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: Preventing Prevent: Challenges to Counter-Radicalisation Policy On Campus
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 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 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 reading‘Students not Suspects’ continues to work with CAGE
Yesterday, the government launched its Counter-Extremism Strategy, which included the expectation that the National Union of Students (NUS) “avoid providing a platform for extremist speakers”. This follows a week in which NUS officers have toured the country spreading misinformation about Prevent, and shared platforms with a CAGE official at a number of events. They have […]
Continue readingGovernment 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 readingHeriot-Watt blog highlights student misperceptions
In July, Student Rights’ new report ‘Preventing Prevent? Challenges to Counter-Radicalisation Policy on Campus’ highlighted how misunderstandings were driving student opposition to the Prevent strategy. A blog posted over the weekend by Heriot-Watt University Student Union (HWUSU) demonstrates many of these fallacies, and shows the extent to which students have failed to understand the policy […]
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 […]
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