Surveillance and Religion Network

Religious communities are targets, as well as users, of surveillance. Balancing human rights to freedom of religion, of expression and of privacy is a complex activity that intersects with politics, culture and, significantly, religious beliefs and practices. These inter-related dimensions will be the focus of this research network which aims to bring together scholars and faith practitioners. Religious traditions have significant contributions to make to contemporary discussions of the ethics of surveillance - whether in the realm of national security, human rights, trust, privacy and human flourishing in general.
As targets, Muslims (for example) currently encounter the securitisation of their identity (Isakjee, PhD Birmingham 2013) when the state seeks to address, prevent and pre-empt terrorism. Recent claims in a Claystone report (2014) that Muslim charities are viewed as a 'suspect sector' suggest there are issues beyond airport security. Jewish-Muslim conflict over holy sites is impacted by the Israeli state's deployment of surveillance balloons over Jerusalem. Questions around the surveillance of religious communities has a long history in the UK and Ireland, given conflict on the island of Ireland.
Given that most religious worldviews include a concept of a watching deity/deities, the matter of encountering surveillance needs to be examined in the light of specific beliefs. It might be that particular beliefs in divine surveillance sharpen or blunt people's political responses to being targets. Perhaps a failure to perceive acute religious sensitivities around surveillance may exacerbate conflict when a more nuanced justification by the state might increase cooperation?
Religious communities also use surveillance. The need to secure their property can lead to the use of CCTV at, and in, places of worship. A search for accurate data on the growth or decline of a denomination (or local congregation) leads to information gathering that, depending on the resources available, might be sophisticated 'customer' data management. Religious people are aware of the lure of online material that can be counter to their ethical standards. Software is marketed that can distribute a report of browsing activity to an 'accountability partner'. As users of social media, identity and relationships are mediated and shaped in ways that may be affirmed or challenged by religious traditions. The network will be interested in questions such as what a Christian ethical stance might be, as distinct from or similar to a Muslim or other viewpoint. The ethical challenges of using and participating in surveillance need to be considered within the beliefs of respective religions or faith stances.
The principal aim of this network is to bring together researchers and practitioners from disciplines as diverse as sociology, criminology, theology and religious studies to pool knowledge, share ideas and generate new research initiatives around surveillance and religion.
The three workshops are planned in order that participants may provoke and fuel original ways of thinking about specific dimensions of the interplay between surveillance and religion. One symposium will focus on security. A second will focus on the use of surveillance by religious communities. A third will unpack the wider contribution of religious ethics to 21st century surveillance. The workshops will generate proposals for specific research projects and, through the participation of stakeholders from religious communities, such proposals will be grounded in the issues experienced by people in their everyday lives.

The project is designed to reach groups of people outside of the academy, specifically those involved in public and corporate policy-making, the leadership and ordinary practitioners of religious communities, elements of the wider Third Sector, and the general public.

Surveillance is a wide and rapidly-changing field within which new challenges, hitherto scarcely imaginable, can suddenly emerge. By understanding the intersection of religious identity with surveillance public policy-makers will be better informed for the revision of UK legislation following the recent Anderson and RUSI reports. Recognising the impact of globalization on the exchange of big-data, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation is currently under development and will need continued review. EU policy on the civil use of drones (currently being discussed) will be enhanced by a deeper appreciation of religious sensitivities in specific locales and religious perspectives on how surveillance shapes the Common Good and societal trust. At a local level, community policing strategies - especially within the context of the Prime Minister's recent intentions to tackle religious extremism - will be shaped. It will be advantageous to know not only how, but why, religious groups respond to surveillance in specific ways.

With religion or belief being one of the nine 'protected characteristics' within equality and human rights legislation, policy-makers, particularly at local government level, will be able to better appreciate the need to balance the surveillance of religion with religious concerns of being monitored - even to further equality. The possible shaping of religion through its being under surveillance will extend present understanding. This has relevance for all age groups but particularly so for children and young people in Scotland in the light of the new Named Person service.

Corporate policy-makers such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, will gain from broadening the scope of their discussion of the ethics of data analysis beyond compliance and business efficiency. Religious visions of human flourishing and the Common Good will complement the current focus on individual privacy and autonomy.

The leaders of religious communities will be made more aware of the data-gathering and analysis undertaken by their organizations at small-group and 'denominational' levels. They will gain insight into the agenda required to adequately educate people in an ethics for everyday life under ubiquitous surveillance. Religious groups working with, and comprising, people under disproportionate surveillance (e.g. asylum seekers and people receiving welfare benefits) will be better equipped to challenge the associated social injustices. This will be a similar gain for other Third Sector organizations as volunteers in charities are informed and educated regarding the shaping that surveillance strategies exert upon people.

The general public will be more aware of everyday surveillance and the need for personal responsibility alongside recourse to legal frameworks of privacy rights. Their appreciation will be deepened of social injustices reinforced by surveillance. The public (including religious believers), will be invited to re-consider their stance towards 'the Other'; people who are represented in the media and government statements as dangerous and threatening. Possibilities of greater social cohesion, particularly across religious boundaries, may result.