Tarek Younis Profile picture
Mar 6, 2019 11 tweets 3 min read Read on X
1/ In light of the upcoming presentation tomorrow with @Medact in Manchester, I thought I would give a brief overview of the themes which we’ll be discussing regarding Prevent in the NHS
2/ Critiquing Prevent directly is (to an extent) futile. It will continue to grow – just did in Jan with new CT bill. IMO what began w/o evidence will not be challenged by evidence (to an extent) – esp if it’s politics. Over 10 years of research proves this #NoNeedForAReview
3/ What is important for us as researchers is to explore what Prevent reveals to us how the NHS and society operate. We need to think structures, because even if we were to #EndPrevent, those structures remain. What does Prevent reveal? Here are two points for tomorrow:
4/ 1st: racialised self-censorship of staff. I found a lot of self-censorship; and there was a racial dif. who/why staff self-censor. This also relates to austerity (over-regulation), training team (internal suspicion) and (VERY impt) the thoughtless mechanisation of policies
5/ 1st contd: re- last point. Some staff told me they heard "I know this is racist but I have to do it." Think Arendt’s banality of evil. What does this say about NHS if staff reluctantly do what they feel is unethical? This isnt only Prevent – this is BIG issue @DocsNotCops etc.
6/ 2nd point: institutional racism in NHS. How does racial prejudice operate in healthcare beyond racial hostility? Prevent gives a clue: colour-blindness. Policies like Prevent (and hostile environment, etc) evade charge of racism by saying: we go after everyone, race-irrelevant
7/ 2nd contd: Why would Prevent be charged with racism? Too many studies found that Muslim bodies are normatively associated with threat/terrorism in public consciousness (legacy of other-ing, think Shamima). Prevent is asking (post-Brexit) public to identify pre-terrorists
8/ 2nd contd: Colorblindness works very well, by dismissing race or raising/erasing it (real ex: is radicalisation a boy visiting mosque? No). I have a lot to say but one element: neoliberal governance responsibilises staff for their own racial prejudice – policy is blameless
9/ 2nd: on colorblindness and institutional racism, I will never fail to encourage everyone to read Alexander’s The New Jim Crow @thenewjimcrow. You’ll see how systemic colorblindness can be, and its results – mass incarceration of Black people in US
10/ These are very basic points for tomorrow, among others. Look forward to learning from the discussion! I will also be discussing intersection of health/politics/race at other occasions in the future
11/ oops forgot to tag the actual organisers for tomorrow, my bad! @MancMedact

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More from @Tarek_Younis_

Nov 7, 2023
1/9: This is a terribly misguided guidance on Palestine. I normally don't comment on these as unity is important, but this document actively contributes to Islamophobia.
In addition, in trying to avoid some allegations of anti-semitism, it might perpetuate another kind.🧵
Image
2/9: As others mentioned, Israel and genocide are absent from the document.
As a scholar of Islamophobia, I’ve long argued that the depoliticisation of Muslim distress (erasing the conditions of our marginalisation) is one of the main issues we’re confronting as a community.
3/9: Imagine a Muslim kid is beaten by someone who hates Muslims. If we make it about other things (or focus only on kid's trauma), we’re contributing to the racist climate which dismisses the political conditions of the kid's experience.
Read 9 tweets
Oct 29, 2023
1/ Let's discuss the role of psychology and psychiatry in upholding Israeli apartheid and the limitations of addressing Palestine within a framework of therapy and mental health. 🧵 Image
2/ Two examples from the US and UK reveal how Zionism is normalized in mental health settings. In the US, consider Lara Sheehi who co-authored the excellent book, "Psychoanalysis in Times of Occupation." Image
3/ She exposed how deeply ingrained Zionism is in psychology and psychoanalysis. Her stance on Israel led to slander, legal battles, investigations, ethics complaints, and even death threats. Image
Read 15 tweets
Dec 19, 2022
[🧵] Important piece @theprimalplot @hizzy20 on the so-called crisis of masculinity. It unravels the union of Muslim's panic of “men not being men”, and alt-right's panic of decline of Western civilisation, both affirming feminism as existential threat scienceopen.com/hosted-documen…
The piece critiques some of the major Muslim writers and thinkers who've been lamenting this moral panic surrounding the loss of masculinity and rise of feminism. The following are a few thoughts this piece inspired while reading it: [2]
I find fascinating how moral crises and social catastrophes are seen within a logic of risk and vulnerability, even within Muslim community. Feminism is seen as a virus spreading from mind to mind, much like the state manufacturing of the “threat” of extremism [3]
Read 7 tweets
Dec 8, 2022
[🧵] In light of the upcoming release of my book, The Muslim, State and Mind, the following thread is a summary of the themes and chapters of the book.
The book looks at the intersection of psychology, politics and Muslims. Link for the book is here: /1

uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-…
To begin, the book takes a critical stance towards the usual approaches to Islamophobia and mental health. These approaches ask the question “what is the impact of Islamophobia on Muslims?”, then relies on negative health outcomes to demonstrate Islamophobia is real/legible /2
This is problematic for a number of reasons, not because negative health outcomes do not exist, but because how Muslim marginalisation in Global North needs to be framed to be made legible. Psychological discourse legitimises certain forms of violence, but can erase others /3
Read 12 tweets
Jan 7, 2021
[thread] I'm going to briefly explain my issue with saying there's a "mental health crisis" in this pandemic. Psychology talk is often a convenient means of sucking out the politics which produce the sort of despair we're experiencing today./1
Political or economic mismanagement (i.e. rise in neoliberal policies) will inevitably be followed by widespread suffering and despair, especially for the underprivileged. We should therefore normalise saying this is a "political/economic crisis".../2
And understand that mental health will follow. This is not to undervalue the need to understand the mental health of the population, and what can be done to help. The point is to highlight that the crisis is not intrinsic to "mental health" nor the pandemic itself (grief aside)/3
Read 5 tweets
Nov 18, 2020
Take a minute to listen to this ridiculous Prevent referral, and why Prevent is the hallmark of institutional racism. Here I want to draw attention to this line "he looked really pleased with himself". Not the first time I hear this. Think about this line for a moment/1
To be pleased with oneself--bragging! This GP in the NHS committed a prejudicial and racist act. How does this come about? The GP is pleased because, we imagine, he understands to have completed his 'duty', caught a pre-criminal and made an appropriate Prevent referral/2
Institutional racism can be found in policies which give prejudice legitimacy--to have 'done one's job'. Through practice, this referral aggravates the relationship between this racialised Muslim and terrorism even further. Question is now: what happens with these GPs?/3
Read 8 tweets

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