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Issue 211, Friday 24 November 2006 - 4 Dhu al-Qa'dah 1427 Witch hunt at universities At the time of going to press, there was grave concern about the Government proceeding to issue new guidelines for universities to target Muslim students and organizations despite warnings that such measures amount to a discredited McCarthy witch hunt on campuses. The National Union of Students expressed fears that by focusing solely on extremism “in the name of Islam” that there is the “potential for a racist or Islamophobic backlash against sections of the student community.” Universities UK also reminded the Government about its warning last year against singling out Muslims, saying that campuses are some of the most diverse communities in the UK and was focuses on “all kinds of extremism...” Universities, they said, “have a duty of care to protect vulnerable groups, and they also have a responsibility to assure all their constituent communities that they are party to fundamental values of free enquiry and free -expression within the law.” In announcing the Government’s guidelines, Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell, insisted that “violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK” but denied that the Government was targeting Muslims. However, the measures in the guidelines only talks about Islam and Muslims. No other faith community is mentioned. The measures are about “promoting safety within higher education institutions and the wider community and about higher education providers taking their responsibilities for the safety and welfare of all their staff and students very seriously. It is also about protecting vulnerable students from bullying and harassment and other recruiting tactics of violent extremist groups,” Rammell said. Last month, Britain’s largest professional association for academics also voiced concern about the impact of Government proposed measures to spy on Muslim students as potential terrorists. The University and College Union (UCU) described the extreme measures as similar to the discredited witch-hunt of communists in America during the 1940s. “Our members may be sucked into an anti-Muslim McCarthyism which has serious consequences for civil liberties by blurring the boundaries of what is illegal and what is possibly undesirable,” UCU Joint General Secretary, Paul Mackney, said. What these guidelines would do is to stifle free debate in the universities – but targeted only at Muslims. Fears are that students will not be able to debate such issues as Israeli atrocities, including, for example the recent massacres of the innocent Palestinian women and children, Russian atrocities in Chechnya or wherever Muslims are being occupied or persecuted. Otherwise, they will be considered as extremists and targeted by the universities. The Government last year resisted in implementing plans to single out Muslims on campuses because of the outcry but now appears embolden to do so in a new atmosphere of scaremongering. Earlier this year, it also failed in its attempt to target the imams and mosques because of a huge backlash from all faith communities to invoking special police powers for all places of worship. But will they or other institutions now become the next target in the witch hunt, which appears to have no bounds. The Government appears to be still unprepared to listen, as with Iraq and Afghanistan, that its war on terror is a failed strategy. Rather than becoming more and more desperate, the need is to learn past lessons and not to create a deeper quagmire it is digging for the whole of British society.
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