VP Student Affairs- January/February

Assalamualaykum warahmatullah wabarakatuhu

January and February in summary have involved a lot of upholding the truth and trying to preserve the special status of Universities that we believe in.

We remember always the Islamic teaching of balance, with truth and justice as it's backbone - the Qur'an states (translated) "He has raised up the sky. He has set the balance so that you may not exceed in the balance: weigh with justice and do not fall short in the balance" (55: 7-8), "We sent Our messengers with clear signs, the Scripture and the Balance, so that people could uphold justice" (57:25).

Detroit Bomber stuff

In my last blog I covered much about our thinking and work following the alleged attempted-Detroit-bomber attack. You can find it here. The reality is that University Islamic Societies play a crucial role for students and continue to be active, engaging and transformational bodies. There is arguably no other community of students than Muslim students more prosperous in raising money for charity; in raising awareness about their belief; in bringing students together like they do. Yet by manipulating to a climate of fear (of terrorism), some commentators and groups have immediately jumped to resurrect dangerous and discredited claims around Universities and extremism - quite irresponsibly - with a distinct lack of information rushing to conclusions. Evidence, not conjecture, is what we must demand to reason. And whilst it is only natural to wish to understand extremism at Universities - there remains absolutely no evidence to suggest that Universities are hotbeds of radicalisation. Crucially due legal process must be allowed to take its course and a full investigation needs to be completed before such conclusions are drawn. And I think Faisal said it best when he mentioned, "At the core of it all other than dividing communities, undermining cohesion and empowering the far right this clouding of the debate undermines everybody's effort in fighting terrorism, be it the Muslim community, the police or the security services."

As I mentioned in my last blog, Muslim students were empowered through their Islamic Societies to proactively get on the front foot (including our toolkits on stepping up the work of ISocs and working wisely with stakeholders) and the response from Universities and Unions was welcoming. As were the responses from University Vice-Chancellors when we wrote to them. We have maintained a constructive dialogue with the wider sector on the issue, including the Universities dept of the government, the NUS, and other bodies including the police. We held a major workshop in London with Islamic Societies to strategise ahead; joined by the NUS President and MCB Secretary General. Our Media presence sustained on the affair, led by the Media team. Yet there are concerns to tackle following the affair - some natural, some disingenuous.

Data Protection

A particular concern was the manner in which counter-terrorism police sought to gain information on masses of Muslim students without permission, which would then be kept on databases for 7 years and which could be passed onto foreign intelligence agencies. This took place at UCL Students Union. This is real, it's happening. There is nothing wrong with specific fact-finding for a case; but such overkill is bizarre. It could be illegal, is unjust and shows utter disregard of responsibility for an entire student community. Our Civil Liberties Division has specific ongoing work on the UCL Case with Muslim students, and at the same time we have now issued thorough legal guidance to Islamic Societies on data protection and privacy. The NUS too released this to Student Unions together with Liberty, in harmony with what we've provided to ISocs. If there is any approach made by police for contact details - please do contact us asap or contact Zín on civil.liberties@fosis.org.uk .

Freedom of expression

Our work on Freedom of Expression continues. Universities play a critical role in learning and intellectual adventure. We believe in full freedom of expression except that which incites to violence - and you can read our stance here. We have dealt both nationally with the narrative - with national organisations and in the Media - but also locally with specific cases including those at SOAS, Manchester University and others.

Some claims to prevent freedom of expression are made, I believe, in order to prevent exposure of the crimes of the Israeli government (it is natural for a sympathiser of the Israeli government to not have exposed its inhumanity and barbarism in bulldozing the lives of so many Palestinians, restricting access to water and food for large cities, inhumane expansion of illegal settlements over the rubble of Palestinian homes, contempt for basis human rights and so forth). Some claims are made to restrict views of social values that many people find distasteful - for example views in religion about homosexuality. There is legitimate discussion to be had in many areas, and it's important that we're aware of why attempts are made to restrict it. Key to the approach of preventing freedom of expression by the right-wing is the conflation of distinctly separate discourses. There is a discourse (let's call it discourse A) of political criticism (for example - dislike of the Israeli government), or of socially conservative values. Then there is a discourse of violence (condoning acts like 7/7) - discourse B. They'll play to your fear and tell you that if a speaker is promoting discourse A, then he is also of the same type of people that promote discourse B. This is completely untrue - and not only undermines debate on campus but undermines efforts to counteract extremism - for example some "discourse A" folk are the strongest voices against "discourse B"! See our stance for further details.

It should not be about whether we like a view or not. It's important we rise above all of that - and have freedom of expression on campus - and listen to the views we don't like - whether it be Azzam Tamimi or Benny Morris. Freedom of expression is crucial for a diverse range of ideas and views to be presented and will provide a sincere platform for discussion and debate. Universities, whose students have long been at the forefront of change and facilitating debate, have an important role in leading this. Freedom of expression and tolerance for diversity allows for constructive challenge from a range of views and thereby meaningful progress for our society; restriction of opinion gets us nowhere.

Muslim Student Survey - the quantitative exercise is now underway at Universities around the United Kingdom - led by the National Centre for Social Research, and steered by BIS (which includes the Universities Dept of the Government), the NUS and ourselves. We encourage you to participate if you're selected.

General Election - we're working with "Get Out & Vote" - we believe Muslim students have a special role to play in this year's General Election. Please get involved if you can - http://fosis.org.uk/student-affairs/projects/683-general-election-2010 for further details. This is a serious chance to make a real change on policy - take the opportunity!

Also - I met recently with David Lammy the Minister for Higher Education, where we discussed in particular issues of Freedom of expression but also the important role that University Islamic Societies play on campus. This was a positive meeting and despite all the hysteria surrounding University campuses, the stance from the government surrounding issues of extremism remains one based on evidence - and as such, aligned with the stance of ourselves, the NUS and other credible bodies.

I've got some more to cover but I better end there on the actual work. In my next blog I'll speak a little about our run-up to NUS Conference too.

One last thing - I look back these past few months, praising Allah for the role that he has empowered us with and for some of the justice and positive impact that we've had for students. And boy have we. We could also have done that bit more, and I accept we always could have. To succeed however and reach that, this organisation needs especially two things: one is your d'ua - that Allah makes us successful for His sake in all we aim to do. The second thing we need is your help. FOSIS is made up of diverse students from around the UK and Ireland who decide at some point that they want to do something very useful for His sake. If you want to do that - join FOSIS. If you want to benefit University life, or students, or Muslims - join FOSIS. If you think you need to change things for the better in FOSIS, then join FOSIS.

Til we meet again.

Wa salaam alaykum warahmatullah
Nabil