Wednesday, June 8, 2011

UK Universities on Trial for Incubating Radicals

You knew as soon as that report came out about British universities being breeding grounds for Islamic extremism there would be grumblings from those with a vested interest in quelling fears re said radicalism. Writing in the Telegraph, though, Anthony Glees submits evidence testifying to the report's veracity:
No evidence? Within a couple of years of leaving Leeds Metropolitan University, Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the group responsible for the July 7 bombings, began training for terror. Since then, virtually every major British terrorist attack has been led by students or graduates. The list of universities they came from makes horrifying reading: Leicester, Luton, Brighton, Glasgow Metropolitan, UCL, the LSE, the University of Westminster, Brunel and others.
It is just over a year since Roshanara Choudhry, 21, a student of English at King’s College London, almost succeeded in assassinating the MP Stephen Timms. Given a life sentence, she said that she did not recognise the jurisdiction of English courts. A year earlier, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a student at University College London between 2005 and 2008, was arrested for attempting to blow up an American passenger jet with 289 people on board. Just a couple of months ago, we learnt that the “Stockholm bomber” of December 2010, Taimur al-Abdaly, was a graduate of Luton University. The other day we were told that two students linked to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir were elected to Westminster University’s student union, following similar elections at City University.
In short, this isn’t about a lack of evidence; it’s about a lack of courage in confronting reality. There is a consensus within British universities that makes many lecturers all too willing accomplices to radicalisation: dons’ own political preferences, combined with a desperate wish to retain their cushy jobs, mean they are quick to produce research that substantiates the theory that radicalisation doesn’t exist.
And despite claiming to support free speech, they tend to despise those who don’t agree with them...
The M.O. is the same both here and abroad: they do support free speech--their own. Others are required to button it lest something politically incorrect/"offensive" slip out.

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