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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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 […]
Continue readingMoazzam Begg to speak at NUS-organised event tour (Update: NUS statement)
UPDATE 04/09/2015: An NUS statement released to the Daily Mail has claimed that: “The events are being run as a coalitions with a number of other organisations, we are a large organisation and represent a wide diversity of views, some of our officers with different views have chosen to work with the coalition”. In July, […]
Continue readingNUS campaign works with IHRC to attack PreventOur recent report, ‘Preventing Prevent? Challenges to
Our recent report, ‘Preventing Prevent? Challenges to Counter-Radicalisation Policy on Campus’, highlighted how student opposition to counter-radicalisation policy has been influenced by extremist narratives. Student groups have also compounded this problem by working alongside the very extremists that such programmes seek to oppose. This was demonstrated again last week, as the NUS Black Students’ Campaign […]
Continue readingPrime 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 […]
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 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 […]
Continue readingHizb ut-Tahrir activist to speak at SOAS
University should be a place for debate, where students can discuss ideas with their right to freedom of expression protected. However, all too often, events are hosted in which there is no such debate; where a panel of speakers with similar views are simply given an unchallenged platform. This can be seen in an event […]
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