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The definition of extremism under the British Government’s counter-extremism policy is so broad that virtually anybody could be labelled a terror suspect.

With the benefit of hindsight and a healthy dose of racism, even the most innocuous acts could be backwards engineered to be part of a sinister plot.

Take this now famous network engineer. Yes, he could indeed have planted fake bombs at a military base, and then gone on a spying mission for an enemy state.

Equally, he could just have been a network engineer, replacing obsolete Cisco switches, responding with sarcasm to a ridiculous question about his intentions, framed by ongoing discrimination.

After all, the moment after one of my former line-managers at work — then a senior director and CIO — learned I am Muslim, he jibed, “I hope you’re not going to blow yourself up!”

In my case, I just stared back at him in disbelief, which rapidly brought our one-to-one to a halt. But I could just as easily have responded with a sarcastic barb that might have landed me in hot water.

So for the network engineer laying out new cabling on a site visit: some office dogsbody, stirred by his foreign looks takes care to check his ID badge, taking note of his surname, which sounds a bit Muslamic.

Then, much like my manager, wheezes, “I hope you’re not planting bombs, mate.”

If such racial profiling is an ongoing saga, he might just let out a sarcastic reply, “Yeah, of course I am.”

And that right there is your Prevent referral, hurriedly reported into the system after a good discussion amongst managers.

Sarcasm, for those unaware, should always be avoided when dealing with the arms of law and order. This was the advice of my father when, in my first year at university, I was threatened with arrest on the basis of a circumstantial coincidence.

With a Prevent review in full swing potentially leading to prosecution under some obscure fifty year old law, every single act of the network engineer now comes under intense scrutiny.

Scribbled down notes from ServiceNow to respond to reports of poor network connectivity on another site? All completely routine stuff if you’re a network engineer, but extremely sinister if you’re a terrorist.

Looked up an employee information system without authorization, to work out who reported you to Prevent? Well, obviously that is a data breach requiring disciplinary action, which could range from a sacking to a prison sentence depending on extent.

But proof that you’re a spy working for an enemy state? Well fortunately that’s not the charge. The charge is that you took notes that could be useful to an enemy, not that this was your actual intent.

But in this regard, every single piece of information gleaned from your IT task management system in the course of your work relates to critical infrastructure under the definitions of cyber warfare, and so could be useful to an enemy.

As a rule, the less you know the better. Put toilet paper in your ears if you have to. Avoid office gossip. Delete your LinkedIn profile if you manage any kind of infrastructure and unfollow anyone you work with.

Once you’re under investigation, virtually anything you have ever done or written down could be used against you, if someone needs to. Which could be the case if you’re a whistleblower, or just have a face that doesn’t seem to fit in.

The Prevent strategy has embedded discrimination in public services, disproportionately affecting people from ethnic minorities. That’s why I don’t just go along with the narrative being thrust into the public domain this week.

It is conceivable that the individual in question is guilty as charged. But it is also entirely plausible that he’s simply been swept up amongst thousands of other complete innocents based on circumstantial evidence at best.

Hence, I won’t join in the national hysteria about a terrorist on the run. He was a suspect awaiting trial.