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September 18, 2005
British Universities, Islam and Radical Extremism
British Universities in my day were always home to fringe radicals, who generally swapped their leftist credentials and politically turned right, as soon as they had to enter the real world and earn their keep. But nowadays the radicals tend to be Islamist, and the extremists among them are getting the UK government rather edgy. On Thursday 15th, the Times reported that Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary had earlier addressed representatives of British universities at their annual meeting to spy on student activists. She said that vice-chancellors were obliged by duty to report any incidences of law-breaking from staff or students.
The conference of Universities UK (UUK) was held at their headquarters in Tavistock Square, site of the suicide bus-bomb on 7/7.
"Following the London bomb attacks in July, we are all having to re-examine certain policies. One is how to respond to those using the freedoms of our society to promote terrorism and violence," Ms Kelly said. "Freedom of speech or expression is one of the most fundamental rights that individuals enjoy. And higher education is a bastion of those values. However, freedom of speech does not mean tolerance of unacceptable behaviour. I believe that higher education institutions need to identify and confront unacceptable behaviour on their premises and within their communities."The Universities' representatives were dissatisfied with their expected role, but acknowledged that the terrorist threat could not be ignored. A report issued a day previously by the Social Affairs Unit listed 24 universities where potential terrorist/extremist groups had been detected. These included Birmingham, Brunel, Durham, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Luton, Leicester, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading, Swansea, and Wolverhampton.
But today, Islamist leaders published their inevitable refutation of these claims, as reported by IRNA, the Islamic Republic News Agency. FOSIS (Federation of Student Islamic Societies) took offence: ""What we are seeing is an attack on some of the most active and respected Islamic societies across the country," said Faisal Hanjra, head of FOSIS Student Affairs."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 18, 2005 12:36 PM
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