Campusalam

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There are conflicting views over the nature and the extent of ‘radicalisation’ or recruitment to extremism on campus. Some have argued that it is pervasive, persistent and a serious threat. Others warn against over-reactions and the dangers of restricting civil liberties or encouraging suspicion and division in the campus community.

Anthony Glees and Chris Pope in When Students Turn To Terror: Terrorist and Extremist Activity on British Campuses (2005) claim that extremism on UK campuses is widespread and underestimated. Their recommendations include interviewing of students before admission, capping the number of black and minority ethnic students admitted, and banning faith societies on campus. The report and its proposals have met with fierce criticism, above all from other academics and university senior managers. Not merely its findings and recommendations but its methodology has been exposed to severe criticism, as tendentious and poorly-researched.

In Islam on Campus. Teaching Islamic Studies at Higher Education Institutions in the UK, from the University of Edinburgh (authored by Yasir Suleiman and Ayman Shihadeh) see here a consortium of academics disputed any suggestion that there were grounds for concern within the curriculum of Islamic Studies itself. There is as yet no evidence that ‘radicalisation’ happens from within university teaching of Islam, whatever the approach or the views of lecturers.

The majority view is that the problem must be taken seriously but is not at crisis point. There is considerable opposition to the idea that university staff should monitor students for their religious or political beliefs or activities; particularly if it is suggested that Asian or Muslim students should come under more scrutiny than others. A commonly held view is that every counter-terrorist strategy comes with a cost; one cost being that increased pressure and suspicion actually feeds radicalisation by encouraging an ‘us-them’ mentality, a perception that the authorities are hostile, and that ‘the system’ is loaded against Muslims.