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Islamophobia" reaches new heights: Muslim students being monitored
By Hasnain KhatauIslam Times - "Islamophobia" is a great concern in the UK, more so in the education system. Some cases have come up in the past few years of Muslim students being discriminated against especially in universities. In this analysis, I will point out recent events at the University of Nottingham and you can be the judge...
Islam Times: Nottingham University officials filmed Muslim students on campus as a method of monitoring “extremists” in the wake of the arrests of innocent Muslim students three years ago, it has emerged.
President of Federation of Student’s Islamic Societies, Nabil Ahmed, described the disclosure by Unileaks as an outrage . “Claims that the University of Nottingham films students - secretly or otherwise - is outrageous and is a new low in the university’s mismanagement of the ‘Nottingham Two’ debacle. That the university filmed issues relating to Palestine and the Middle East demonstrates exactly who the university was seeking to target,” Ahmed said.
In a statement to The Muslim News a spokesperson for students campaign SWAN (Support the Whistleblower At Nottingham), Sam Walton, warned of the dangers of such unfettered spying. “These leaks show how everything can and does go wrong when a brand conscious university is left to deal with security issues such as terrorism. What’s more this case highlights how a leading British university can act with impunity on such a sensitive issue.”
A group of students and alumni teamed up with the whistleblowing website Unileaks to publish over 200 internal University of Nottingham and Government documents.The cache of documents includes highly sensitive material, for example, from the Met Police Special Branch, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Home Office and Dept for Universities (BIS) and others.
Pictures have also emerged of student protesters being filmed covertly by University security.Unileaks published documents detailing the extents of techniques being deployed to monitor Muslim students four days after the Government published its Prevent terrorism strategy.
The material released on June 12 chronicles the consequences of the May 2008 arrest by counter-terrorism officers of Nottingham students Rizwaan Sabir and of Hicham Yezza.
Sabir had downloaded an al Qa’ida training manual as part of research for a dissertation, and had sought Yezza’s help in drafting a PhD proposal because of his position as editor of a political magazine. Although campaigners say the manual was available in the university’s own library and that versions are available from retailers Blackwell, Waterstone and Amazon, university officials alerted the police as part of Government’s Prevent Violent Extremism strategy on campuses.
Although both were released without charge six days later, the Unileaks documents reveal that the arrests were cited in a report by the Home Office, called Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain: Uncovering the Global Network.
The university also kept a log of Middle East-related activities on campus.
Entitled ‘Events on Campus’ the list included details of talks and seminars revolving around Palestine, anti-terrorism and Middle Eastern arts and “events organised by the academic centre for Social and Global Justice.”
A spokesman for the University admitted to The Muslim News that staff filmed demonstrations “on some occasions…in the event of any problems or issues arising that need to be followed up afterwards. No footage has been retained of any protests, nor has any footage of any individual student been retained or passed on to any other organisation. It is worth noting that when demonstrations take place on campus, members of university staff are routinely filmed by those taking part in the demonstrations.”
He added: “The University is not ‘watching’ any students and we do not share student information with the police or Government agencies.”
Staff and students who supported Yezza and Sabir were logged by a Whitehall counter-terrorism unit called the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), which is embedded in the Government’s Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism.
Last month, Nottingham University lecturer Dr Rod Thornton was suspended for writing an article for the British International Studies Association criticising the university’s treatment of the men. Dr Thornton alleged the university “refused to apologise to the men” and attempted to smear them.
“Untruth piled on untruth until a point was reached where the Home Office itself farcically came to advertise the case as a ‘major Islamist plot’,” he wrote.
The university responded by suspending Dr Thornton. That prompted an international outcry in which 67 academics, including the renowned US scholar Noam Chomsky, demanded his “immediate reinstatement”. The group described the original arrests as “indicative of a growing tide of Islamophobia”.
Why is it that in our so called civilized society, individuals are being sidelined due to their appearances, faith and racial background? If we are to progress in this World, the West must learn to look beyond "labels" and get rid of this so called "Islamophobia".
© Islam Times
By Hasnain KhatauIslam Times - "Islamophobia" is a great concern in the UK, more so in the education system. Some cases have come up in the past few years of Muslim students being discriminated against especially in universities. In this analysis, I will point out recent events at the University of Nottingham and you can be the judge...
Islam Times: Nottingham University officials filmed Muslim students on campus as a method of monitoring “extremists” in the wake of the arrests of innocent Muslim students three years ago, it has emerged.
President of Federation of Student’s Islamic Societies, Nabil Ahmed, described the disclosure by Unileaks as an outrage . “Claims that the University of Nottingham films students - secretly or otherwise - is outrageous and is a new low in the university’s mismanagement of the ‘Nottingham Two’ debacle. That the university filmed issues relating to Palestine and the Middle East demonstrates exactly who the university was seeking to target,” Ahmed said.
In a statement to The Muslim News a spokesperson for students campaign SWAN (Support the Whistleblower At Nottingham), Sam Walton, warned of the dangers of such unfettered spying. “These leaks show how everything can and does go wrong when a brand conscious university is left to deal with security issues such as terrorism. What’s more this case highlights how a leading British university can act with impunity on such a sensitive issue.”
A group of students and alumni teamed up with the whistleblowing website Unileaks to publish over 200 internal University of Nottingham and Government documents.The cache of documents includes highly sensitive material, for example, from the Met Police Special Branch, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Home Office and Dept for Universities (BIS) and others.
Pictures have also emerged of student protesters being filmed covertly by University security.Unileaks published documents detailing the extents of techniques being deployed to monitor Muslim students four days after the Government published its Prevent terrorism strategy.
The material released on June 12 chronicles the consequences of the May 2008 arrest by counter-terrorism officers of Nottingham students Rizwaan Sabir and of Hicham Yezza.
Sabir had downloaded an al Qa’ida training manual as part of research for a dissertation, and had sought Yezza’s help in drafting a PhD proposal because of his position as editor of a political magazine. Although campaigners say the manual was available in the university’s own library and that versions are available from retailers Blackwell, Waterstone and Amazon, university officials alerted the police as part of Government’s Prevent Violent Extremism strategy on campuses.
Although both were released without charge six days later, the Unileaks documents reveal that the arrests were cited in a report by the Home Office, called Islamist Terrorist Plots in Great Britain: Uncovering the Global Network.
The university also kept a log of Middle East-related activities on campus.
Entitled ‘Events on Campus’ the list included details of talks and seminars revolving around Palestine, anti-terrorism and Middle Eastern arts and “events organised by the academic centre for Social and Global Justice.”
A spokesman for the University admitted to The Muslim News that staff filmed demonstrations “on some occasions…in the event of any problems or issues arising that need to be followed up afterwards. No footage has been retained of any protests, nor has any footage of any individual student been retained or passed on to any other organisation. It is worth noting that when demonstrations take place on campus, members of university staff are routinely filmed by those taking part in the demonstrations.”
He added: “The University is not ‘watching’ any students and we do not share student information with the police or Government agencies.”
Staff and students who supported Yezza and Sabir were logged by a Whitehall counter-terrorism unit called the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), which is embedded in the Government’s Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism.
Last month, Nottingham University lecturer Dr Rod Thornton was suspended for writing an article for the British International Studies Association criticising the university’s treatment of the men. Dr Thornton alleged the university “refused to apologise to the men” and attempted to smear them.
“Untruth piled on untruth until a point was reached where the Home Office itself farcically came to advertise the case as a ‘major Islamist plot’,” he wrote.
The university responded by suspending Dr Thornton. That prompted an international outcry in which 67 academics, including the renowned US scholar Noam Chomsky, demanded his “immediate reinstatement”. The group described the original arrests as “indicative of a growing tide of Islamophobia”.
Why is it that in our so called civilized society, individuals are being sidelined due to their appearances, faith and racial background? If we are to progress in this World, the West must learn to look beyond "labels" and get rid of this so called "Islamophobia".
© Islam Times