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 […]
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Student Rights at the University of Westminster
Last night, Student Rights’ Director, Rupert Sutton, spoke at the University of Westminster at an event asking whether students should “promote or prevent the Prevent Strategy”. Appearing alongside Abdullah Al-Andalusi and Jahangir Mohammed, as well as University of Westminster lecturer Dr. Dibyesh Anand, he addressed the clear need for Prevent and sought to challenge the […]
Continue readingWestminster student named in Islamic State documents
Last week saw the publication of thousands of Islamic State (IS) documents reveal the name of another student from the University of Westminster who had travelled to Syria to fight alongside the terrorist group. The Telegraph has reported that the files include the details of 18 year old Mohammed Jackir Ali, who dropped out of […]
Continue readingStudent Voice: Hamza Tzortzis at UKC
President of the University of Kent ASH Society, Peter Keeling, gives his take on seeing Hamza Tzortzis appear on campus following Gino Ragnoli’s blog on Tzortzis’ Leicester appearance. All views are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of Student Rights… Hamza’s Tzortzis’ talk, entitled ‘YOLO’, was given to a well-attended lecture theatre, although […]
Continue readingNew Student Rights briefing details campus antisemitism
While isolated claims of antisemitism have long been made on UK campuses, the issue was recently brought to the forefront of the public debate by allegations made against members of the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC). While the scale of these allegations was shocking, Student Rights has long argued that antisemitism is a serious problem […]
Continue readingAntisemitism accusations dog SU election at LSE
Last month, we reported on the serious allegations of antisemitism made against members of Oxford University Labour Club (OULC). At the time, we argued this problem was not isolated to one university or student society, citing our reports of antisemitism on campus over the years, and we have since released a briefing detailing further examples […]
Continue readingMuslim 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 […]
Continue readingStudent Voice: Hamza Tzortzis at the University of Leicester
The argument often used when extreme or intolerant speakers appear on campus is that it exposes their views to challenge from students, but in our experience this doesn’t happen often enough. Here, Gino Ragnoli, Treasurer of the University of Leicester Atheist, Humanist and Secular Society, details his attempts to do so when Hamza Tzortzis appeared […]
Continue readingConcerns over ‘antisemitic’ play at York highlight wider issue
Update 05/04/2016: The risk assessment carried out by YUSU, obtained by a Freedom of Information request, has been seen by Student Rights, and it is worrying that no formal assessment of the play’s content appears to have been carried out. The student union assessment does not factor in the allegations of antisemitism surrounding the play, […]
Continue readingDiscover Islam Week and IERA
In the years Student Rights has been logging on-campus events featuring speakers with a history of extreme or intolerant views, February has stood out as one of the busiest months. This appears to be in part due to the popularity of ‘Discover Islam Weeks’ during this month; the sheer number of events providing such speakers […]
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