Understanding Enagement with Religious Actors Under the Channel Programme from 2005-2015

Despite the wealth of critique of Prevent, there exists scant analysis of its flagship de-radicalisation programme - Channel - its most potent source of political and philosophical tension. Channel sees the state organise one-on-one interventions to alter British citizens' behaviour and politico-religious beliefs. Pilot Channel projects, based on crime prevention initiatives, diverted individuals away from violent criminal behaviour. Yet since the 2011 Prevent Strategy, Channel has moved towards encouraging ideological change; not only targeting support for terrorism, but views considered part of 'extremist' ideology.

This shift created two major issues. First, Channel focused mostly on Islamist extremism and thus religious attitudes, namely conservative or Islamist beliefs. Secondly, Channel has moved from engaging religious actors based on counter-radicalisation experience to restricting partnership to those who embrace liberal democratic values, despite concerns about their credibility in countering extremism. In each case, the state makes contentious religious judgements: namely, what religious interpretations and beliefs are acceptable. This is problematic for a secular, liberal conception of the British state, which despite the presence of an established church is purportedly neutral regarding religion. Yet through Channel the state increasingly endorses select religious denominations and alters the composition of religious communities, with troubling corollaries for the UK's legal frameworks on religion and belief. This creates a dilemma for religious actors: do they support Channel for security's sake, or preserve their religious independence?

To address these issues, this research will address the following research question:
How was engagement with religious actors understood and justified under the Channel Programme, from 2005-2015: what philosophical and legal principles was this policy practice based on, and how did religious actors rationalise their involvement theologically?

This research will consist of two strands. The first is a historical account of the evolution in Channel's engagement with religious actors; identifying drivers of change, how religious actors justified their role, and how state actors understood this engagement and the principles it rested upon. The second strand analyses the theoretical issues raised by this account: reconciling the state's role with the UK's state-religion arrangement and other secular and postsecular frameworks; and discussing implications of religious actors' role in Channel for public reason and identities, contrasting Islamic perspectives on political authority, and critique from political theology. Both strands will use qualitative methods: the historical account will be based on interviews with key Channel stakeholders in civil society, policymaking, and police, supplemented by document analysis of primary and secondary sources; the theoretical strand will draw on this data and relevant theoretical literature in evaluating Channels' religious engagement within legal, theological, and political-philosophical frameworks.