The New Nation - Internet Edition

A Special Correspondent

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)