A/HRC/41/54/Add.2 C. Racial impact of laws and policies on counter-terrorism and counter-extremism 45. The Special Rapporteur has received information indicating that sustained and pervasive discourses vilifying Islam and Muslims persist in the British media and even among the political leadership, and that Islamophobia has taken firm root in the United Kingdom. She notes that the prevalence of Islamophobia in the United Kingdom was also highlighted by a previous mandate holder in 1996 (E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.4, para. 24). Although the more recent counter-terrorism laws and policies discussed below have vastly exacerbated Islamophobic sentiment, these problems have historical precedents. 46. In recent years, a series of terrorist attacks by individuals purporting to act in the name Islam have served as triggers for national panic regarding security in the United Kingdom. This panic has been exacerbated by and provided rich fodder for outrageous and deeply offensive portrayals in the media, and even by some leading politicians, who have cast Muslims as inherently dangerous, inherently opposed to the country’s prosperity and inherently foreign. This presumption of foreignness is widely peddled in public and political discourse, belying the deep, historical ties many British Muslims have to the United Kingdom. Consultations during the visit further highlighted the large role that mainstream political responses have played in amplifying and legitimating anti-Muslim panic, and even Islamophobia, through rhetoric and policies rooted in the national framework for countering non-violent extremism. 47. There is an extensive body of literature decrying the human rights impacts of the Government’s Prevent Strategy,75 which is aimed at containing the proliferation of violent extremism. The Strategy targets individuals and groups who advocate extremism, understood as the “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs”, on the theory that such individuals and groups are predisposed to terrorist ideology and violence. 76 48. Leading concerns over the Prevent Strategy relate to the lack of clear, workable definitions of “extremism”, “terrorism” and “British values”, as well as the criteria used to refer individuals considered at risk of radicalization. Among other national and international stakeholders, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed serious concern that the “prevent duty” creates an atmosphere of suspicion towards members of Muslim communities, that it leads to increased profiling of individuals on the basis of ethnicity and/or religion and that it adversely affects the rights to freedom of expression, education and freedom of religion (CERD/C/GBR/CO/21-23, paras. 18–19). The Special Rapporteur shares these concerns, which were reiterated during many of her consultations with civil society representatives. She is especially concerned that uncertainty and ambiguity in terminology have serious consequences for racial equality as they create a wide scope for discretionary interpretation. This wide discretion in a context of antiimmigrant and xenophobic anxiety sets the stage for the excessive, disproportionate and discriminatory implementation of the “prevent duty” by teachers, professors, nurses and doctors, whom the Government has made the front-line agents in the fight against extremism. Student organizations in particular have highlighted the racist and Islamophobic nature of the Prevent Strategy, noting that Muslim students are its disproportionate targets. 77 Muslim students reported government surveillance of their social and cultural 75 76 77 See, e.g., www.nature.com/articles/s41599-017-0061-9, www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/eroding-trust-20161017_0.pdf, http://rwuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/preventing-education-final-to-print-3.compressed-1.pdf and www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/Islamophobia%20Report%202018%20FINAL.pdf. www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445977/3799 _Revised_Prevent_Duty_Guidance__England_Wales_V2-Interactive.pdf, para. 7. See also https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/979 76/prevent-strategy-review.pdf. One survey found that one third of Muslim students felt negatively affected by the Strategy (www.nusconnect.org.uk/resources/the-experience-of-muslim-students-in-2017-18, p. 7). 13