His university tried to bar anti-terror scheme

STUDENTS at the university attended by the Manchester bomber tried to sabotage the Prevent anti-terror scheme over claims it ‘demonises Muslims’.

The student union at Salford University, where Salman Abedi studied, passed a motion last year to boycott the initiative and ‘educate’ undergraduates about its ‘dangers’.

The boycott was part of a ‘Students not Suspects’ campaign, run by the National Union of Students, which has been linked to controversial terror apologist group CAGE.

Even yesterday Muslim student leaders called for Prevent to be scrapped. The Muslim chaplain for both Manchester University and Manchester Metropolitan University told Radio 5 Live the scheme needed to be ‘wrapped up’ and society should ‘move on’.

Mohammed Ullah explained: ‘As it stands [Prevent] is a toxic brand. It isolates the very people it is supposed to help because it turns people into spies against their own community.’

Prevent places a legal duty on universities to report any signs of students becoming radicalised to the authorities.

The purpose of the initiative is to stop students being groomed by extremists before it is too late, with experts deployed to help those identified as at risk.

It was made law in 2015 – one year after Abedi began his course at Salford. He dropped out in 2016. It is not known whether he was radicalised during his time there or afterwards.