Anthony Stewart reported this story on Friday, February 19, 2016 12:35:00

KIM LANDERS: A de-radicalisation expert who has worked for the Pakistani government is arguing that overseas experience shows that efforts to counter violent extremism in Australian schools will not work.



Early this month the Federal Government unveiled expanded measures to train teachers and students on how to spot the radicalisation of school aged children.



Anthony Stewart has this report.



ANTHONY STEWART: In the wake of the murder of New South Wales police employee Curtis Cheng by a 15-year-old boy, governments across Australia have stepped up efforts to tackle the radicalisation of school aged children.



New South Wales has committed $47 million to the rollout of teams of counsellors and the Federal Government has unveiled plans to provide training to teachers and students to spot the warning signs.



Hussain Nadim is studying Australia's de-radicalisation programs at Sydney University. He's formerly worked for the Pakistani government in programs that de-radicalise suicide bombers and terrorist combatants.



HUSSAIN NADIM: Mostly what is going to eventually happen is that these teachers and students are going to identify kids based on their Muslim sounding names or racial profiling, which is again going to be a bit of a problem because Muslim kids are already struggling to integrate into the Australian society partly because their parents' values and family values do not really match the Australian general values. So really the school space is the only place they can have to integrate into the Australian society and to feel Australian and make friends.



By running these sort of programs, the Government is actually blocking any possible way for a Muslim student to integrate into the mainstream Australian society.



ANTHONY STEWART: The Australian model is largely based on the UK's Prevent program. The British government has been spending 40 million pounds a year to try to stop the spread of radical ideologies, yet in the 12 years since Prevent's inception, the number of suspects coming to the attention of police has grown.



HUSSAIN NADIM: It is going to backfire. We have seen the same program, in the name of Prevent, run by the British government and it has not one) produced any result after having spent 60 million pounds on it; second) the research that are being coming out in recent years is a lot of people from the Muslim community are quite angry and they're coming out against this program which is profiling Muslim kids.



ANTHONY STEWART: Why was it such a failure do you think?



HUSSAIN NADIM: I guess because these projects do not go and tackle the in depth problem which is of the identity and which is about the perception. What happens is that when the Government comes up with CVE (countering violent extremism) programs in schools, it already gives out a very negative perception and gives the fodder to the Islamist terrorists to tell the Muslims, "Look, these Western governments want to come down to the school level and tell you that this is Islam and this is not Islam and they want to isolate you because of your identity".



ANTHONY STEWART: Hussain Nadim is urging politicians to adopt a different approach. He says Malcolm Turnbull should follow the lead of the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.



HUSSAIN NADIM: What he has been doing is something that should be replicated and learned by other Western countries. He's reaching out. The person, the Prime Minister right at the top of the circus, coming out, reaching out to the Muslim community telling them that he stands with them, that is all what is needed.



I personally don't think that big programs and big money can solve these specific issues which are related to identity and which are related to perception. So the government needs to come up with a counter narrative and which can be done very easily if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull comes out and approaches to the Muslim kids directly.



ANTHONY STEWART: Both the New South Wales and Federal Government were contacted for comment.



KIM LANDERS: Anthony Stewart reporting.