Preaching Hate

Here's a very disturbing article which appeared in The Times the other day about the vile activities of 'hate preachers and Islamist clerics' - in and around UK universities.

But what disturbed me most of all was the craven 'no comment' from the National Union of Students (NUS) - is that what our country's students are made of these days?

Because I would certainly have expected the NUS to have an organised presence at  all such events to oppose this kind of nonsense - and prevent the religious bullies and zealots from getting their way.

Extremists preaching to students in Britain

By Nico Hines

Radical and intolerant Islamist leaders preached to crowds of students at almost 200 official events in the past year, according to a study of external speakers at universities including Cambridge, Birmingham and University College London.

Segregated seating for male and female students is understood to have been implemented for at least a quarter of those public meetings held by the Islamic societies at 21 universities.

Two institutions have announced investigations into segregated meetings. But research by Student Rights, which was set up to tackle extremism on campus, indicates that the practice is prevalent across Britain, despite university equality rules forbidding it.

A new generation of extremist speakers inspired by radical clerics such as Abu Qatada, Anwar al-Awlaki and Abu Hamza al-Masri are touring campuses to spread their interpretation of Islam.

Some speakers have a history of misogyny, promoting violence against homosexuals and advocating jihad against non-Muslims. “Clearly, there’s a failing in our higher-education system,” said Anthony Glees, an intelligence and security expert consulted by the All-Party Parliamentary Homeland Security Group. “We can, and should, stop radicalisation on campus by extremists who believe in segregation, otherwise more students and graduates will eventually embrace terror. Terrorists are not born, they are made.”

The study of events promoted to students by union-affiliated societies included 180 at 60 institutions with speakers who had “a history of extreme or intolerant views” in the year until March. More than a quarter of those events are thought to have been segregated, according to researchers, who logged cases of explicit or implied separation of the sexes.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for higher education, does not intervene or set guidelines on segregation or extremist teachings on campus.

“If the university is organising an event with segregated seating that would be an issue for them,” a spokesman said. “We wouldn’t want to be seen as getting in the way of how they operate on a day-to-day basis.”

One of the most prolific of these radicals is a compelling and good-looking young speaker called Hamza Tzortzis. The former member of Hizb ut-Tahrir can now boast membership of two proscribed organisations after his Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) was banned by UCL last month when segregation was enforced at one of its events. An iERA speaking tour of Britain included more than 40 campus visits, but it is unknown how many more were compulsorily segregated.

Mr Tzortzis, who is said to have featured on a British YouTube channel followed by the Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has criticised gay-rights activists and favours the introduction of a brutal system of sharia. He is publicly opposed to what he regards as Western concepts of liberty. “We as Muslims reject the idea of freedom of speech, and even the idea of freedom,” he has said.

The right to freedom of speech on university campuses, which was enshrined in the Education Act of 1986, however, has allowed him to speak to thousands of young students.

The University of Cambridge, where he appeared in February, said that the authorities would interfere in student events only if the law were being broken. “There’s complete freedom for students to invite who they want,” a spokesman said. “We wouldn’t impose a policy on \.” Many other universities said that they had banned the segregation of students, in line with their own equality and diversity policies.

But Raheem Kassam, the director of Student Rights, said that universities needed to do more to end the practice. “I am distraught that, in the 21st century, British university campuses can be used to segregate and denigrate women,” he said. “The acceptance of segregation on campuses is a far more serious issue than previously thought.”

Segregation is commonplace in mosques and Islamic prayer rooms, as it is in some Orthodox synagogues. To enforce it in non-religious public places could be in contravention of equality legislation.

The National Union of Students did not respond to requests for comment. However, a spokesman for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies said that universities should not interfere unless women complained. “As long as both genders see this as an aspect of practising their faith, I think they should be free to practise their faith in any way. If that includes segregation then so be it,” he said.