Footballer's affairs vs. 11 year old future extremists

9:29pm Monday 8th February 2010

By Chandni Dhanak

As I grabbed the Evening Standard on the commute back home from work I was shocked to read the harsh headlines on the front page, ‘Can future extremists be spotted as young as 11?’ What is more no other national newspaper or news channel had bothered to cover this feature, instead what had and has been plastered over the news since is footballer John Terry’s affair.

It is alarming given that the broken society David Cameron has so rightly spoken about is sadly exacerbated if not more so by such government actions. With 49% of the opinion poll set up by the Evening Standard voting yes to the question posed by the paper and only the slight majority of 51% voting otherwise, the results speak volumes. It appears quite simply that we are living in an overly sceptical society that now we should even be wary of 11 year olds!

Understandably we are living in an uncertain time as we are constantly under threat, but frankly this measure goes too far. Having already been stopped and searched in public under the Anti Terrorism Act I know that it is enormously embarrassing as not only does it make you feel slightly guilty for being a different race and colour which is an odd feeling altogether but it also serves to create an attitude among the public that certain types of people dependent on colour are more of a threat. Even so, I totally accept the measures of the Anti-Terrorism Act as a necessary need for public welfare, but to put a child through a system as harsh as this in schools would be totally unfair. Furthermore, accepted is the fact that children are impressionable and they could well be preyed on as easy targets to instil extremist attitudes, but the pendulum swings two ways. If a child is wrongly questioned and put in an awkward position would this not only instil anger and the attitude of ‘us and the rest of the world’ as well breed separation in society? Consequently, where would the guarantee be that a young child would not be made victim of plain discrimination? All that can be said really is that the next government that is formed must seriously look into such issues carefully and that newspapers and news channels should rethink which stories should take precedence, after all what is more important for the public to know about footballer’s affairs or government measures to spot future extremists in 11 year olds?