REsilience, violent extremism and religious education

This article is an attempt to provide an educational justification for the British Government-funded project, REsilience, on addressing contentious issues through religious education (RE) which was carried out by the RE Council of England and Wales. A number of issues relating to the inclusion of religiously inspired violent extremism in the curriculum are raised – definitional, political and educational. A justification is proposed which focuses on human rights in two ways: the right to freedom of religion and belief and the promotion of pupils’ moral development through human rights issues. It is suggested that the work of the moral philosopher Kwame Antony Appiah with his focus on morality in cosmopolitan societies is relevant to this, and in particular, his concept of ‘honor’ which can be used by educationists as the basis for engagement with violent extremism and related topics in the classroom.