The number was revealed to The
Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief
constable of West Yorkshire Police and
He said the "Channel
project" had intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who were thought to be at risk
of extremism, since it began 18 months ago. The number has leapt from 10
children identified by June 2008.
The programme,
run by the Association of Chief Police Officers, asks teachers, parents and
other community figures to be vigilant for signs that may indicate an attraction to extreme views or
susceptibility to being "groomed" by radicalisers.
Sir Norman, whose force covers the area in which all four 7 July 2005 bombers
grew up, said: "What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded
as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards 'the West'.
"One of the four bombers of
7 July was, on the face of it, a model student. He had never been in trouble
with the police, was the son of a well-established family and was employed and
integrated into society.
"But when we went back to his teachers they remarked on the things he
used to write. In his exercise books he had written comments praising al-Qa'ida. That was
not seen at the time as being substantive. Now we would hope that teachers
might intervene, speak to the child's family or perhaps the local imam who
could then speak to the young man." (We are
skeptical that the local Imam would ever deter or turn in a Muslim for Jihad,
based upon other articles demonstrating that the most moderate mosques in the
The Channel project was
originally piloted in Lancashire and the Metropolitan Police borough of Lambeth in 2007, but in February last year it was extended
to West Yorkshire, the Midlands, Bedfordshire and
The scheme, funded by the Home
Office, involves officers working alongside Muslim communities to identify
impressionable children who are at risk of radicalisation
or who have shown an interest in extremist material – on the internet or in
books.
Once identified the children are
subject to a "programme of intervention tailored
to the needs of the individual". Sir Norman said this could involve
discussions with family, outreach workers or the local imam, but he added that
"a handful have had intervention directly by the police".
He stressed that the system was
not being used to target the Muslim community. "The whole ethos is to
build a relationship, on the basis of trust and confidence, with those
communities," said Sir Norman.
"With the help of these
communities we can identify the kids who are vulnerable to the message and
influenced by the message. The challenge is to intervene and offer guidance,
not necessarily to prosecute them, but to address their grievance, their
growing sense of hate and potential to do something violent in the name of some
misinterpretation of a faith.
"We are targeting criminals
and would-be terrorists who happen to be cloaking themselves in Islamic
rhetoric. That is not the same as targeting the Muslim community."
Nor was it criminalising
children, he added. "The analogy I use is that it is similar to our
well-established drugs intervention programmes.
Teachers in schools are trained to identify pupils who might be experimenting
with drugs, take them to one side and talk to them. That does not automatically
mean that these kids are going to become crack cocaine or heroin addicts. The
same is true around this issue."
But Inayat
Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said the
police ran the risk of infringing on children's privacy. He warned: "There
is a difference between the police being concerned or believing a person may be
at risk of recruitment and a person actually engaging in unlawful, terrorist
activity.
"That said, clearly in
recent years some people have been lured by terrorist propaganda emanating from
al-Qa'ida-inspired groups. It would seem that a
number of Muslim youngsters have been seduced by that narrative and all of us,
including the Government, have a role to play in making sure that narrative is
seen for what it is: a nihilistic one which offers no hope, only death and
destruction."
A Home Office spokesman said:
"We are committed to stopping people becoming or supporting terrorists or
violent extremists. The aim of the Channel project is to directly support
vulnerable people by providing supportive interventions when families,
communities and networks raise concerns about their behaviour."