Resisting Technologies of Surveillance and Suspicion

Abstract

Following the 7/7 bombings in London, a distinct desire to target Muslims for scrutiny and surveillance pervaded the British security establishment in its national arms (MI5) as well as its local elements (police). The panic that pervaded these institutions and its long-term consequences was exemplified in the fact that the 2012 Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking cited the 7/7 attacks as one reason why the police were not able to fully investigate that particular scandal effectively.¹ The charged atmosphere led to the creation of a large number of policy developments all of which aimed to create mechanisms for the assertion of biopolitical power over the Muslim population of Britain. The Preventing Violent Extremism agenda (Prevent) was developed in this regard by the then Labour government to implement the general ideological notion that a certain population was in need of greater control. Though this was not the first time the British state targeted a population it deemed in need of isolation and domination, there was nonetheless a range of new technological tools at the state’s behest as well as a number of hindrances. Most notably, the presence of a more effective European Court of Human Rights and British equalities legislation enabled, at some level, an engagement with the legal process to protect against the states interventions.