In this chapter Lavalette looks at the ‘Prevent’ policy agenda. This policy was rolled out in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in London. It was an amalgam of internal security policy, social inclusion policy and a political strategy to ‘win hearts and minds’. Yet it was built upon a series of worrying assumptions about Muslim communities and ill-defined definitions of ‘extremism’. Teachers, probation staff and social workers were all tasked with ‘soft’ policing the policy agenda – raising issues for social workers around the Professional Capabilities Framework domain 2 (working in ways that are reflective of our values and ethics). With the election of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010 the policy was redirected and its connection with ‘social inclusion’ dropped. It remains a policy framework that is ‘mainstreamed’ within a range of local authority measures but its rationale and its assumptions remain deeply controversial. In the aftermath of the Woolwich murder in London in May 2013 Prime Minister David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Teresa May all made reference to the need to monitor and control Muslim communities and Muslim students on university campuses in a bid to stop young men (mainly) from becoming ‘radicalised’. In this context ‘Prevent’ is being identified, once more, as a central government policy driver.

Preventing violent extremism in the name of Islam must, first and foremost, be about winning the struggle for hearts and minds. (Department of Communities and Local Government [CLG] 2007b: 5)