The New Nation - Internet Edition

Perceive truth : Make others see

There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university t a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see." John Masefield, Poet Laureate.

They should be hotbeds of radical thought and free thinking, but with guidelines introduced recently on tackling extremism on campuses and recommendations that academics monitor students for signs of involvement in extremist activity or radicalisation, how far British universities can take pride in their tradition of academic freedom is of growing concern to academics, student bodies and students.

Little surprise, then, that The Muslim News' initiative on a 'Dialogue with politicians', jointly hosted by the Editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi, and Government Whip, Sadiq Khan MP, should attract an inquisitive and apprehensive crowd of predominantly young Muslims. Last month's dialogue featured Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities & Skills, John Denham, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Rob Wilson, and Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Innovation, Universities & Skills, Stephen Williams.

The reissuing of guidance to universities on tackling extremism on campus, 'Promoting good campus relations, fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism in Universities and Higher Education Colleges', was, with good cause, the main subject of the evening.

The Secretary of State was at pains to point out that the guidance was a necessary and desirable contribution to the state of campus relations and something requested by Higher Education (HE) bodies themselves as they struggle to prevent violent extremism from germinating in the relative security of Britain's universities. The need for the document was defended on grounds of its going beyond the emphasis on terrorism prevention to focus on the role of HE institutions in developing and sustaining the shared values that are fundamental to Britain's future as a multicultural society.

With growing numbers of students entering higher education in the UK - figures suggest that the introduction of variable fees has not thwarted the ambitions of those set on going to university from attaining their goal - the Government believes HE institutions play a critical role in the development and exercise of the shared values that underpin British society. It is the experience of questioning, debating, of open and free argument at university that provides a forum for the teaching and embracing of those values essential to peaceful coexistence and robust dialogue.

Laudable as these intentions are, Faisal Hanjra, Federation of Students' Islamic Societies representative, queried whether the Government in focussing on campuses was not overstating the issue and creating a problem where one did not actually exist. Raising the question of an earlier draft of the guidance document, which laid heavy emphasis on Muslim students, he claimed that the stigmatisation felt by Muslims at the disproportionate focus on them as a student group did much to undermine the very basis of good campus relations that the Government aimed to foster.

And criticising the Opposition Party's endorsement of a report authored by Director of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, Professor Anthony Glees, on campus extremism, Hanjra noted the weakness of both the report's content and its poor academic rigour. That the Opposition Party should make use of its findings to inform their own policies, was of some concern, Hanjra said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Ruhana Ali, Education and Welfare Officer at LSE Students Union, pointed out that the guidance document, with its mention of prayer rooms and the encouragement of Muslim women into leadership posts, could not defensibly be seen as a document that was applicable to all groups on campus in a fair and equal manner.

Rob Wilson, responding to a question on the published guidance, underlined the difficulty of evading the victimisation of Muslim students and achieving the goal of protecting both students and HE institutions. He acknowledged that there persisted a perception that Muslims were being singled out and that this would need to be addressed, though he admitted a considerable improvement in the published version over the earlier draft.

Stephen Williams added that the guidance document should be equally and robustly applied to all ideologies that made use of violent extremism as a means to their ends, including animal rights groups, if the perception of victimisation among Muslims was to be overcome.

While the threat assessment might indeed suggest that al-Qa'ida remains the Government's main concern as it works to "strengthen the resilience of communities against forces that would tear them apart, enabling them to resist extremist influence and root out terrorism," the balance it needs to strike between working with communities and not against them has not yet been reached it would seem.

Other issues raised during the evening included the responsibility of universities in meeting the needs of their diverse student populations. The panel was asked whether universities had a duty to provide prayer rooms, chaplains and halal meat for their Muslim students in keeping with recommendations made in a report authored by Dr Ataullah Siddiqui.

Rob Wilson in characteristic Conservative fashion took a free market approach, arguing that if universities hoped to attract Muslim students in our fee paying age, they needed to meet the needs of all their students.

Of equal concern to those present was the issue of low educational achievement by ethnic minority students and graduate unemployment in the minority communities.

The Secretary of State spelt out various initiatives that the Government is working on to widen the participation of students from underprivileged backgrounds.

He went on to argue that there was a lack of sufficient understanding as to why certain ethnic groups performed badly over all other groups when factors such as poverty and prior attainment were accounted for. The need to foster aspirations earlier on in the lives of children, from around 10 to 14 years of age, in order to ensure that the university option is one that is conceived early on, is among work being done to counter the disparity in levels of educational attainment across ethnic groups in Britain.

And on the matter of graduate unemployment, while national statistics suggest that graduates from ethnic groups perform reasonably well or better than their White British counterparts (75% of British Asian graduates are in employment within three years of graduation, while the figure is 74% for Whites and 67% for Blacks) the problem of high local unemployment among ethnic minority graduates is not known.

Stephen Williams pointed to the choice of institution and choice of degree programme as contributing factors to low levels of educational achievement and graduate unemployment in the minority communities. Building high aspirations in students from these communities is essential to countering these trends, he stated.

The whole session was masterfully chaired by Mehdi Hasan, an editor at Channel 4. His witty yet serious approach to the issues at hand, ensuring that awkward questions were given their due while never losing an opportunity to inject light humour into the evening's proceedings, was a welcome change from more overbearing Chairs.

If interest in British politics amongst the younger generation and participation in political debate with those elected to represent them is waning, initiatives such as this dialogue with political leaders is an important and rewarding step in the right direction. It is through forums such as these that politicians are more likely to win the hearts and minds of British Muslim citizens and strengthen their pride in and commitment to the democratic tradition.

(Source: Muslim News, London)

Between shrapnel and siege: The 'Holocaust’ of Gaza

Fatema G Valji

Israeli shelling and gunfire this month has killed over 100 Palestinians and wounded more than 250 others in the besieged Gaza Strip, while much of the world looks on in appeasement of Israeli vengeance.

The blitzkrieg was triggered by Palestinian rocket attacks killing one Israeli civilian in the border town of Siderot. The Israeli onslaught sweeping Gaza massacred 125 Palestinians, 95 of them civilians, many of whom were children, including babies. Two hundred Palestinians were injured, the majority of them civilians.

Israeli warning of the bloody scale of its offensive came early when Israel's Labour Deputy Defence Minister, Matan Vilnai, declared on February 29 that continuing Palestinian rocket fire would risk a "greater shoah" of the Palestinian people. Israeli officials later insisted that Vilnai warned of disaster in a generic sense, but the term is used in Hebrew circles almost solely to refer to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews in Europe.

Vilnai's chilling warning came two days after Israel launched its deadliest offensive this year on a Gazan population already beleaguered by a strangulating siege. On February 27, in retaliation to the first Israeli fatality by Palestinian rocket fire in 9 months, Israel escalated air attacks, bombing a military base in a civilian area in Khan Younis, killing 5 Hamas members and a six month old baby.

The next day, the Israeli Air Force rained fire near a playing field in northern Gaza, maiming and killing 3 children playing football and wounding 17 others, including 5 children and a baby aged 7 months. Two Palestinian farmers in northern Gaza were also killed when Israeli tanks shelled their farm, bringing the death toll to 11 within 24 hours. By February 29, the number of Palestinian dead reached 32, nine of them children.

Less than 24 hours after Vilnai alluded to a Palestinian "holocaust", Israeli ground troops, backed by warplanes, entered Gaza, leaving a bloodbath of 61 Palestinians dead, at least half of them civilians. In the heavily shelled town of Jabiliya, Palestinian families in underground shelters huddled together in fear of more missiles. As they mourned and buried their dead the next day, persisting air and ground assaults killed 5 more Palestinians, including 3 civilians, one of them a 21 month old baby. Hospitals in Gaza reported 155 Palestinians were injured in the attacks, 9 of them critically wounded.

By March 2, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel's 5-day assault had killed 107 Palestinians and injured 250. More than half the Palestinian casualties were children. Palestinian rocket attacks had killed two Israeli soldiers and one civilian. In a UN emergency session, UN Secretary General condemned Israeli attacks as a "disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children." He "called on Israel to cease such attacks."

However, precluding any possibility of a Security Council statement to this effect, spokesman for the veto wielding US, Gordon Johndroe, stated, "There is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and actions in self-defence."

The British response was only slightly less muted. On March 2, Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, released a statement condemning Palestinian rocket fire as "acts of terrorism" while stating "Israel's right to self-defence is clear and must be supported." His addendum, stating Israel must act "in accordance with international law, minimising the suffering of innocent civilians," clearly stopped short of condemnation.

By contrast, other countries took a less disquiet stance, with even pro-western countries, like Jordan, condemning the Israeli onslaught as a "flagrant violation" of international law. Turkey, Israel's closest Middle East ally, also denounced Israeli attacks stating there was "no humanitarian justification" for the killing of civilians and children.

Rejecting international criticism, Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, vowed on March 2, that, "We will operate with force to change the situation and we will change it." Israel's withdrawal of ground troops and pause in air attacks on March 3 merely indicated a temporary lull in Operation Warm Winter, before an armoured contingent of 25 tanks rolled into southern Gaza the next day.

Hours later, as part of her 3-day visit to the Middle East, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Ramallah urging the resumption of peace talks suspended days earlier by the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas in protest over the large civilian death toll. As Rice met Prime Minister Olmert for dinner, the clashes and shelling in Gaza injured 8 militants and 3 civilians while a ricocheting bullet killed a 1 month old baby.

In talks with both sides, Rice exerted little pressure on Israel to end its deadly onslaught. While she urged caution on the Israeli side, her focus in discussions with Palestinian negotiators Ahmed Qurei and Sa'ab Erakat was to secure Abbas' unconditional agreement to resume negotiations initiated by the Annapolis Conference late last year. Since post-Annapolis talks began, 323 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.

While Palestinian rocket attacks have been largely subdued since March 3, an attack by a lone gunman on a Rabbanical seminary in Jerusalem - which is associated with the illegal settler movement in the West Bank - on March 7 killed 8 Israeli students. Prior to this, Palestinian rocket attacks had killed one Israeli soldier and two civilians since late February. Israel refuses to end its offensive while threatened by rocket attacks; in the last 7 years, Palestinian rockets have killed 14 Israelis. According to Geoffery Binder, a legal expert in international humanitarian law, "What we're dealing with here is a few rockets coming from presumably one small corner of Gaza. And the response is the blockade and the destruction of hundreds of lives and the impoverishment of the whole area."

Further fuelling Palestinian frustration, Olmert recently authorised the illegal construction of 750 new homes in Givat Zeev in the Occupied West Bank. Currently, more than 280,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the West Bank; this does not include settlers who live in over 100 outposts constructed by Israelis without certification from the Israeli Government.

Approximately 200,000 illegal settlers live in Occupied East Jerusalem. All settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories are illegal under international law.

According to the head of the Israeli group, Peace Now, "This is a scandalous decision that will affect the negotiations with the Palestinians…This government, which has pledged to dismantle settlements, has done nothing but reinforce them."

Meanwhile, Gaza remains enmeshed between conflict and siege. Due to Israel's devastating blockade, Gaza is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis since Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, according to a recent report by 8 British NGOs, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Save the Children.

According to the March report, severe food shortages, extreme limitations on movement, and the collapse of healthcare, sewage and water systems have made everyday life a wretched misery for Gaza's 1.4 million people.

The embargo has crippled the Gaza's economy leaving unemployment sky high and 1.1 million people in Gaza dependent on food aid. While decades of sanctions and occupation have caused a "long pattern of deterioration," due to the tightening of the Israeli blockade in recent months, Gaza is on the verge of a "humanitarian implosion."

The report warns that the entire infrastructure of Gaza is in meltdown. Without sufficient fuel for sewage treatment, streets in Gaza have become open flooding sewers, hazarding the health of ordinary Gazans. Failing water systems limit access to clean drinking water.

Daily power cuts of 8-12 hours have made hospitals dysfunctional. Moreover, 18 percent of Gazans requiring medical treatment outside of Gaza have been refused exit permits. According to medical sources, 107 Palestinian patients have died because access to hospital treatment outside Israel has been denied.

Director of the UN Relief and Works Agency, John Ging, warns that further military action in Gaza would be catastrophic for a humanitarian situation already in crisis. "The whole situation is in a state of collapse, whether its water, sanitation or just medical services…If there's a further military offensive, it will just add or compound an already desperate situation."

(Source: Muslim News, London)

Western perceptions of Islam challenged

Karin Zeitvogel

Washington-A huge survey of the world's Muslims released late last month [Feb. 26] challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence.

Conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, the survey seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force behind radicalism.

It shows that an overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks.

Dalia Mogadeh, director of the Gallup Centre for Muslim Studies and co-author of the book "Who Speaks for Islam?" which grew out of the study, quoted Samuel Harris in the Washington Times from 2004 who said: "It is time we admitted that we are not at war with terrorism. We are at war with Islam." Ms Mogadeh told a Washington press conference that "the argument Mr. Harris makes is that religion in the primary driver" of radicalism and violence. "Religion is an important part of life for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and if it were indeed the driver for radicalisation, this would be a serious issue," she continued.

But Mogadeh went on to stress that the Gallup study, which claims to have surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world's Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity "does not translate into widespread support for terrorism."

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.

In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming numbers said religion was a very important part of their lives, including: 99 per cent in Indonesia, 98 per cent in Egypt, 95 per cent in Pakistan. And only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed - those identified as radicals-condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.

Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed.

"Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Quran-for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity," she said.

Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.

The survey shows radicals to be neither more religious than their moderate counterparts, nor products of abject poverty or refugee camps.

"The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims," said John Esposito, who with Ms Mogadeh co-authored "Who Speaks for Islam?"

"Ironically, they believe in democracy even more than many of the mainstream moderates do, but they're more cynical about whether they'll ever get it," added Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington.

Gallup launched the study following 9/11, when U.S. President George W. Bush asked in a speech (which is quoted in the book), "Why do they hate us?" Bush tried to answer his own rhetorical question by saying, "They hate t a democratically elected government. They hate our freedoms-our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

But the poll, which gives ordinary Muslims a voice in the global debate that they have been drawn into by 9/11, showed that most Muslims- including radicals-admire the West for its democracy, freedoms and technological prowess. What they do not want is to have Western ways forced on them.

"Muslims want self-determination, but not an American-imposed and [American-]defined democracy. They don't want secularism or theocracy. What the majority wants is democracy with religious values," said Esposito.

Co-author Mogadeh said that the poll "has given voice to Islam's silent majority t A billion Muslims should be the ones that we look to, to understand what they believe, rather than a vocal minority."

Muslims in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East were interviewed for the survey, which is part of Gallup's World Poll that aims to interview 95 percent of the world's population.

(This article was edited for the Canadian Islamic Congress Friday Magazine.)