Prayer room vandalised at Keele University

Local media reports last week suggest several buildings on the Keele University campus were vandalised in July, including the Keele University Islamic Centre. Muslim students discovered the wreckage when they arrived for morning prayers on 22 July, forcing them to move Friday afternoon prayers outside. With vandals also attacking a neighbouring office, the damage to […]

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Goldsmiths student unmasked as IS recruiter

A Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed the identity of Umm Muthanna Al-Britaniyah, an Islamic State (IS) recruiter who tried to lure young British Muslim women to travel to Syria to marry fighters. The woman is believed to be Tooba Gondal, a 22 year old from East London who studied English at Goldsmiths College. While […]

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Anti-Muslim graffiti reported at University of Leicester

Following reports of an increased number of racist incidents across the UK in the wake of last week’s referendum result, students at the University of Leicester have reported disgraceful anti-Muslim graffiti. The Atheist, Humanist, and Secular (ASH) Society at the university posted a picture of a banner promoting an Eid festival which had been painted […]

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Students Not Suspects Conference: Myths and Scaremongering

As well as hosting extreme groups at its conference last week, the NUS-led ‘Students Not Suspects‘ campaign also continued to spread inflammatory misinformation about Prevent. These myths include the notion that Prevent is racist and Islamophobic, that is being used to spy on service users, and that it is aimed at shutting down anti-government activism. […]

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Kingston VC’s comments on Prevent ignore the evidence

Professor Julius Weinberg, vice chancellor of Kingston University, has said university heads are “under a lot of pressure” not to criticise the government’s counter-radicalisation measures, collectively known as the Prevent strategy. Speaking at the University and College Union (UCU) congress in Liverpool last week, Mr Weinberg expressed his concerns Prevent might inhibit free speech and […]

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Muslim students attacked at KCL

Last Friday, two men were arrested after they pulled off a Muslim student’s niqab outside the Strand campus of King’s College London (KCL). The men allegedly approached a stall run by the Islamic Society and started throwing leaflets from the stall on the floor, as well as directing racially abusive and threatening language towards the […]

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Government outlines need to challenge campus extremism

The government has clarified that the legal duty for public bodies to “have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism” will apply to universities from 21st September. This will put a legal requirement on institutions to have policies in place to challenge on-campus radicalisation, including at extremist events. Guidance […]

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Prime Minister addresses campus extremism in speech

Yesterday, the Prime Minister used a visit to Ninestiles School in Birmingham to give a speech addressing the challenges posed to the UK by extremism. In outlining the ideology espoused by Islamist extremists and detailing how it could be opposed, the Prime Minister touched on many of the issues Student Rights has sought to highlight […]

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CAGE 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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