Parents of children as young as nine have reacted angrily after schools in an east London borough asked pupils to complete surveys designed to provide clues to possible radicalisation. Waltham Forest council has been piloting the scheme in five primary schools with large Muslim intakes. The questionnaire, circulated among year 6 pupils, asks how much they trust the police and people from another race or religion.
They are also asked whether they agree that it is acceptable to marry someone from outside their race or religion and whether women are just as good as men at work. Another question asks if the pupils believe their religion is the only correct one. About 22% of the population in Waltham Forest, one of the most deprived local authorities in England, are Muslim.
A short memo to the Ministry of Education in the UK: this is not rocket science, and you are looking in absolutely the wrong direction here.
What causes radicalisation is realizing that a foreign country is taking advantage of natural resources in a country, to which the invading country has absolutely no moral right.
What causes radicalization is watching a relative, a toddler, get blown to bits by a drone bombing, and understanding that this dead, innocent child is considered simply "collateral damage" by the government doing the drone bombing.
What causes radicalization is not being able to peacefully advocate for change, because the government in power (let's say in Bahrain) is supported by both the British and US governments, where the Bahraini government will have your tear gassed or hit with rubber bullets for your efforts; then, the first responders who tried to keep you from dying are tortured into confessing, and also jailed.
The late President Kennedy said it best: "When peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable."