London: A 10-year-old Muslim boy has been left ‘scared of writing’ after being questioned by police for mistakenly saying he lived in a ‘terrorist house’ while at school in northern England.
The pupil, from Accrington in Lancashire, was in a lesson at his primary school when he misspelled ‘terraced’, leading his teacher to raise an alert with the authorities under the 2015 Counter Terrorism and Security Act.
The boy was interviewed by Lancashire Police at home the following day and his family’s laptop was examined, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
Officials took no further action, but the boy’s relatives have complained to the school over the December incident and want an apology.
His cousin, whose name has been withheld to protect the boy’s identity, initially thought the incident was a joke.
“You can imagine it happening to a 30-year-old man, but not to a young child,” she was quoted as saying by the BBC. “If the teacher had any concerns it should have been about his spelling.
“They shouldn’t be putting a child through this. He’s now scared of writing, using his imagination.”
Lancashire Police said in a statement: “This was reported to the police but was dealt with by a joint visit by a PC from the division and social services, not by anyone from Prevent [the government’s counter-radicalisation programme].
“There were not thought to be any areas for concern and no further action was required by any agency.”
New counter-terrorism legislation in the UK places a responsibility on schools to report any extremist behaviour to the police, but Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain believes this places unnecessary extra scrutiny on Muslim children.
“There are huge concerns that individuals going about their daily life are being seen through the lens of security and are being seen as potential terrorists rather than students,” he said.
— The writer is a journalist based in the UK
