A Levels Fiasco

MCB, MCB Responds to UK Government U-Turn on A Level and GCSE Results plenty of coverage on this, including on my Twitter feed, but it's important to see the impact on deprived communities

Manchester PREVENT

Manchester colleges agreed to share data of students referred to #Prevent with universities

A young person subject to a Prevent referral does not have to consent to the information being shared, though they are informed, the documents show.
https://t.co/eSqBkjFbcy

— Miqdaad Versi (@miqdaad) July 19, 2020

University can feel like a hostile place to Muslim students

theconversation.com, University can feel like a hostile place to Muslim students "For those Muslims students who do access higher education, the odds can be stacked against them. Students from most ethnic minority backgrounds don’t do as well as their white peers – even when they enter higher education with the same or better qualifications. And although data on religion is not routinely collected by universities it is likely that many Muslims students are underperforming."

Sharia students loans

Daily Mail, Sharia students loans that do not conflict with the rules of Islam to be offered for the first time in drive to get more Muslims to university, 18 May 2016 "The Government confirmed on Monday that a new ‘halal’ finance model will be introduced which does not conflict with the rules of Islam."

Universities as 'free space' - opinion piece

Nick Cohen, Spectator, The idea of a university as a free space rather than a safe space is vanishing, 18 Mar 2016 opinion piece

Sharia law-compliant student loans

Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, New loans to help Muslim students go to university "A new model for Sharia law-compliant student loans has been unveiled today (3 April 2014) by Universities and Science Minister David Willetts."

University College London

Daily Mail, University College London bans hard-line Islamic group which tried to segregate men and women at a debate held on university premises "A Muslim group has been banned from a university after segregating men and women during a debate."

Prayers Center Closure Shocks UK Muslims

OnIslam, Prayers Center Closure Shocks UK Muslims "A sudden decision by a British university to shut down an Islamic center used for performing daily prayers is shocking Muslim students." refers to University of East Anglia

"Challenging Extremists" report

An update on my post earlier this week about Student Rights/Henry Jackson Society's' "Challenging Extremists" report. The link to the report is below. I haven't read the report yet: Rupert Sutton & Hannah Stuart, Student Rights - Challenging Extremists: Practical frameworks for our universities (pdf)

Muslim extremists using Facebook, Twitter to radicalise UK students: Report

Times of India, Muslim extremists using Facebook, Twitter to radicalise UK students: Report, 28 May 2012 " Islamic extremists are using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to radicalise British students and spread propaganda, according to a report.

 "Campaign groups The Henry Jackson Society and Student Rights, in their report 'Challenging Extremists' have uncovered the online use of propaganda."

I haven't found this report online yet.  I will update when it becomes available. There is a related report here: www.studentrights.org.uk, Online Radicalisation: A Case Study [pdf]

Update: the report is now linked here [pdf]

Tackling 'radicalisation'

Daily Record, National blocking list of violent and unlawful websites at centre of new Government plans to tackle radicalisation, 7 Jun 2011 "Plans will be unveiled to prevent computers in schools, libraries and colleges from accessing unlawful material on the internet.
Mrs May has criticised universities for their "complacency" in tackling Islamic extremism on campus, saying that for too long they have not been sufficiently willing to recognise what was happening.

""We want to explore the potential for violent and unlawful URL lists to be voluntarily incorporated into independent national blocking lists," the new strategy will say."

Universities and 'radicalisation'

Mail Online, 40 UK universities are now breeding grounds for terror as hardline groups peddle hate on campus

"Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’.

"A soon to be published Whitehall report – seen by the Daily Mail – will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas."

Telegraph, Universities 'complacent' over Islamic radicals, 5 June 2011, Theresa May warns, "Theresa May told The Daily Telegraph that universities were not taking the issue of radicalisation seriously enough and that it was too easy for Muslim extremists to form groups on campuses “without anyone knowing” ...

" ... There will also be a move to limit access to extremist websites from public buildings, particularly schools and public libraries.

"Details of partnerships with YouTube and AOL to try to tackle extremism online, using lessons learned from anti-paedophile policing will be made public."

Samira Shackle , New Statesman, We will continue to spy on Muslims, says Theresa May, 6 Jun 2011 "The whole scheme is predicated on the idea that every Muslim is engaged in a battle for their souls between extremist and moderate forces. This is hugely overstated: the vast majority of ordinary Muslims go about their lives in the same moral universe as the rest of the population. A better idea would be to return to the pre-9/11 era of community cohesion work - integrating communities to foster a sense of belonging in the UK, rather than entrenching divisions along religious lines."

Perspectives: teaching Islamic Studies in higher education - issue 1

Perspectives: teaching Islamic Studies in higher education - issue 1 "This is the first issue of the Islamic Studies Network’s biannual magazine, 'Perspectives'. It is a forum for those involved in teaching Islamic Studies and related subjects in higher education to share practice and resources."

'Fees hike will restrict access' - op. ed.

Nabil Ahmed, Times Higher Education, Fees hike will restrict access, 14 Nov 2010 "A toxic part of the problem is the proposal to charge a market rate of interest on student debts – up to 3 per cent plus inflation. Debts will inflate year on year, and again those who will suffer most are the students from poorer backgrounds. It will particularly affect Muslim students as they have a religious aversion to interest – Islam teaches that market rates of interest are a fundamentally unethical way of dealing with debt."

Universities in the UK op-ed

Nabil Ahmed – President of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), MuslimMatters.org, Universities in the UK: Muslims Need Not Apply, 11 Nov 2010 "With over 100,000 Muslim students in the UK now in higher education one would imagine that the future of Muslims in the UK, academically at least, would be extremely positive. Over the years the numbers of Muslim students attending university has rapidly progressed from a time when it was simply international students to a point now where the majority of Muslim students are British born and emerging as leaders of our communities. The importance of British Muslims who are able and willing to go to University cannot be understated."

The training and development of Muslim Faith Leaders

Communities & Local Government, The training and development of Muslim Faith Leaders: Current practice and future possibilities "This independent report was commissioned under the last Government in response to requests from Muslim communities." Report is available as a pdf from this page.

English language centre at al-Azhar

Heba Saleh, FT.com, Islamic scholars cross cultural divide, 21 Sep 2010

"An English language centre at the Egyptian university, established with British support, offers tuition to students in all five departments of the Faculty of Islamic Studies. This forms the centrepiece of a partnership between Britain and Al-Azhar, aimed at bolstering the university’s international reach and reinforcing its moderate interpretation of Islam."

Campus radicalisation issues

Pakinam Amer, almasryalyoum.com, Islamic radicalization on UK campuses: Islamic literature, 9 Aug 2010 "At City University, an annual event held in 2009 by its Islamic society (ISOC) featured Anwar al-Awlaki, a popular yet radical preacher who was profiled in previous installments. And the ISOC's website linked to others that advocate the same Islam that might have helped turn ex-Islamists like Shiraz Maher and Ed Husain into isolated individuals and then radicals. The website links also deepen the notion that the world is at war with Islam, not terrorism."

From Hizb ut-Tahrir to the Three Faiths Forum

Guardian, Hadiya Masieh: How 7 July bombings made me question my beliefs, 4 Jul 2010

"Hadiya Masieh was recruited by Hizb ut-Tahrir radicals, but 7/7 bombings five years ago opened her eyes."

Hadiya Masieh is associated with the Three Faiths Forum

Anthony Glees' opinion piece

Opinion piece (and reader comment): Anthony Glees, Times Higher, My eureka moment: The enemies within, 22 Apr 2010 "The events of 11 September 2001 represented an obvious and serious intelligence failure. But it suddenly occurred to me that we needed to examine the background of the 9/11 bombers and not just regard them as appalling criminals, understandable as that view might be.

"After all, several of the 9/11 operatives had been students (notably at Hamburg University) and al-Qaeda used graduates more generally, as well as "useful idiots". If Islamic terrorists were not just criminals but also students or graduates, campuses and colleges could be places to look for them. Of course, many universities contain both the bright and the idiotic, dons as well as students."