Yesterday, Student Rights attended a protest outside the National Union of Students (NUS) office in London which rallied various free speech groups in opposition to the increasing censorship seen on university campuses. This has included human rights activist Maryam Namazie being banned from Warwick, as well as attempts to stop her speaking at Goldsmiths by […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham
Westminster student named in Islamic State documents
Last week saw the publication of thousands of Islamic State (IS) documents reveal the name of another student from the University of Westminster who had travelled to Syria to fight alongside the terrorist group. The Telegraph has reported that the files include the details of 18 year old Mohammed Jackir Ali, who dropped out of […]
Continue readingNational Action on campus in Nottingham
Throughout 2014, Student Rights highlighted attempts by the neo-Nazi organisation, National Action, to target university campuses. While often only taking the form of poster drops, this activism was a worrying phenomenon, one exacerbated by the fact a member of the group was later convicted of attempted murder. While National Action appears to have had little […]
Continue readingNUS 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 […]
Continue readingStudent Voice: Macer Gifford speaks at UCL
Student Rights was pleased to report last month that University College London Union (UCLU) had reversed a decision to ban Macer Gifford from speaking on campus. Last night an event with Gifford went ahead, and he was able tell students about his experiences fighting Islamic State in Syria. Here, Kavar Kurda, the Head of UCL […]
Continue readingEx-student who fought against Islamic State banned from UCL (Update: UCLU reverse decision)
UPDATE: 16/11/2015: Following a high profile campaign by UCLU Kurdish Society, the Student Union has reversed their decision to ban Macer Gifford from speaking on campus. In a statement released today, UCLU said: “On Friday 13th November, UCL finally received a response from the police, stating that they felt it would be safe and legally […]
Continue readingOpen letter shows concerns about student campaign against Prevent
Last week saw an open letter published in the Independent which targeted the UK’s counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, and called for it to be scrapped. Signed by over 40 senior National Union of Students (NUS) and individual student union officers, the letter damned the policy as one which: “…reinforces an ‘us’ and ‘them’ view of the […]
Continue readingNational Action member’s conviction shows threat posed by group
On 14 January 2015 Zack Davies, a member of the neo-Nazi organisation National Action (NA), tried to murder Dr. Sarandar Bhambra with a machete because he “looked Asian”. Only prevented from killing Dr. Bhambra by the intervention of a former soldier, Davies was today convicted of attempted murder and will be sentenced in September. While […]
Continue readingNUS motion pledges to work with CAGE
Over the past two days, delegates from the National Union of Students (NUS) have been meeting in Liverpool for the organisation’s Annual Conference. Voting on new policy, the NUS once again showed its inability to challenge extremism, instead passing a motion resolving to oppose government counter-extremism work. Motion 517 declared that “NUS officers will not […]
Continue readingCAGE events show FOSIS failure to challenge extremism
Following its attempt to blame the radicalisation of ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi on the British government in March, prisoner rights group CAGE has returned to targeting UK counter-extremism policy in the past week. On Friday, the group began a nationwide tour of workshops attacking the recent passage of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, as well […]
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