Yasmin Alibhai Brown discusses universities

Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Independent, It’s shameful that our universities have accepted gender segregation under pressure from the most oppressive religious fanatics opinion piece

Fingerprinting for international students

Independent, Is this really necessary? Universities introduce fingerprinting for international students, 21 Oct 2013 "Universities of Sunderland and Ulster both involved"

"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)

Study: "Muslims pass on faith at higher rates than Christians"

BBC News, Muslims pass on faith at higher rates than Christians says Cardiff University study, 14 Feb 2012 “Researchers found 77% of adult Muslims actively practise the faith they were brought up in, compared with 29% of Christians and 65% of other religions.”

'UK's first course in women, Islam and the media launched'

Guardian, UK's first course in women, Islam and the media launched, 19 Jan 2012 "The 12-week module, which the university claims is the first of its kind in the UK, will cover the often inflammatory topics of veil wearing, arranged marriage and "honour" crimes – looking at how they are portrayed in contemporary film, TV and other media, and how this reflects cultural biases in both the east and west."

"Student in al-Qaida raid paid £20,000 by police"

Guardian, Student in al-Qaida raid paid £20,000 by police, 14 Sep 2011 "Police say sorry and pay damages to student held for seven days after downloading al-Qaida manual for his masters degree"

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."

Matthew Reisz, Times Higher, Contravene or intervene?, 6 Jan 2011 "Freedom of speech is passionately defended in UK education, but when Islamic extremism and even terrorism have emanated from some of our campuses, should institutions step in? Matthew Reisz weighs up the hands-on and hands-off approaches." Interesting article, which refers to research from a range of perspectives - a factor that needs to be taken into account within the analysis.

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."

"Radicalisation on British University Campuses"

Quilliam Foundation, Radicalisation on British University Campuses: a case study, 18 Oct 2010 "Quilliam’s latest briefing paper, Radicalisation on British University Campuses: a case study, was published this morning and is now available for download here. The report uses the events at City University in London during the last academic year (Sept 09 – June 10) to show how a mainstream academic institution in the UK can become an incubator for extremist, intolerant and potentially violent forms of the political ideology of Islamism."

I haven't read this report yet, so cannot really comment on its contents. If you haven't come across the work of the foundation before, here's the wikipedia entry (usual wiki health warnings apply).

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."

UCL controversy

Syma Mohammed and Rashid Razaq, London Evening Standard, Muslim students could sue UCL for releasing details, 1 Apr 2010 "University College London could face legal action after the personal details of nearly a thousand Muslim students were handed over to police.

"The Federation of Student Islamic Societies has condemned the decision to pass on the names and addresses of students who have not been linked to any criminal offence, and may take the university to court."

Opinion piece: "Universities must take action on Muslim extremism"

Independent, Opinion piece: Rosie Waterhouse: Universities must take action on Muslim extremism, 18 Mar 2010 "I think the niqab should be banned at university. Some of my colleagues agree with me; others don't. But the issue should be debated. Should universities be more vigilant in monitoring Islamic societies and the literature they disseminate?"

European Muslim Research Centre, University of Exeter

The European Muslim Research Centre is announced through the following article:

Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Robert Lambert, Guardian, Muslims in the UK: beyond the hype, 28 Jan 2010 "Today, we are proud to launch the European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC) at the University of Exeter. We hope that the EMRC will be part of a wider process of voices and perspectives which are too often being ignored, or buried under a tide of negative portrayals of Muslim communities and Islam by vociferous sections of the media and populist politicians."

There's a new report, published today via the EMRC website, (direct link: Islamophobia and Anti- Muslim Hate Crime: a London case study [pdf]. I haven't read this yet.

It will be interesting to track the progress of this centre, and to see what events and publications emerge. They have an Advisory Board that includes John Esposito (Georgetown University), Tim Niblock (University of Exeter) and Muhammad Abdul Bari (from the Muslim Council of Britain)

"Muslim students monitored in UK "

al-Jazeera, Muslim students monitored in UK, 25 Jan 2010 film report: I had some problems with the embedded feature here, so click on the link to see the report.