Student Rights recently received a ‘suggested video’ on Facebook from CAGE, the controversial prisoner lobby group, which was entitled ‘10 Reasons to donate to CAGE’. The video lists some of these reasons, including their belief that they speak “truth to power”, “campaign against Prevent”, “[defend] the oppressed”, “give a voice to the voiceless” and “[do] […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Asim Qureshi
Moazzam Begg challenged at the University of Exeter
Here at Student Rights, we have often highlighted the need to ensure extremists face challenge on-campus, and encourage students to debate speakers with extreme and intolerant views. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen enough. Unbalanced platforms and hostile environments which suppress views different to the panellists often result in students’ voices being marginalised. On Tuesday, students at […]
Continue readingConcerns raised about ethics at Bath
A blog post published last week, and highlighted by Harry’s Place, has shone fresh light on concerning academic practices at the University of Bath. Addressing research by Hilary Aked, a PhD student studying the ‘Israel lobby’, the blog claims an article written by Aked attacking a recent Israel advocacy day “used information provided in confidence […]
Continue readingStudent Voice: The student left’s broken moral compass
Following last week’s events at Goldsmiths College, Queen Mary student Tom Owolade has written on the failure of the Goldsmiths Feminist and LGBTQ Societies to stand with Maryam Namazie, and their expressions of solidarity with students responsible for the disruption. This article is cross-posted below, and all views are his own, and do not necessarily […]
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 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 readingIslamic Society ‘Annual Dinner’ features extreme speakers (Update: Event details changed)
UPDATE: Following the publication of this article, the title of this event was changed to the first Annual Dinner of the ‘Al-Kawni Trust’. This organisation, alleged to be a front set up by members of City Islamic Society in 2010, has frequently promoted City events in the past. The City University Islamic Society has denied […]
Continue readingIslamophobia Awareness Month sees extreme speakers at SOAS
On Tuesday it was reported that an event called ‘Criminalising Islam’, featuring several extreme speakers, would be hosted at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) on 14 November. Part of Islamophobia Awareness Month, the talk will see Sulaiman Ghani and Abdullah Al-Andalusi discuss the “movement all across the globe towards the criminalising of […]
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