Press Releases

FOSIS welcomes Home Affairs Select Committee report on university radicalisation

FOSIS, the national Muslim student body, this week welcomed "some desperately-needed honesty" on the purported role of universities in radicalisation. 

This followed the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report into the roots of violent radicalisation. FOSIS had submitted both written evidence to the committee, and then oral evidence, to share the experience and perspective of Muslim students.

Nabil Ahmed, President of FOSIS, said today "The Home Affairs Committee has been useful in confirming what Muslim students and the higher education sector have been saying for some time - universities are not complacent to the risks of radicalisation, despite ministers' repeated baseless attempts to discredit them. 

He added, "The report should have gone further - whilst rightly addressing the unnoticed far-right threat - we must not ignore how Muslim students have experienced suspicion and discrimination as a result of government policy. The government needs to be mature here, and act accordingly."

He concluded, "We question this government's decision to not engage with Muslim students by cancelling a careers event, and suspending substantial collaborative research by FOSIS, NUS and Home Office into Muslim students, despite near-completion and investment - one wonders, what is there to hide?"

[ENDS]

1. FOSIS (est. 1963) is the umbrella organisation of student groups in colleges and universities throughout the UK and Ireland, representing the interests of over 100,000 Muslim students.

2. For more information please contact Amandla Thomas-Johnson on 07984296626, email head.media@fosis.org.uk or alternatively visit our website www.fosis.org.uk