A National Union of Students’ (NUS) campaign has become a “vehicle for extremist interests”, a report has warned. The “Students not Suspects” campaign, which has been part of NUS policy since 2015, encourages universities to rally against the Government’s flagship counter-radicalisation policy Prevent. But according to the Henry Jackson Society, a counter-extremism think tank, the […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Prevent Agenda
Prevent plays a decisive role in challenging Far-Right extremism
Home Office and Police figures have shown that the number of Far-Right referrals to Prevent’s Channel programme have risen significantly in recent times. The proportion has increased from a quarter of all referrals in 2015 to around a third in 2016. In certain parts of the country these referrals reportedly outnumber all other cases, including […]
Continue reading‘Safeguarding Against Extremism in Higher Education’: Conference Review
Last week, Public Policy Exchange held a conference on extremism at the Strand Palace Hotel. The conference, entitled ‘Safeguarding Against Extremism in Higher Education: Preventing Hate and Protecting Freedoms’, featured distinguished speakers from a variety of fields, including law, academia, and the civil service. It gave an invaluable insight into the current legislation surrounding extremism […]
Continue readingRecent successes highlight support for Prevent
It’s been a busy time for Prevent. The past weeks have been awash with media stories of key Prevent successes. A high profile legal challenge to the government’s Prevent strategy was defeated at the High Court on 26 July 2017. In late 2016, Salman Butt took legal action against the government. His appeal for judicial […]
Continue readingUniversities UK unknowingly plays host to Hizb Ut-Tahrir
It has been revealed that Jamal Harwood, a spokesman for the British branch of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, was invited to give a talk earlier this year at the London headquarters of Universities UK.His talk, entitled “Is the Caliphate a viable alternative for the Middle East?”, took place in April 2017 at the Woburn House Conference […]
Continue readingSalford Student President who opposes Prevent reveals troubling views on social media
The news that Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber, was briefly a student at Salford University between 2014 and 2016, has attracted a large amount of media attention. Questions have been raised about the extent of the university’s provision of staff training in extremism as well as their awareness of Abedi’s increasingly radical views, his frequent […]
Continue readingControversial group CAGE uses Facebook to ‘suggest’ advertisement
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 readingMitigating the Risks? Compliance with the Prevent Duty on Campus
In September 2015, universities became subject to the legal duty to have due regard for the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism mandated by the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was tasked with regulating this duty, and institutions were required to submit policies […]
Continue readingStudent Rights at Newcastle University
On Wednesday 8th March, Student Rights’ National Organiser, Elliot Miller, gave a presentation to Newcastle University’s Politics Society. The event provided a good chance for open and frank discussion on Prevent, the Government’s counter-radicalisation strategy, and there was a lot of time for an in-depth question and answer session with a broad range of opinions. […]
Continue readingNew report details student terrorism convictions
Yesterday’s publication of a new Henry Jackson Society report detailing all Islamist terrorism convictions in the UK between 1998 and 2015 provides the most comprehensive overview of the threat posed by Islamism-inspired terrorism to the UK. In its profiles of 258 individuals convicted of offences, ‘Islamist Terrorism: Analysis of Offences and Attacks in the UK […]
Continue reading