Last Thursday, members of the University of Leeds Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG) held a vigil to “commemorate the Palestinians who have been killed in the recent wave of violence”. A banner created by Leeds PSG for the event listed the names of Palestinian “victims” who had been “murdered” since the beginning of October. However, an […]
Continue readingTag Archives: extremism
Student Voice: Challenging Hamza Tzortzis at Oxford Brookes
The argument often used when extreme or intolerant speakers appear on campus is that it exposes their views to challenge from students, but in our experience this doesn’t happen often enough. Here, Harvir Dhillon, the president of Oxford Brookes University Quilliam Society, details his attempts to do so when Hamza Tzortzis appeared on campus. All […]
Continue readingSOAS speakers claim undermined by event history
Last week, following a government press release which ‘named and shamed’ several universities for hosting extreme speakers, one of the institutions identified hit back at these claims. Laura Gibbs, registrar of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), argued in a statement that the college had “not hosted any extremist speakers in the last […]
Continue readingStudent Rights welcomes Counter-Extremism Strategy
Earlier this week, the Home Secretary outlined a number of new measures to counter extremism which aim to “systematically confront and challenge extremist ideology”. Student Rights broadly welcomes the new Counter-Extremism Strategy, which identifies extremist activity on UK campuses as a serious problem which must be tackled without damaging freedom of expression. The strategy reaffirms […]
Continue reading‘Students not Suspects’ continues to work with CAGE
Yesterday, the government launched its Counter-Extremism Strategy, which included the expectation that the National Union of Students (NUS) “avoid providing a platform for extremist speakers”. This follows a week in which NUS officers have toured the country spreading misinformation about Prevent, and shared platforms with a CAGE official at a number of events. They have […]
Continue readingHamza Tzortzis at Oxford Brookes University
Last week Hamza Tzortzis, a senior member of the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA), appeared at Oxford Brookes University. Student Rights has been monitoring extreme speakers on UK campuses since 2009 and has logged a significant number of events featuring Tzortzis, who has a history of intolerant statements. On apostasy, he has said: “If […]
Continue readingNietzsche Society poster uses racist imagery
While students have traditionally been very good at challenging the presence of the far-right on their campuses, Student Rights has continued to document racist or fascist activity. We have reported on attempts at campus infiltration by the neo-Nazi group National Action, and attempts to set up British National Party front groups by party activists. This […]
Continue readingControversial anti-gay activist speaks at Dundee University
Tackling extremism on the UK’s university campuses has featured heavily in the public debate in recent weeks, with guidance provided by the government requiring institutions to: “…ensure they have proper risk assessment processes for speakers and ensure those espousing extremist views do not go unchallenged.” While there has been a focus on Islamist speakers, it […]
Continue readingNUS President denounced for cutting ties with CAGE
A number of activists within the student movement have signed an open letter denouncing the National Union of Students (NUS) President Megan Dunn for issuing a statement pledging to cut NUS ties with CAGE. Following Dunn’s claim that “working with Cage would not be compatible with the NUS’s policies on ‘anti-racism, anti-fascism and how we […]
Continue readingPreventing Prevent at SOAS
CAGE Director of Outreach, Moazzam Begg, whitewashed his history of radicalism during a controversial student event at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) earlier this week. The former Guantanamo Bay detainee claimed that: “before Guantanamo and Bagram I wasn’t politicised”. This is stark contrast to what he told the FBI in 2002, when […]
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