Religion, Education and Extremism:

Counter Terrorism in the Classroom 

The Cold War reflected a continuation of the ideological battle between democracy and totalitarianism. Building on correlations between democracy and education apparent since the Enlightenment onwards (Cahn, 2009; Dewey, 2009), the post-Cold War period has seen the United Nations reiterating the importance of education for politically ingraining democracy, citizenship and universal rights. The post-Cold War resurgence of religion added, however, a lexicon of conflict to international relations epitomized by the clash of civilizations (Huntington, 2002; cf. Casanova, 1994), post- 9/11 religion seemed to have emerged as a violent factor in world politics (Boulden and Weiss, 2004; Burleigh, 2006).

   In England, following concerns over community cohesion after riots in northern English cities in late 2001 and the 2005 bombings in London on 7/7, the Diversity and Citizenship Curriculum Review (Ajegbo, 2007), introduced a new strand to citizenship education – ‘Identities and diversity: living together in the UK’ – and raised the profile of religion within citizenship. This has been combined with a ‘Prevent Agenda’ from the UK Government Department of the Home Office (2009) which has encouraged the use of education in the struggle of counter terrorism.

   However, systematic reviews of research literature show religion has historically played little role in citizenship, considered historically to be a secular-oriented subject; and conversely, political matters have played very little historical role in religious education (Osler and Starkey, 2006). There has been therefore limited historical or philosophical consideration of religion within citizenship education or politics within religious education.

   Following Berlin (1958), the paper contests that many of the philosophical questions presented here are difficult to address without historical context (Aldrich, 2006). The paper thus examines a range of historical contexts and philosophical issues on the use of education as a means of countering extremism, focusing in particular upon: (i) the United Nations citizenship and human rights education programmes during the Cold War; (ii) United Nations citizenship and human rights education policies in the post-Cold War period; and (iii) in England the Prevent Agenda designed to utilise educators in religious and citizenship education in the war on extremism. Drawing upon a range of historical and philosophical sources the paper asks whether teachers should be involved in counter terrorism within the classroom.   

   Beyond the discussion of the role of educators in countering extremism, the paper hopes to make some theoretical contribution to the debates engendered by Berlin’s (1958) two concepts of liberty. The new interest of liberal democracies in religion, especially notable in freedom of religion controversies, it is argued, can be viewed as a form of positive liberty whose implications have not yet been considered in a negative light; for what is perceived as an increase in liberty might well be quite the reverse. It will be argued (cf. Wolin, 2008) that this involvement of liberal democracies in the control, shaping and determination of religious and cultural matters along the lines of a particular Enlightenment ideology is a subtly emergent, and seemingly benevolent, form of liberal autocracy.  

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