More on University Extremism

New guidelines were give to universities to help them deal with the growing problem of Islamic extremism on campus. There have been the usual reactions:

The Federation of Students Islamic Societies said that there was "absolutely no credible evidence" that extremists operated and recruited on campus. However, Professor Anthony Glees form Brunel university said that at least 21 were directly linked to extremism and terrorism. Perhaps the Islamic Societies do not think there is evidence because they have a very different view of what extremism is.

This would be similar to the stance taken by the University and College Union. They said that "radicalism must no be conflated with terrorism". In other words, no one should act until the terrorist has actually gone to the stage of killing or planning to kill someone.

The only moderate voice was from the British Muslim Forum. They said:

We believe that extremism of all forms needs to be tackled, in particular the radicalism of Muslim youths on campus. We fully support any initiative to tackle any form of criminal activity undertaken in the name of Islam.

And that is a truly moderate voice. They do not pretend that there is no problem and they do not blame their problems on the government or anyone else. But, more importantly, they recognise that having people kill in their name is not what they want and are prepared to do what is necessary to stop that. All other Muslim organisations do not seem overly bothered by the killing in their name; they give such acts their implicit approval through their silence and inaction.