Under Siege: Families of Counter-Terrorism

Problematizing the context and construction of vulnerability and risk in relation to British Muslim ME groups

“…A key example is that the White victims of the Rotherham and Rochester abuse cases were largely classified as wilfully wayward rather than vulnerable, exploited minors (Jay Report, 2014). A further example refers to the wives and children of suspected terrorists, as Guru (2012) indicates, who are the invisible victims of State protection of the political and civic body. Finally, the sociodemographics of British ME Muslims clearly indicates higher rates of poverty and lower rates of social participation than among the general population, thus indicating a level of vulnerability that has negative consequences for families and communities, which in turn may lead to a sense of threatening social and civil disenfranchisement along with distrust of government agendas.…”

“…The repercussions of social and civil conflict normally implicate social work in terms of responding to trauma at the micro-and meso-levels of impact. However, in relation to terrorism, although in Britain social work carries a professional remit here, there is a knowledge gap on actual intervention (Parker & Ashencaen Crabtree, 2014), an issue also raised by Guru (2012), as will be discussed.…”

“…They were so scared when they saw their father on the floor … Even the older ones urinated themselves because they were so scared. I tried to reassure them that he would be back soon … but I could not stop them crying … (Guru, 2012(Guru, , p. 1166.…”

Fear of crime on the rail networks: Perceptions of the UK public and British Transport Police

“…Indeed, in direct response to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris (November, 2015), it was announced by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, that the Home Office has pledged an extra £34 million to fund police firearms capacity and that London will train an extra 600 armed police officers as a counter-terrorist measure (BBC, January 2016). However, social work research on women in the Muslim community identified how visible policing can increase feelings of fear from potential insensitive and stigmatised policing practices (Guru, 2012). Armed police were first used on the rail network in February 2002 and provide day-today police patrol and resilience against potential terrorism and/or major incidents, with the aim to reassure the public via a visible armed presence and deter terrorism through an armed response (BTP Specialist Units [no date]).…”

“…Research suggests that ethnic minority groups, particularly those who are Muslim, feel targeted by stop and search (Pantazis & Pemberton, 2009). Muslim women feel fearful of stop and search due to the risk of their children being unjustly stopped (Guru, 2012). Despite rules having been made more stringent in recent years, the negative connotations they are associated with may threaten public feelings of reassurance, particularly among ethnic minorities (Moeckli, 2007;Parmar, 2011).…”