A Christian union has been barred from holding prayer and Bible study meetings on college premises as a result of the government’s anti-terrorist Prevent strategy.
Toni Coulton, director of Festive, a charity that supports Christians in the UK’s further education and sixth-form colleges, said: “Senior management were not happy to have Christians meeting for prayer and fellowship and the reason they gave was because of the Prevent initiative.”
Coulton, who has been advising members of the union at the further education college said there had been no complaints of inappropriate behaviour by the group.
The decision to impose the ban at the unnamed college is believed to be the first case of a Christian organisation falling foul of measures imposed last autumn to tackle extremism in universities and colleges.
Coulton is also helping a Christian Union at a sixth-form college that was recently told it could no longer use the premises and now meets at a nearby coffee shop.
In a consultation document in 2014, the government said Prevent was intended to deal with all aspects of the terrorist threat to the UK. It highlighted Islamist extremism and the extreme right, but did not mention Christians.
