consideration the fact that allresearch in relation to Muslim communities and Islam whether exploring questions ofeducation family crime identity attitudes social and economic exclusion gendercitizenship and multiculturalism or more directly looking at issues of lsquoradicalisationrsquoandor political mobilisation could potentially be part of an unprecedentedenlargement of the securitisation framework The danger is that academic workfocusing on Muslim minorities may through an insubstantial consideration of thewider socio-political context be used to further support the dominance of the conceptof lsquonew terrorismrsquo thereby having potentially very real consequences for Muslimcommunities It is important to stress here that this does not mean that all research inrelation to Muslims and Islam including research that focuses on lsquoradicalisationrsquo andcounter-terrorism is unwarranted or unhelpful rather I am arguing here that in orderto conduct ethically informed research it is important for academics to reflect criticallyupon the nature and terms of their engagement with broader theoretical frameworksof analysis with research participants and also with the state state agencies policiesand practices

The lsquonew terrorismrsquo context might be considered to be a lsquolow trustrsquo environment(Spalek 2010) For example participants in the AHRCESRC study spoke about theeffects of being detained without charge and the effects of people having their homesraided these lsquohardrsquo policing strategies having significant consequences uponindividualsrsquo lives leading to ostracisation from their wider communities familybreakdown and job losses The following is an extract from an interview6

A lot of the people who they arrested later on were found to be innocent Soall the damage that was caused you know and the whole stigma as well inthe community is not something thatrsquos easy for people just to say okay youknow last night the police came and raided my house and today Irsquom justnormal It affects the children when they go to school it affects the elderlywhen they go to the mosque It affects the woman when she goes shoppingso all of those things you know itrsquos like all the emotional effect of theaftermath of it is not taken into consideration and police theyrsquove done their

196 Basia Spalek

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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of some kind of global war against the West involving Islam (Githens-Mazer 2009Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010)

lsquoNew terrorismrsquo has led to increased counter-terrorism powers the creation andotherisation of suspect communities particularly of Muslim communities and humanrights abuses across the globe4 Within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo young Muslim men inparticular have been viewed as constituting a lsquoproblem grouprsquo and a lsquofifth columnenemy withinrsquo by media politicians the security services and criminal justice agenciesThey have become the predominant targets of anti-terrorist legislation and counter-terrorism surveillance policing in Britain (Poynting and Mason 2006) and othercountries including Germany (Bakir and Harburg 2005) France (Body-Gendrot2008) the USA (Harris 2006) Australia (Poynting et al 2004) and Canada(Poynting and Perry 2007) It is important to highlight here that the problematisationof Muslim identities goes beyond the problematisation of Muslim ethnic and culturalidentities (in particular those of young Muslims from Yemen Somalia and Pakistan5)to the problematisation of Islamic religious identities within wider discussionsregarding citizenship and social cohesion In the UK within the Prevent strand of thegovernmentrsquos main counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST 2 police and localauthorities are leading strategies aimed at preventing violent extremism (PVE)working with wide-ranging bodies including representatives from the education sectorchildrenrsquos and youth services probation and prison services with Muslim commu-nities being viewed as key partners (HM Government 2006) Potential statepenetration of Muslim communities through Prevent programmes carries thepotential risk that Islamic religious identities are viewed as problematic For exampleaccording to Spalek and McDonald (2010) who argue that it has becomecommonplace to construct Islamic practices and beliefs as potentially dangerousand a potential barrier to social cohesion factors such as political activism narrowinterpretations of the Quran travelling abroad and glorification of martyrdom andmartyrs have been used by state agencies working with academics to assess risk interms of individualsrsquo potential movements towards committing terror crime None-theless the validity of such risk assessments is questionable especially when one takesinto consideration the broader political context that directly influences the counter-terrorism policies and practices that are developed Neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo this approach being underpinnedby the rhetoric of neo-conservative research institutions (Spalek and McDonald2010) This issue has broader roots and according to Cesari (2005) Muslimsrsquosettlement in Europe and their claims for public recognition can be viewed as a threatby western secular states which separate politics from religion According to Silvestri(2007) Salafism has in particular been used as a synonym for jihadism and terrorismthereby neglecting the nuances and multiple positionings of Salafis and the evolutionof different currents of Islamic thought To draw upon and use Islamic identities andpractices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in some cases may besimply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real or a perceivedopposition to established secular values (see Spalek Haqq Baker and Lambert 2009))runs the risk that these are negatively labelled and attract the attention of approachesto security that might be considered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics According to Kilcullen (2007 pp 112ndash13) counter-insurgencyinvolves lsquoall measures adopted to suppress an insurgencyrsquo where insurgency islsquoa struggle to control a contested political space between a state (or group of statesor occupying powers) and one or more popularly based non-state challengersrsquo

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 195

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According to Lambert (2009) a counter-subversion perspective in the UK posits thatthose described as being Islamist whether or not they are suspected of terrorism orviolent extremism are to be targeted and stigmatised in the same way as terroristsinfluenced or directed by AQ Thus there is a danger that the expression of Islamicidentities considered to be lsquoradicalrsquo may attract the attention of certain security sectorsand groupings that are striving to influence the kinds of Islamic identities that aremade manifest in the UK and in other western democratic contexts Islamic identitiesmay be influenced through the penetration of Muslim communities by covert andlargely ungoverned and ungovernable security operatives that draw upon multi-mediaand other strategies that aim to influence the kinds of Muslim identities and Islamicpractices that are being expressed and practised

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Researching Islam and Muslim Communities

In the UK since 911 there has been an unprecedented enlargement of securitypolicies and practices with continuous growth in the funding of security intelligence(Bennett et al 2007 Moran and Phythian 2008 Youngs 2009) In many ways thishas led to the mainstreaming of counter-terrorism policies and practices into a widerange of institutions including schools universities probation services youth servicesand prisons It would therefore be naive not to take into consideration the fact that allresearch in relation to Muslim communities and Islam whether exploring questions ofeducation family crime identity attitudes social and economic exclusion gendercitizenship and multiculturalism or more directly looking at issues of lsquoradicalisationrsquoandor political mobilisation could potentially be part of an unprecedentedenlargement of the securitisation framework The danger is that academic workfocusing on Muslim minorities may through an insubstantial consideration of thewider socio-political context be used to further support the dominance of the conceptof lsquonew terrorismrsquo thereby having potentially very real consequences for Muslimcommunities It is important to stress here that this does not mean that all research inrelation to Muslims and Islam including research that focuses on lsquoradicalisationrsquo andcounter-terrorism is unwarranted or unhelpful rather I am arguing here that in orderto conduct ethically informed research it is important for academics to reflect criticallyupon the nature and terms of their engagement with broader theoretical frameworksof analysis with research participants and also with the state state agencies policiesand practices

The lsquonew terrorismrsquo context might be considered to be a lsquolow trustrsquo environment(Spalek 2010) For example participants in the AHRCESRC study spoke about theeffects of being detained without charge and the effects of people having their homesraided these lsquohardrsquo policing strategies having significant consequences uponindividualsrsquo lives leading to ostracisation from their wider communities familybreakdown and job losses The following is an extract from an interview6

A lot of the people who they arrested later on were found to be innocent Soall the damage that was caused you know and the whole stigma as well inthe community is not something thatrsquos easy for people just to say okay youknow last night the police came and raided my house and today Irsquom justnormal It affects the children when they go to school it affects the elderlywhen they go to the mosque It affects the woman when she goes shoppingso all of those things you know itrsquos like all the emotional effect of theaftermath of it is not taken into consideration and police theyrsquove done their

196 Basia Spalek

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 197

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 199

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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According to Lambert (2009) a counter-subversion perspective in the UK posits thatthose described as being Islamist whether or not they are suspected of terrorism orviolent extremism are to be targeted and stigmatised in the same way as terroristsinfluenced or directed by AQ Thus there is a danger that the expression of Islamicidentities considered to be lsquoradicalrsquo may attract the attention of certain security sectorsand groupings that are striving to influence the kinds of Islamic identities that aremade manifest in the UK and in other western democratic contexts Islamic identitiesmay be influenced through the penetration of Muslim communities by covert andlargely ungoverned and ungovernable security operatives that draw upon multi-mediaand other strategies that aim to influence the kinds of Muslim identities and Islamicpractices that are being expressed and practised

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Researching Islam and Muslim Communities

In the UK since 911 there has been an unprecedented enlargement of securitypolicies and practices with continuous growth in the funding of security intelligence(Bennett et al 2007 Moran and Phythian 2008 Youngs 2009) In many ways thishas led to the mainstreaming of counter-terrorism policies and practices into a widerange of institutions including schools universities probation services youth servicesand prisons It would therefore be naive not to take into consideration the fact that allresearch in relation to Muslim communities and Islam whether exploring questions ofeducation family crime identity attitudes social and economic exclusion gendercitizenship and multiculturalism or more directly looking at issues of lsquoradicalisationrsquoandor political mobilisation could potentially be part of an unprecedentedenlargement of the securitisation framework The danger is that academic workfocusing on Muslim minorities may through an insubstantial consideration of thewider socio-political context be used to further support the dominance of the conceptof lsquonew terrorismrsquo thereby having potentially very real consequences for Muslimcommunities It is important to stress here that this does not mean that all research inrelation to Muslims and Islam including research that focuses on lsquoradicalisationrsquo andcounter-terrorism is unwarranted or unhelpful rather I am arguing here that in orderto conduct ethically informed research it is important for academics to reflect criticallyupon the nature and terms of their engagement with broader theoretical frameworksof analysis with research participants and also with the state state agencies policiesand practices

The lsquonew terrorismrsquo context might be considered to be a lsquolow trustrsquo environment(Spalek 2010) For example participants in the AHRCESRC study spoke about theeffects of being detained without charge and the effects of people having their homesraided these lsquohardrsquo policing strategies having significant consequences uponindividualsrsquo lives leading to ostracisation from their wider communities familybreakdown and job losses The following is an extract from an interview6

A lot of the people who they arrested later on were found to be innocent Soall the damage that was caused you know and the whole stigma as well inthe community is not something thatrsquos easy for people just to say okay youknow last night the police came and raided my house and today Irsquom justnormal It affects the children when they go to school it affects the elderlywhen they go to the mosque It affects the woman when she goes shoppingso all of those things you know itrsquos like all the emotional effect of theaftermath of it is not taken into consideration and police theyrsquove done their

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 197

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 199

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

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duty and thatrsquos it but they have a huge responsibility to make sure that ifthey do some kind of public raids and things then they make a publicannouncement to take away that accusation being false that they need tomake sure that they reinforce that this person wasnrsquot guilty and so the policedonrsquot do anything after the raids to ensure that they put the public imageback the way they had before the raids

Individuals have also been stopped and searched (one individual we interviewedhaving been stopped and searched seven times in one day) or have been stopped atairports and questioned by customs officials and security service personnel Theimpact of counter-terrorism policies and practices as revealed by data gatheredthrough the AHRCESRC study has been one of creating fear and paranoia amongMuslims For example the following quotation reveals how a client visiting a Muslim-run voluntary organisation became suspicious that she was being recorded

I have a feeling that this person who was really nervous and it so happenedthat I had an old answering machine which used to click on by itself And heheard something click and he was saying lsquoare you recording this Are yourecording rsquo And I said lsquonorsquo because genuinely I didnrsquot think it wasactually and a few seconds had got recorded At the time I was lsquowhat am Igoing to dorsquo

This wider context is likely to have had an impact on the nature and extent of trustbetween researchers and members of Muslim communities It may be that trustbetween academics and Muslim communities has been eroded particularly as lsquonewterrorismrsquo has generated an unprecedented level of interest in Muslim communitiesIndividuals may feel that while lsquonew terrorismrsquo in relation to Muslims has been over-researched community-focused concerns over issues such as racism andorIslamophobia have been under-researched7 For instance one Muslim femaleparticipant who wears the hijab relayed the following experience of Islamophobia

Oh itrsquos when I sit on the tube and this Irish guy I mean because my iPod wasreally loud he was saying something to me and I just noticed theatmosphere in the train completely changed and everything was looking atme and I thought you must have said something important and I took outmy headphones and he said oh Irsquom going to pee on your flowers and I waslike please donrsquot do that And then he said why donrsquot you go back homeAnd I said well you know Irsquom from here And he goes well do you have apassport and I go yeah I do actually And he goes where is it And I go Idonrsquot carry it around you know but Irsquove got one

An important lesson drawn from the AHRCESRC study has been the importanceof considering structural issues of social and economic deprivation and margin-alisation that are of concern to Muslim minorities Indeed according to Schmid (2007pp 13ndash14) lsquoa disproportionately large number of European Muslims feel they areunderprivileged Not feeling accepted by host societies some of the young Muslimshave been radicalized by Muslim clerics who warned them against integration andoffered them a Salafist or even jihadist version of Islamrsquo It is therefore important toconsider the structural experiences of alienation and marginalisation among Muslimminorities when researching terror crime prevention

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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In relation to social research in this field structural inequalities between theresearcher and research participants can be particularly pronounced Thus thoserunning grassroots-level initiatives to prevent terror crime may be very aware of themillions of pounds of state funding that has gone into researching lsquonew terrorismrsquoThey are also aware of the ways in which researchers based at universities are takingadvantage of the new resources being made available with respect to building theirown careers and research profiles with universities often taking a significant share ofany research funding that academics secure so that communities themselves rarelysubstantially benefit financially from research being undertaken within their owncommunities yet these communities are often located in poor and deprived urbanareas At the same time the dominance of state-led responses to lsquonew terrorismrsquomeans that communities are often distrustful of researchers viewing researchers aspart of wider state-led dynamics who do little to empower specific communitiesespecially those communities deemed suspect and constituting part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo For example the following quotation is from a research participantwho feels that research often overlooks grassroots concerns

the vast majority of academics and think tanks are just sitting at home orin their offices and doing it from there and getting paid vast loads ofmoney So itrsquos all the academic side writing stuff think tanks are comingtogether with policies and procedures and as a result of that authorities aregetting their hands on that and itrsquos authority from them off they go Theyrsquorenot coming to the grassroots And this is my concern I see wersquore notgoing to the grassroots levels and finding out what the problems be andwhat they would do you see and itrsquos bad because the policies andprocedures and the reports that you write are affecting people on theground But because you donrsquot know what theyrsquore doing and what theyrsquorereally about yoursquore writing totally untrue what was going on

A common model of radicalisation often found within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo discoursefeatures a pyramid Terrorists are considered to occupy the top of the pyramid with amuch larger number of less radical sympathisers below (McCauley and Moskalenko2008) Therefore according to this model all those within the pyramid are potentialterrorists as they are deemed to have characteristics and political religious social andother sympathies that increase the risk of their becoming terrorists potentially they couldmove from the base of the pyramid to the top It is therefore unsurprisingthat communities are going to be distrustful of researchers given the dominance oflsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse It is crucial that researchers build trust with communitymembers particularly with those minorities within Muslim communities who are part ofor who instigate and implement initiatives aimed at working with those deemedat particular risk of lsquoradicalisationrsquo It is perhaps fitting therefore to discuss the natureof trust and trust-building within a research context focusing on terror crime prevention

Trust when Researching Muslim Communities within the Context of lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo

Trust is a complex notion and it has generated a substantial research literature from awide range of different subject disciplines (Luhmann 1988 Fukuyama 1995 Misztal1996 Govier 1997 Cvetkovich and Loftstedt 1999 Warren 1999 Nelken 2004)Two aspects of trust will be examined in this article as they appear to be of particularrelevance for the AHRCESRC study

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 199

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

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Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

Dow

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ded

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le U

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rsity

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03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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The first aspect is that of trust-building through the interpersonal characteristics ofthe researcher and researched The second aspect of trust is that it may be importantfor researchers to build contingent trust between themselves and those whom theyresearch where contingent trust might be characterised as being instrumental lookingat shorter-term rather than longer-term objectives seeking confirmation throughexchange relations

In relation to the first aspect of trust within the research literature there has been afocus upon identity in relation to insider and outsider researcher positions with respectto establishing trust and rapport between the researcher and research participantsIncreasingly within discussions of insider and outsider status there is an acknowl-edgment of the multiple identities that both researcher and researched occupy so thatit is argued that while some aspects of a researcherrsquos identity might help to establishrapport and trust and to gain access to research participants other aspects of thatidentity might work against them (Garland et al 2005 Spalek 2008) Thus accordingto Stanfield (1993 p 7) the professional status of a minority ethnic researcher cancause problems even when that researcher is studying those with whom he or sheshares a common ethnic background It would appear that researchers can connectand disconnect across wide-ranging identities including those in relation to religionlsquoracersquoethnicity gender and class When carrying out research with Muslimcommunities it is important to stress the important role that an acknowledgment ofthe multiplicity of identities can play in helping to establish rapport with participantsThis is a powerful mechanism through which to non-essentialise individuals whoare taking part in research this can serve to create knowledge that moves beyondessentialist discourses and thereby effectively challenge the wider essentialisingdiscourse of lsquonew terrorismrsquo and its potential to homogenise all Muslims Indeedaccording to Body-Gendrot (2007) Muslims as a faith community are deemed an lsquoatriskrsquo group with little attention paid to the complexities of multiple communities orto differentiating between a terrorist threat and Muslims in general The researchersundertaking the AHRCESRC study occupied multiple identities in relation toethnicity class and faith For example the co-investigator is a woman an ArabMuslim from a high-ranking family in Egypt whereas the principal investigator is awoman white British non-Muslim from a Polish Catholic refugee backgroundThese various identities were drawn upon when trying to establish rapport with theresearch participants and having awareness of the multiplicity of their own subjectpositions enabled the researchers to relate to the research participants in complex andmultitudinous ways

It is important not to understate the significance of the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inrelation to researching Muslim minorities particularly in relation to the specific issueof terror crime prevention work involving communities and the police A strikingfinding of the AHRCESRC study was the prevalence of distrust among Muslimminorities particularly towards the police Qualitative data from this study appear toillustrate the absence of trust within the lsquonew terrorismrsquo context between police andcommunities as the following quotation from an interview with a Muslim communitymember serves to reveal

Unfortunately is the problem that we have today we have an incredibleamount of mistrust on both sides of the fence Prevalent throughoutthe police service through the security forces and unfortunately alsothroughout the community towards the other and that is I believe thegreatest problem that we are having

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 199

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In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

200 Basia Spalek

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014

encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

202 Basia Spalek

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le U

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rsity

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03

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ay 2

014

Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

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014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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03

22 0

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ay 2

014

In relation to the Prevent strand within CONTEST and CONTEST 2 the following isa quotation taken from a Muslim activist as quoted in the report by Kudnani (2009p 27) lsquoThe main impact of Prevent work locally has been greater mistrust of thepolice Itrsquos impacted all the wrong way And there is more reluctance on the part of theMuslim community to engage at allrsquo

Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the research participants of the AHRCESRCstudy wanted to know who was funding this research study It was both liberating andempowering to be able to explain to participants that the research was funded by anacademic body with academic independence and therefore not linked to any state-centric lsquohardrsquo policing agendas

The second aspect of trust as I mentioned above is contingent trust which is aboutbuilding trust through being engaged in trust-building activities and through actorsdemonstrating their trustworthiness (Goldsmith 2005) This means that researchersshould explore ways in which contingent trust can be built Researchers often haveaccess to various social and economic resources for example obtaining researchmoney through various research councils and other funding bodies writing academicand other publications being invited to present papers at various conferences TheAHRCESRC study illustrates the importance of reciprocity that for communities towork with researchers it is important for researchers to reciprocate efforts by helpingcommunities tackle issues of concern to them This may involve helping organisationswrite material that helps them access resources or it may involve includingcommunity members as co-authors of various academic policy-oriented and otherpublications Through building contingent trust in this way it may then becomepossible to develop implicit trust which is a more advanced type of trust that can befound in committed stable relationships (Goldsmith 2005) Through building implicittrust between the researcher and researched it may be possible to create workingpartnerships for future work that has the core aims of generating new research as wellas of empowering research participants Developing implicit trust is particularlyimportant if attempting to access Muslim minorities who have in particular beenlinked to lsquonew terrorismrsquo Salafi and Islamist groupings

The study reported in this article included interviewing individuals who might beclassified as being Salafi and Islamists These categories are complex and contain vastdiversity between individuals thus classified thereby reflecting generally the endemicproblem in social categorisations of identity (Woodward 2002) According to Silvestri(2007 p 3)

Salafism is often discussed as if it were a clearly defined violent and radicalideology and set of precepts whereas in fact it is a recurrent topos in thehistory of Islam a broad approach that emphasises the exemplary life andreligiosity of the lsquoancestorsrsquo or lsquopredecessorsrsquo (in Arabic Salaf ) thecompanions of the Prophet So the importance of the Salaf and of thereturn to the original sources of the faith has inspired different generationsof Muslims and has been interpreted in different ways

Islamism is equally diverse and a category that encompasses many differentmovements and ideals According to Silvestri (2009 p 1) Islamist groups can beidentified primarily by their core objective of bringing about divine justice while intheory this implies respecting and implementing lsquosharia lawrsquo in practice it urges to acommitment to lsquosocial justicersquo and lsquopolitical reformrsquo I wish to stress that during my

200 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

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] at

03

22 0

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ay 2

014

between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

202 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

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rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

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It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

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produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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encounters with those individuals who might be labelled as lsquoSalafirsquo andor lsquoIslamistrsquoI experienced a large diversity in relation to individualsrsquo religious political and otherpositionings For example while some individuals I interviewed might be described asbeing pious Salafis others who are part of the same network were not as religiouslymotivated but rather were politically motivated their politics being more in line withleft-wing politics than Islamism Therefore when empowering individuals as part ofthe research approach I did not see this as an issue of empowering Salafi or Islamistgroups in the same way that working with individuals of the Catholic faith andempowering them in terms of giving them research training and opportunities wouldnot be seen as empowering Catholicism I would suggest that there needs to bemuch greater acknowledgment of the diversity of individuals within a particular socialgroup andor network and also that the notion of empowerment needs to beunpicked because empowering individuals in terms of their own personal educationaland other developments is not necessarily empowering the particular religiouspolitical or other group they belong to nor is it empowering religious political andother ideologies

Salafi and Islamist groupings are often criticised and viewed suspiciously bypolicymakers politicians the media and other elite groups who view them assomehow antithetical to liberal society However it is these very groupings that havebeen considered by some practitioners and policymakers as possessing the necessaryskills and know-how to reduce AQ-linked terrorism (Haqq-Baker 2010 Lambert2010) Therefore it seems important for research exploring community-basedapproaches to reducing terror crime to access and interview these communities tolearn about the programmes and approaches being developed

At the same time it may be that the very act of political ostracisation andmarginalisation might help create and perpetuate lsquoresistance identitiesrsquo which aregenerated by actors who perceive themselves to be in devalued positions therebybuilding lsquotrenches of resistancersquo on the basis of difference (Castells 2004 p 8) Thismeans that research in this field not only can include an examination of initiativesbeing developed by Salafi and Islamist groups in the UK aimed at counteringAQ-linked terrorism but also has the potential to work towards alleviating perceivedand actual forms of discrimination and prejudice that groups and individualsencounter through an ethically informed research process that includes buildingimplicit trust through community empowerment

Researching in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo inevitably necessitates researchersengaging with wider political processes for it is the political economy of lsquonewterrorismrsquo that has helped sustain lsquoradicalisationrsquo through human rights abuses acrossthe globe This work is subject to criticism by those elite groupings who view any kindof engagement with Salafi and Islamist groups as dangerous as part of the problem oflsquonew terrorismrsquo rather than the solution However it is important to stress that notonly have some Salafi and Islamist groupings been shown to work with police in orderto prevent terror crime (Haqq Baker 2010 Lambert 2010) but also the importantrole that researchers can play in building bridges between these marginalisedcommunities and the state Indeed the research by Spalek et al (2009) Haqq Baker(2010) and Lambert (2010) shows that local contexts can constitute sites of resistancetowards lsquonew terrorismrsquo through the multiple and complex dynamics that can takeplace at micro-level Empirical data from these studies highlight how trust-buildingactivities between and emotional and cultural intelligence among state and non-stateactors can transform contexts characterised by fear distrust and suspicion into spacesof peace-building resistance and empowerment Building contingent and implicit trust

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 201

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

202 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

Dow

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03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

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by [

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03

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ay 2

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between researchers and researched within the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo may be animportant vehicle through which to develop a lsquomethodology of attentivenessrsquo so as tocreate lsquoan engaged ethnographic process wherein researcher and subjects of studycome to share at least in part in the lived reality of crime and criminalityrsquo (Hamm2005 p 243) This is an important point given that within counter-terrorism arenasresearch has often been dominated by state-centric perspectives founded on secondarysources and lacking the input of primary data collection and analysis For this reasonthe traditional practice of terrorism studies has been criticised for being analyticallyand methodologically weak for relying too heavily on secondary information and forfailing to understand terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives andexperiences of practitioners and those experiencing state repression (Breen Smyth2007 Jackson 2007) However it is important to stress that any attempts byresearchers to empower marginalised communities can be potentially undermined bywider global events Thus in the context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo events that take place inthe global arena such as the war in Iraq and its aftermath the war in Afghanistan andthe treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may reduce any efforts madeby researchers to engage with communities deemed lsquosuspectrsquo by state authorities

Grassroots-Level Contexts Emotions and the Prevention of Terror Crime

Another important theme that emerged from the AHRCESRC study data is that ofhow local AQ recruiters and others can exploit wider global events to generatepowerful emotions among young people in the UK in order to promote violent causesas the following quotation from a Muslim community member reveals

Abu Hamza these are non-assuming individuals inviting you to theirhouse giving you nice food nice drink Yoursquore sitting in the comfort of theirhome watching the castrations used in Bosnia when it was on watching theatrocities being inflicted on the Iraqi Afghani Palestinian people and yoursquoresitting there and you may even see some of them crying you may startcrying this is what theyrsquore doing to our people and you come out and youlook around and the neighbours and everyone else are leading their livesgetting drunk going to the pub having a good hatred hatred Distortionof the religion

It would appear that some of the preventative work with young people deemed atrisk of committing acts of terrorism in the UK is being carried out by individuals whothemselves have been emotionally affected by wider international events andpotentially exploited by recruiters and so they understand the push and pull factorsfacing young people within local contexts in the UK The following quotation is froman individual involved in terror crime prevention initiatives who himself wasapproached by an individual linked to the Taliban to help channel monetary fundssurreptitiously to terrorist and other criminal organisations

another guy that was involved who approached us that we needed certainsupport for people in Afghanistan especially the victims that are caught upin the war So we started to send a lot of money over to the victims and theorphans and you know the widows for a long time we were approached by agentleman He was apparently the Taliban and he was travelling round theworld to sort of gain support And then he introduced another guy who was

202 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

Dow

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03

22 0

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ay 2

014

It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

Dow

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ded

by [

New

cast

le U

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rsity

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03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

Dow

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014

Al-Qaeda He apparently hersquod spent time in prison for smugglingweapons But then he was released and he joined Al-Qaeda at that timeSo he came across to reinforce the message about how important it is Andhe came at a time where when we were already hooked in basically sort ofsupporting the victims And we would rally round

It would appear that terrorist movements adopt similar tactics to those adoptedby criminals engaged in drug trafficking and other kinds of transnational crimes(Kenny 2007) Moreover according to Kenny (2007) similarly to successful drugtraffickers successful terrorist networks draw upon highly developed street skillsenabling them to carry out high-risk activities Therefore this would suggest thatin order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at grassroots level it is important for those working withyoung people deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility As Inoted earlier the findings I am reporting in this article suggest that it is importantfor prevention work involving communities to include those community memberswho have credibility with those young people deemed at risk This study highlightsthat an important dimension of work relating to the prevention of terrorism is thatof targeted work with individuals deemed at risk of committing acts of terrorisminvolving community members and the police This has been a neglected issuegiven that the debate around preventing terrorism and community policing hastended to be one dominated by a generalist approach one which although ithighlights the importance of local contexts nonetheless posits that neighbourhoodpolicing through responding to Muslim communitiesrsquo concerns regardingparticular signal crimes like burglary hate crime and drugs can help buildenough rapport with community members for them to provide police withcommunity intelligence (Innes et al 2007) I would argue that more attentionneeds to be paid to specific partnerships between police officers and members ofMuslim communities where young Muslims deemed at risk of committing acts ofterrorism are targeted for interventions It is not necessarily the case thatintelligence regarding young people at risk is widely available among members ofMuslim communities but rather that this intelligence is perhaps concentratedamong particular groupings and networks and so preventing terrorism is not aquestion of necessarily engendering trust between all Muslim communities andpolice but rather developing trust between specific Muslim groups and police

For research to examine the involvement of communities in terror crime preventionit is therefore important to access those Muslim community members who havelsquostreetrsquo credibility who are working to prevent terror crime

A lot of little kids are being sort of worked they were encouraged to go inthey werenrsquot discouraged from going in and they have no trainingwhatsoever Afghanistan that it you know it is their jihad I donrsquotthink we should encourage young children of that age to sort of have thatkind of a mindset and I didnrsquot really want to buy into that So I cameback and at five orsquoclock got the airplane was back here (UK) by theevening And my friends and my family knew about it and we tried to getnear the guys that wersquod spoken to before to come and meet us and we stillhavenrsquot met them since then Who are these mystery guys that are turning upin communities to recruit our young people to take you know acts of to do actsof terrorism

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 203

Dow

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ded

by [

New

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rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

It is from these kinds of experiences and concerns that some individuals have engagedwith police in order to put together initiatives particularly targeted at vulnerableMuslim young people across multicultural cities of the UK The following is aquotation from an individual who has played a key role in implementing a programmeof activities with Muslim young people deemed at risk in London

I said lsquolook we have Muslim schools now that are focused and trying tobring out good citizens and students from the primary secondary stage Wehave prison initiatives and we have individuals dealing with people comingout of prisons Muslims and trying to get them back on the right track andhelp themrsquo I said lsquowhatrsquos happening in the middle Therersquos a gap in themiddle with nothing being done for the youth the teenagers the susceptibleindividuals and this is the hunting ground of the extremistsrsquo

It is important to emphasise that as critical researchers we have been particularlykeen to document experiences and perceptions rather than seeking to examine theeffectiveness or success of various counter-terrorism initiatives This feature sets theresearch apart from the vast majority of research examining counter-terrorismbecause most of the research in this field has been funded by local or nationalgovernment keen on supporting evaluative rather than inferential research We havebeen keen to document grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo own voices aspart of a political project that seeks to honour the accounts of individuals who whilehaving responded to the threat of terrorism from within their local contexts andexperiences do not necessarily play a role in formulating security policy at nationaland international levels but rather who have actively challenged lsquonew terrorismrsquodiscourse and state-led agendas The strength of such a research approach is that it notonly helps to build trust between the researcher and the researched within the highlysensitised and politicised context of lsquonew terrorismrsquo but that it also producesnarratives of individualsrsquo experiences and practices in relation to countering terrorismSuch narratives can produce new and different ways of viewing and understandingcounter-terrorism policy and they thus constitute a way through which social policycan be critiqued Individualsrsquo narratives not only serve to problematise a number ofkey strands within British counter-terrorism policy but also provide rich contextualdata that can serve to illustrate the complexities of the problem of the threat fromterrorism that the government is trying to reduce

Conclusion

I have argued that lsquonew terrorismrsquo constitutes a dominant discourse that significantlyinfluences policy and research in this field Importantly this new form of terrorism asconstructed by lsquonew terrorismrsquo discourses and technologies is linked to Islam as areligion a feature which thereby sets it largely outside understandings of terror crimeas being a feature of national- and ethnic-based struggles around the globe Ratherthe lsquonew terrorismrsquo is unbounded and uses indiscriminate targeting and interpretationsof Islamic texts There is therefore a danger that research in relation to questions ofsecurity is state-led serving to underpin lsquonew terrorismrsquo ideology rather than beingcommunity-focused examining issues of security that matter to communities Thisarticle presents the case for conducting ethically informed research that can challengelsquonew terrorismrsquo discourse utilising the narratives of those Muslim communitymembers who are involved in terror crime prevention work with young people to

204 Basia Spalek

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

nive

rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

produce new ways of viewing policy and practice in this area To do this developingtrust between researchers and research participants must be a key goal because asdemonstrated in this article lsquonew terrorismrsquo is a low-trust environment whereinMuslim minorities particularly those involved in preventative work are attacked bygroupings involved in counter-insurgent and counter-subversion strategies whichoften have links with neo-conservative research institutions and are sceptical ofresearch that could potentially be part of wider securitisation strategies that can havenegative impacts on Muslims in terms of increasing state control of their identities andpractices As I have highlighted in this article neo-conservative politics haveinfluenced counter-terrorism agendas so that Muslimsrsquo religious beliefs and practiceshave been characterised as lsquomoderatersquo or lsquoradicalrsquo To draw upon and to use Islamicidentities and practices that potentially might be construed as lsquoradicalrsquo (which in somecases may be simply because individuals are religiously conservative and have a real ora perceived opposition to established secular values) runs the risk that these arenegatively labelled and attract the attention of approaches to security that might beconsidered as requiring counter-insurgency andor counter-subversion tactics Thisarticle also considers the relevance of grassroots-level lsquostreetrsquo-based initiativesinvolving Muslim young people for the prevention of terror crime Here I haveargued that in order to counter AQ recruitment in contexts characterised by social andeconomic deprivation at lsquostreet levelrsquo it is important for those working with youngpeople deemed at risk to possess street know-how and credibility It is important forresearch to document these kinds of grassroots experiences through individualsrsquo ownvoices The strength of such a research approach is that not only does it help to buildtrust between the researcher and the researched within a low-trust context but it canalso help generate new insights about terror crime prevention which in the UKcontext is a growing yet under-researched and under-explored phenomenon

Notes

1 There is a danger that issues of security that matter at the individual and community level ndashincluding experiences of violence inter- and intra-community tensions social and economic

exclusion racism Islamophobia and so forth ndash are overlooked through the state-led focusupon the prevention of terrorism both within the UK as well as overseas

2 While the notion of lsquocommunityrsquo is complex multifarious and widely debated it isimportant to highlight here that lsquocommunityrsquo features significantly across wide-ranging

social policy contexts as both a target of intervention and as a way of responding to andresolving broad-ranging social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour (Prioret al 2006) Underpinned by the principle of lsquoactive citizenshiprsquo whereby individuals are

encouraged to volunteer their services to participate in and contribute to civil societycommunities are viewed as an important resource for tackling an array of social problemsHowever the notion of community has been critiqued by critical researchers as a catch-all

phrase used by government as a way of simplifying merging and combining complex socialidentities and groupings for the purposes of state-led top-down policy development andimplementation (Spalek 2008)

3 Further details on the role and make-up of the MSF are available at http

wwwmuslimsafetyforumorg4 In the UK since 2000 counter-terrorism powers include indefinite detention without charge

of foreign nationals if suspected of involvement in terrorism control orders imposing

severe and intrusive prohibitions including indefinite house arrest for up to 16 hours a daywithout charge pre-charge detention in terrorism cases currently allowing for 28 daysdetention without charge Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowing stop-and-search

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 205

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

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le U

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rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014

without suspicion was overturned by the home secretary in July 2010 following a refusal of an

appeal by the Home Office to the European Court of Human Rights against an earlierdecision that had found section 44 to be illegal On 13 July 2010 the home secretaryannounced that a rapid review of key counter-terrorism and security powers was under wayThe review was to look at what counter-terrorism powers and measures could be rolled back

in order to restore the balance of civil liberties and counter-terrorism powers Control ordersand stop-and-search powers are two of the key issues currently under review

5 Pakistan Somalia and Yemen have all featured as places where AQ operatives or affiliated

groupings operate Within security circles there is concern that British and other westerncitizens are being trained abroad to carry out terrorist atrocities particularly in Europe andthe USA and also that individuals linked to AQ are influencing western citizens to carry out

lone attacks (Clarke and Soria 2010) For example a former US citizen who is now anextremist preacher in Yemen Al-Awlaki is viewed as having influenced a number of terrorplots in particular the failed Detroit bomber Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab

6 All interview quotations in this article are taken from verbatim transcripts which are notpublicly available

7 It is worth noting that as a result of the large amounts of research funding available onsecurity issues regarding AQ-related terrorism researchers with almost no knowledge of

Muslim communities are being drawn into conducting research with Muslim minorities

References

Arksey H and Knight P (1999) Interviewing for Social Scientists (London Sage)

Bennett W Lance L Regina G and Livingston S (2007) When the Press Fails PoliticalPower and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (Chicago University of Chicago Press)

Body-Gendrot S (2008) lsquoMuslims citizenship security and social justice in Francersquo

International Journal of Law Crime and Justice 36 4 pp 247ndash56Breen Smyth M (2007) lsquoA critical research agenda for the study of political terrorrsquo European

Political Science 6 pp 260ndash67

Cesari J (2005) European Muslims and the Secular State (London Ashgate Publishing)Clarke M and Soria V (2010) lsquoTerrorism the new waversquo RUSI Journal 155 4 pp 24ndash31Cvetkovich G and Loftstedt R (eds) (1999) Social Trust and the Management of Risk

(London Earthscan Publications)

Fukuyama F (1995) Trust the Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (LondonPenguin)

Gambetta D (1993) The Sicilian Mafia the Business of Private Protection (Cambridge MA

Harvard University Press)Garland J Spalek B and Chakraborti N (2005) lsquoHearing lost voices issues in researching

hidden minority ethnic communitiesrsquo The British Journal of Criminology 1 46 pp 423ndash37

GfK (2007) 2007 Channel 4 News Survey on Muslim Opinions on 77 Bombings httpwwwgfknopcomimperiamdcontentgfk_nopsocialresearchchannel4newsquestionnairepdf(last accessed 23 December 2010)

Goldsmith A (2005) lsquoPolice reform and the problem of trustrsquo Theoretical Criminology 9 4

pp 443ndash70Guardian (2006) lsquoAttitudes to terrorism-related matters and experience of Islamophobiarsquo

The Guardian 27 June httpwwwicmresearchcouk (last accessed 1 July 2010)

Haqq-Baker A (2010) Countering Extremism Locally a Convert Muslim Perspective (PhDthesis University of Exeter unpublished)

HM Government (2006) Countering International Terrorism the United Kingdomrsquos Strategy

July 2006 (presented to Parliament by the prime minister and the secretary of state for theHome Department by command of Her Majesty) httpwwwfcogovukresourcesenpdfcontest-report (last accessed 17 March 2011)

Innes M (2006) lsquoPolicing uncertainty countering terror through community intelligence anddemocratic policingrsquo Annals of APSS 605 (May) pp 1ndash20

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014

Innes M Abbott L Lowe T and Roberts C (2007) Hearts and Minds and Eyes and Ears

Reducing Radicalisation Risks through Reassurance-Oriented Policing (Cardiff CardiffUniversity)

Jackson R (2005) Writing the War on Terrorism Language Politics and Counter-Terrorism(Manchester Manchester University Press)

Jackson R (2007) lsquoThe core commitments of critical terrorism studiesrsquo European PoliticalScience 6 pp 244ndash51

Jutila M (2006) lsquoDesecuritizing minority rights against determinismrsquo Security Dialogue 37 2

pp 167ndash85Kilcullen D (2007) lsquoCounter-insurgencyrsquo Survival 48 4 pp 111ndash30Kudnani A (2009) Spooked How Not to Prevent Violent Extremism (London Institute of

Race Relations)Lambert R (2010) The London Partnerships an Insiderrsquos Analysis of Legitimacy and

Effectiveness (dissertation in partial fulfillment of the PhD degree University of Exeter

unpublished)Luhmann N (1988) lsquoFamiliarity confidence and trust problems and alternativesrsquo in D

Gambetta (ed) Trust (Cambridge Cambridge University Press) pp 23ndash52Macpherson Inquiry (1999) The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report of an Inquiry by Sir William

Macpherson of Cluny (Parliamentary Papers Cm 4262-I) (London Stationery Office)Misztal B (1996) Trust in Modern Societies the Search for the Bases of Social Order

(Cambridge Polity Press)

Moran J and Phythian M (eds) (2008) Intelligence Security and Policing Post 911 the UKrsquosResponse to the War on Terror (Houndmills Palgrave Macmillan)

Nelken D (1994) The Futures of Criminology (London Sage)

Neumann P (2009) Old and New Terrorism (Cambridge Polity Press)Prior D Farrow K Spalek B and Barnes M (2006) lsquoCan anti-social behaviour

interventions help to contribute to civil renewalrsquo in T Brennan P John and G Stoker(eds) Re-Energizing Citizenship Strategies for Civil Renewal (Basingstoke Hants Palgrave

Macmillan) pp 91ndash111Quraishi M (2003) Room with a View Methodological Considerations of Prison Research (paper

presented at the conference lsquoMuslims in Prison a European Challengersquo Centre for Research in

Ethnic Relations and Department of Sociology University of Warwick 12ndash13 December)Silvestri S (2007) lsquoRadical Islam threats and opportunitiesrsquo Global Dialogue 9 3ndash4 pp

118ndash26

Silvestri S (2009) lsquoModerate Islamist groups in Europe the Muslim Brothersrsquo in K Hroub(ed) Political Islam (London Saqi Books)

Spalek B (2008) Communities Identities and Crime (Bristol Policy Press)

Spalek B (2010) lsquoCommunity policing trust and Muslim communities in relation to newterrorismrsquo Politics amp Policy 38 4 pp 789ndash815

Spalek B El-Awa S and McDonald LZ (2009) PolicendashMuslim Engagement and Partnershipsfor the Purposes of Counter-Terrorism an Examination (Birmingham University of

Birmingham)Spalek B Lambert R and Baker AH (2009) lsquoMinority Muslim communities and criminal

justice stigmatized UK faith identities post 911 and 77rsquo in HS Bhui (ed) Race and

Criminal Justice (London Sage) pp 170ndash87Stanfield JH (1993) lsquoMethodological reflections an introductionrsquo in JH Stanfield and RM

Dennis (eds) Race and Ethnicity in Research Methods (London Sage) pp 3ndash15

Thiel D (2009) Policing Terrorism a Review of the Evidence (London The Police Foundation)Woodward K (2002) lsquoConcepts of identity and differencersquo in K Woodward (ed) Identity and

Difference (London Sage) pp 7ndash62Youngs G (2009) lsquoReflections on research media and mediation in the war on terror issues

and challengesrsquo Critical Terrorism Studies 2 1 pp 1ndash8

lsquoNew Terrorismrsquo and Crime Prevention Initiatives 207

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

New

cast

le U

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rsity

] at

03

22 0

6 M

ay 2

014