The Telegraph: Universities monitored your emails long before Prevent – don’t believe the NUS’s fake news

King’s College London (KCL) has been criticised this week  for supposedly ‘spying on student’s emails’ in what has been described an outrageous invasion of their privacy. ​It is claimed that the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent, which aims to stop people being drawn into terrorism, is the problem.The President of the National Union of Students (NUS), Malia […]

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Independent: NUS president Malia Bouattia suggests education cuts cause young people to join terror groups in Syria

The controversial new National Union of Students president has suggested Government cuts to education could be to blame for a rise in young people joining terror groups in Syria. Speaking during a debate at University College London, Malia Bouattia, 28, said the “political climate which we’re in” is causing people to take “certain actions and […]

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Preventing Prevent at Goldsmiths

On Monday, Goldsmiths College hosted the latest event in the National Union of Student’s (NUS) ‘Students Not Suspects’ tour, which aims to undermine the government’s counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent. Once again, NUS Black Student’s Officer Malia Bouattia used the event to defend CAGE and shared a platform with the group’s Director of Outreach Moazzam Begg, despite […]

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The Prevent Duty on Campus – Rupert Sutton speech

The issue of extremism on university campuses has been part of the public debate since the 7/7 attacks, and comes under new scrutiny every time an individual involved in violent extremism is found to have studied at a UK university. In 2011, the revised Prevent strategy declared there was “…unambiguous evidence” extremist organisations targeted specific […]

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NUS campaign materials endorse extremist groups

Today, activists from the National Union of Students (NUS) Welfare Campaign and NUS Black Students’ Campaign are taking part in a “national day of action” against Prevent, the government counter-radicalisation policy. Part of an ongoing effort to undermine attempts to challenge extremism on campus, this follows a number of events on the issue which have […]

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UEL Islamophobia event sees NUS officer share panel with extremists

Last Monday, the University of East London (UEL) hosted an event entitled ‘After Paris Horror…Don’t let the Racists Divide Us. No to Islamophobia. Defend Civil Liberties’. It is important that universities remain spaces in which students can both raise awareness of anti-Muslim hatred and freely discuss and criticise government policies. Unfortunately, the event was instead […]

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SOAS 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 […]

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Student 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 […]

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‘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 […]

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Controversial 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 […]

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