Author: Duncan Gardham
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: April 27, 2011
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8478975/University-campuses-are-hotbeds-of-Islamic-extremism.html
Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to
flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers say.
Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to
flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers said
yesterday.
Academics are turning a blind eye to radicals
because they do not want to spy on students, a report claimed.
Despite "damning evidence" of a
serious problem, little progress had been made in tackling the unsustainable
situation, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security said.
They urged the Government to tackle the issue
on campuses with "utmost urgency".
Such extremism "endangers our security
at home and has international implications that are serious enough to threaten
our alliance relationships", said the group, which includes the former
home secretary Lord Reid.
Secret files obtained by The Daily Telegraph
and WikiLeaks disclosed this week that at least 35 terrorists held at Guantánamo
Bay were indoctrinated by extremists in Britain.
The leaked documents, written by senior US
military commanders, illustrated how Britain effectively became a crucible
of terrorism over the course of two decades.
The parliamentary group was set up two years
ago to carry out research into homeland security issues.
Its inaugural report comes after a separate
inquiry by the umbrella organisation for universities earlier this year said
animal rights extremists posed a greater problem than Islamist radicals.
Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors,
said it could do very little about extremism on campus. Instead it issued
new guidance on the importance of freedom of speech. Their report followed
the attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a former student at University College
London, to blow himself up using a bomb in his underpants as a flight came
in to land at Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009.
Abdulmutallab, an engineering student, was
the Islamic Society president from 2006 to 2007.
The parliamentarians' report said Britain's
homeland security strategy failed to address in sufficient detail how to tackle
the threat of extremism at universities, how to strengthen businesses' ability
to deal with a terrorist attack and how to ensure security over the internet.
The report said some universities and colleges
had become sites where extremist religion and radicalism could flourish "beyond
the sight of academics".
They also noted that there was a "reluctance
to co-operate with the police on the part of some universities that did not
want to be seen to be 'spying' on their students".
The MPs and peers said universities presented
a "unique challenge". However, "in some cases [they] evidently
struggle to establish the correct balance between academic freedoms and university
authorities' responsibilities as part of ensuring homeland security."
In the report, entitled Keeping Britain Safe,
the MPs and peers said the problem of universities as places of radicalisation
required "urgent and sustained attention by the new Government".
Several witnesses had flagged up "serious
problems" evident in universities and the issue was of "grave concern."
The problems they cited included examples of extremist preachers being invited
on to campuses.
Abdulmutallab was only one in a long line
of university students to become involved in terrorism.
A recent survey found that 31 per cent of
those convicted of terrorist-related offences had attended university and
10 per cent were still students when they were arrested. Two of the July 7
bombers had been students.
Think tanks have highlighted a succession
of extremist speakers invited to deliver lectures unopposed at university
Islamic societies, including UCL.
Westminster University recently elected students
with links to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir as president and vice-president
of the student union.
The report also raised "significant concerns"
over unregulated foreign funding of universities. It said that, in many cases,
the funding had a political purpose and could have direct effects upon the
institutional structure, curriculum, appointments and the schedule of events.
The London School of Economics was among the
controversial recipients of foreign aid, accepting a donation of £1.5
million from a trust controlled by Col Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif.
The report quoted one witness, Prof Anthony
Glees, of Buckingham University, who said Arab and other foreign governments
had ploughed £240 million into Islamic studies courses at universities
over the past 10 years.
The report said the role of businesses in
preparing for emergencies such as terrorist attacks was "highly problematic".
The Government's new counter-terrorism strategy
will aim to "prevent the import and dissemination of extremist written
material and speech which promotes hatred" on campus, the report said.
"These are welcome initiatives which
must be implemented forcefully," the MPs added. "This complex subject
requires further attention. It has been an obvious and neglected problem for
too long and must be tackled as a matter of utmost urgency."
The report also found that the processes behind
the National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Strategic Defence and Security
Review (SDSR) were "deeply unsatisfactory".
"Too much was done in too little time,
consultations were not extensive enough and it presents a lost opportunity
for a sophisticated debate about internal and external defence," it said.
Bernard Jenkin, the group's chairman, said:
"The NSS and SDSR are not a satisfactory basis for the UK's homeland
security strategy for the next five years."
