"Extremist Hate Preachers, pro-Jihad Activists, and Avowed anti-Semites" Talk the Talk on British Campuses

On Holocaust Memorial Day, Facebook friends of Mick Napier, verbose chief of chieftain the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, share an obnoxious cartoon popular with the Israel-demonising crowd.

For his part, Napier (current Facebook profile avowing "Working to boycott and isolate the genocidal State of Israel") has used Holocaust Memorial Day to push his anti-Israel message in posts and a live broadcast to followers, including one invoking Raphael Lemkin's definition of Genocide.

A follower runs with the theme of Israelis as deliberate perpetrators of genocide, and another, reflecting what has become commonplace in the anti-Israel movement, especially since the rise of Corbyn, is not shy about making antisemitic tropes:

To which the chief's observation is hardly an outright condemnation:

Meanwhile, Tomas Rowan, described as "with UNRWA as a United Nations Refugee Affairs Officer in Gaza during the First Intifada" whose "novel of that period A Bar Mitzvah At Arafat’s will be published this summer", is advocating adoption of an "anti-Palestinianism" declaration analogous to definitions of antisemitism.

And the London-based Henry Jackson Society has published a very revealing, very disturbing analysis of extremist speakers on campuses in the UK during the academic year 2017-18.

Inter alia:

'Extremist hate preachers, pro-jihad activists, and avowed anti-Semites have “near-unfettered” access to students. It catalogues 435 events promoted to students held over the last three academic years featuring elements of extremism – 16% of which took place at just one university.  The nationwide league table identified events promoted by university groups that have included: extremist or extremist-linked speakers, those that fundraised for extremist organisations, or included extremist content.

In September 2015 at a speech in Birmingham, then Prime Minister David Cameron ordered universities to stop providing extremists with “the oxygen they need to flourish” by hosting extreme speakers.  He cited 70 events featuring extremist-linked speakers that had occurred on campuses the previous academic year.  In spite of his warning, the University Extreme Speakers League Table discloses that more than 100 such events have been targeted at students in each and every year since.  In the 2017-18 academic year, the number of publicly promoted events increased by 87%, with 200 such events. The report warns that the true figure could be much higher, given it lists only publicly promoted events. 

Over the last three academic years, SOAS is the university which has hosted the most events promoted to students which feature extremist groups or speakers.  The university has repeatedly disputed that it is in breach of its Prevent duties and has seen 70 events promoted by student groups that feature extremist groups or speakers – 43 of which took place in the last year alone.  In the 2017-18 academic year, over 20% of all events featuring elements of extremism took place under its auspices.  SOAS, hosted over four times as many events as its closest rivals; King’s College London, Birmingham, and Queen Mary University.

Among the extremist speakers identified by the Henry Jackson Society are:

35 events featuring speakers from the pro-Jihad lobby group CAGE.  CAGE speakers include: Moazzam Begg who has praised Al-Qaeda figures and encouraged Muslims to travel to Syria; Shaker Aamer considered an Osama Bin Laden affiliate by the US Government; and Asim Qureshi who has promoted violent jihad, called Jihadi John a “beautiful young man”, and refused to condemn female genital mutilation.

4 of the 6 extremist speakers David Cameron warned universities not to host in 2015 have continued to speak at student events collectively making appearances in 54 student events over the past three years.  They are Hamza Tzortzis, Uthman Lateef, Haitham al-Haddad and Alomgir Ali.

Other radical Islamists among the almost 100 speakers identified include: Yahya al-Raaby who has called Shia Muslims “devils” and “rafida”; Yusuf Chambers who has advocated death for homosexuals;and Muhammed Taqi Usmani who has claimed that Islam allows slavery under certain conditions.

140 events featuring representatives of organisations linked to Haitham al-Haddad.  Al-Haddad is one of Britain’s most notorious extremist hate preachers who has sanctioned forms of female genital mutilation, child marriage, death for apostates and adulterers, and said that men who beat their wives should not be questioned.

The rankings also include appearances by the far-right extremist Tommy Robinson and noted anti-Semites including Jackie Walker, the former Vice-Chair of Momentum.The report argues that universities’ protocols for upholding the Government’s prevent strategy are “not fit for purpose”.'

Warning of an “industrial-scale failure by universities to apply their Prevent duties”, the report’s author highlights the apparent disparities between universities’ obligations under the law and the reality on the ground.  Universities have an obligation under the ‘Prevent duty’ enacted by the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (2015) to protect students from extremist speakers.  The rules were instituted by Theresa May during her tenure as Home Secretary. The Government’s guidance on the duty states:

“…when deciding whether or not to host a particular speaker, [universities] should consider carefully whether the views being expressed, or likely to be expressed, constitute extremist views that risk drawing people into terrorism or are shared by terrorist groups. In these circumstances the event should not be allowed to proceed except where [universities] are entirely convinced that such risk can be fully mitigated without cancellation of the event.” ....

(Emphasis added)

Read the entire article, with a list of the most affected campuses and accompanied by a video featuring the report's author Emma Fox, here.