Education Against Radicalisation: The Role of Educators in Preventing and Addressing Radicalisation in Tunisia and the UK

Since 9/11, the war on terrorism was prioritised in most Western countries, leading to an extensive debate on the causes of and solutions to terrorism. Scholars have, so far, focused on Western Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) and Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) policies, which are based on the concept of ‘radicalisation’. In Europe, for example, UK PREVENT policy has attracted significant attention. In particular, scholars have debated the role of universities and university professors in enforcing PREVENT and denouncing signs of radicalisation in university students. Non-Western CVE policies have, on the contrary, been largely ignored. This paper aims to fill this gap, and comparatively examines the role of educators in the context of UK’s PREVENT policy and Tunisian CVE policy. Both PREVENT and Tunisia’s policies give a special role to educators, be it university professors and teachers (in the case of PREVENT), or mosques and imams as religious educators (in the case of Tunisia). The paper proceeds as follows. It first analyses the role played by religious education in Tunisian CVE policies, detailing the role of mosques and imams in preventing and addressing processes of radicalisation, Secondly, it compares the role of educators in CVE policies in Tunisia and UK, in order to highlight differences and similarities between the two policies. Special attention is given to differences in the way in which ‘radicalisation’ is understood, addressed and framed. Finally, the paper addresses whether and how Tunisia managed to implement CVE policies without increasing social marginalisation and exclusion in the country, something that Western governments so far did not manage to achieve.