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Still A Cause For Optimism? |
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Written by Hassan Choudhury
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By all accounts it has been a tough year for the Muslim community but spare a thought for Muslim students who make up an estimated ninety thousand out of just over five million students in the UK. They will not only pave the way for the next generation of students they will also form the next generation of doctors, engineers, teachers, fathers, mothers and future leaders in our community. They represent our future and for this and many other reasons they inevitably shoulder the hopes of the Ummah. However in the aftermath of the 2005 London bombings they bore the brunt of increasing pressure. Government ministers, academics, think tanks and the national press have all contributed to ensure that this unique segment of the Islamic community has been pushed back on the defensive. With the end of March marking the annual National Union of Students (NUS) Conference and with it the end of student electioneering for the year, it seems there is no better time to assess and evaluate the progress and prospects for Muslim students in the UK and if, indeed, there is any room for optimism.
It would be understandable if Muslims returning to university last year were apprehensive after 7/7. Sensational media coverage was endemic and rumours had spread before term of MI5 and Special Branch preparing to monitor Student Islamic Societies (or Isocs). So when Education Minister Ruth Kelly called for University Vice-Chancellors to curb extremism and 'unacceptable behaviour' on campus last September some students interpreted it as short-hand for spying.
Professor Anthony Glees, Director of the Brunel Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies at Brunel University is held largely responsible for stoking the fire with a report, co-written with Chris Pope, entitled 'When Students Turn to Terror: Terrorist and Extremist Activity on British Campuses' (or just 'the Glees report'). Published by The Social Affairs Unit the day after Kelly's speech, it claimed extremism was rife in thirty-one universities in the UK of which twenty-four were 'Islamist', the rest BNP or Animal Liberation. The report suggested combating this menace via the stationing of police on campuses and argued for replacing UCAS clearing, a process that matches students to university campus courses, with individual screening interviews. It suggested direct links between university registrars and immigration officers at ports of entry. The report also called for the closure of faith-based societies and even recommended authorities "(e)nsure that the ethnic composition of any single university reflect broadly the ethnic mix of the UK as a whole"; currently near eight percent. Many though have noticed the report fails to answer what would happen to students in those universities with ethnic populations upwards of that figure. Some routinely host a fifty percent ethnic population, other higher. Will we witness thousands of 'ethnic' students losing their degrees if unwilling to leave?
There is some relief to be found in the fact that the 'Glees report' is replete with errors and based purely on anecdotal evidence. Glees and Pope both shoot themselves in their proverbial feet when they admit thirty pages into their own report that:
"At present however no one in the security community knew (sic) whether particular universities are hotbeds of extremism or have any reliable means of finding out"
And on page 107:
"Of course, we cannot know because we are not able to find out precisely what goes on in student clubs and societies, whether official or unofficial".
Despite these glaring flaws the findings were reported on The Guardian front page and praised by the Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell MP. The report was rubbished soon after but the damage was already done.
It was only in February we gained confirmation that Muslim students were being spied upon with the revelation that The Daily Mail had been offering bribes to students willing to earn a little extra cash but it was clear it had all started much earlier. Once news spread that MI5 had approached Manchester University Isoc for a list of their members last September (they refused) there was a palpable sense of anxiety at Freshers' Fayres, where societies sign up new members. I attended the LSE Freshers' Fayre only to watch firsthand as an undercover BBC reporter was ejected for filming Muslims without their knowledge, let alone consent, on his hidden camcorder all the while asking questions about how to "join the jihad". Soon Muslim students were refusing to sign up to the Isocs across the UK as some students spoke of fearing for their careers and future prospects.
Isocs are of course custodians of the prayer room (known as the 'PR'), the jumm'ah (Friday congregational prayer) and are vehicles for Muslim student representation at a local level. They have a pastoral role ensuring Muslims have a community to welcome, befriend and support them. The role of Isocs in spreading a good image of Islam and looking after Muslim interests cannot be understated but this year they have often had to cope with the deliberate and manipulative targeting of the one facility they cannot afford to lose - the PR itself.
University prayer rooms are not just where prayers take place. They are a quiet location for contemplation, rest, meetings, circles or even just basic storage of belongings. The PRs are institutions in themselves but many Isocs have faced the threat of losing them altogether.
Middlesex University, with thousands of Muslims, had its Enfield campus PR reduced to a hut with space for no more than eight people. A Greenwich University PR was re-designated as a storeroom and completely filled with boxes. The School of Pharmacy lost its PR completely. It is true that such antagonism is nothing new but it has always been on an isolated basis. Muslims at UCL have for years only had access to an 'all-faith' prayer hut with enough space to cram three lines of eight brothers each and a requirement not to mill around outside it. The Isoc of Queen Mary College, in London's East End only won its PR back a few years ago after their outdoor jumm'ah also became a protest. And at the Strand campus of Kings College, London a sign hangs prominently in the PR, year after year, announcing the censorship of any discussion or leafleting without prior approval, by order of the Dean.
However this year is different. The attacks on PRs by University authorities have been concerted and the excuses have always been the same i.e. "we are a secular institution". Quite why this pretext would prevent the provision of a room to Muslim students is anyone's guess. Some have speculated the parroting of the same words by multiple universities illustrates there has been more than a little co-ordination to the closures. Imperial College, London is a case-in-point as it used the same excuse to deny its Isoc a guaranteed space for its jumm'ah despite a regular attendance of around three hundred. Instead the Isoc has had to endure a lottery of booking one of two rooms large enough. Predictably the congregation has been forced to pray outdoors in the cold on the lawn and seen numbers dwindle in response. Later the same institute blazed into infamy when it decided to ban the niqab (a face veil worn by some Muslim women) for 'security reasons' a decision since overturned.
Imperial Isoc bravely held a public meeting late last year on the issue of the detention of Babar Ahmad, an alumnus and former member of staff, under the 2003 UK-US Extradiction Treaty despite not breaking any UK laws. It was addressed by Stop Political Terror, Islamic Human Rights Commission and Babar's father. However the impact of Imperial College's belligerence towards its Muslim populace became apparent as students from Imperial spoke of a fear of demonstrating for him after jumm'ah since those facilities were already demonstrably under threat. In the same meeting some called for demonstrating much later to disguise any link between Babar's case and the jumm'ah prayer.
There has been some recovery of the lost facilities but only through determination and a lot of campaigning unfortunately the losses have not ended there. Other attacks have been just as stinging. Once UCL Hospital Trust announced a new dress-code for women that excluded the jilbab (a bulky, draping overgarment) as a health risk at least half a dozen Muslim women have had to withdraw from their nursing degrees as a result.
Consider also the case of Nasser Amin, a postgraduate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (SOAS) who wrote an article in the school magazine 'Spirit'. It was written in response to the issue before where Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson had argued that western hatred of Islam was largely the consequence of the decisions of Muslims not least the failure to categorically condemn violence and specifically Palestinian violence against innocents. Amin's rejoinder was to argue that blaming the weaker victim for Islamophobia was morally equivalent to blaming black Africans for Apartheid. Regrettably his response was met with a witch hunt with several death threats on Zionist websites and condemnation in The Times, The Guardian, The Observer and The Jerusalem Post. Melanie Phillips of The Daily Mail renamed SOAS 'The School of Orchestrated Anti-Semitism' and called for his arrest. David Winnick MP called in the Commons for his prosecution. Soon the SOAS Director, Colin Bundy, under pressure decided to censure Amin. Outrageously this was without a formal disciplinary hearing and despite SOAS holding shares in arms companies who were selling weapons to the Israeli Defence Force at the time.
It has not only affected Muslim students. Keith Shilson, President of Middlesex University Students' Union, followed the democratic mandate of his students to organise an open Question and Answer session with the Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir. However he was warned by the University to cease and desist. When Shilson refused he was suspended scant months from the end of his course, escorted from campus and forced to sign a grovelling apology or risk losing his degree entirely.
The tension has even escalated beyond University campuses with the case of the 'Matthew Boulton Two' - two A-Level students from Birmingham who, saddened at the college's ban on religious societies, decided to produce their own newsletter on the topic. Even though they distributed copies outside the college gates they were permanently excluded in January and may not gain a university place as a result.
There were many more incidents in a very troubling year for Muslim students and we must remember that such experiences can only adversely affect them. We, the wider community, then have to consider if we should take the time to support and guide them in through what has been a difficult period for us all.
If we are to assist then perhaps the greatest single thing that could be fostered is unity, just as in any other Muslim community today. There has long been a realisation that we are stronger together as a unified whole as personified by the overwhelming response to the Islam Channel's Global Peace and Unity Conference earlier this year.
However it is here that there is most cause for optimism with regards to Muslim students who are growing daily in their appreciation of the benefits and advantages of working together. There are still anti-Islamic voices on campus including the Zionist, pro-choice and pro-gay lobbies but the external pressures have led to Muslims directing their energies towards defending Islam from the propaganda of being inherently violent, anti-women or blindly bigoted regarding homosexuals.
There is also a massive increase in political engagement by Muslims. Even though results at this years NUS Annual Conference in Blackpool did not all go the way Muslims would have liked (the new NUS National President has been labelled pro-Zionist by many of her own supporters) the Muslim delegation led by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) was the largest single deputation. From a delegation of 'a few Muslims standing alone at the back of the hall' a few years ago, Muslim delegates now numbered around one hundred and twenty (out of an estimate of a thousand delegates in total) outnumbering all other single factions. Previous NUS Presidents include Jack Straw MP, Charles Clarke MP and Trevor Phillips so NUS political life is hugely important and this year Muslims continued to progress politically winning positions on both the Steering Committee and National Executive for the second year running. This is a sign of the robust presence of Muslims in student politics and a tangible product of the unity within the Muslim student body but there is still some way to go yet before we can feel fully optimistic about the prospects of this exceptional community. The infighting and bickering of the past appears to have largely been renounced by those eager to advance the interests of Muslims and of Islam. The University of Brighton, for example, has a Muslim soc instead of an Isoc in order to prevent arguments about what Islam is (or is not) but some small pockets of apathy and division remain.
If the wider community decides to support Muslim students the focus must be three-fold. We must fund them adequately, cultivate a sense of harmony and also promote greater engagement at a time when Muslim voices have to be ever-louder. After all, if Muslim students continue striving for Islam, speaking the truth and working together than the Ummah can rest safe knowing it will leave its future in dependable hands.
Hassan Choudhury
About the Author
Hassan Choudhury, writer and author, specialises on issues of belief, identity and the battle for Muslim hearts and minds. He is now a presenter of 'Ummah Talk' on Islam Channel (www.islamchannel.tv).
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