Students invite radical Islamic speakers to over 100 events

RADICAL Islamic speakers have been invited to more than 100 events hosted by student societies over the past year despite a government crackdown.

They were invited to address undergraduates at top universities including Oxford, Warwick and Manchester, a report shows.

Guests with records of preaching extreme views were given access to students on 112 occasions – and in most cases no effort was made to provide any balance to their statements.

In one case, a preacher who previously advocated wife-beating and claimed ‘Islam is not compatible with democracy’ addressed students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. And Oxford University students heard a speech by the director of Cage, the group that once described Islamic State killer Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful young man’.

The report, from the Henry Jackson Society think-tank, follows a string of terror attacks this year.

Universities are required to help prevent extremism and report any concerns under the Government’s anti-terror policy Prevent.

But yesterday Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the education select committee, said the report suggests universities are ‘not doing enough to crack down on extremism’, which he said was ‘unacceptable’.

And Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at Buckingham University, said: ‘ Universities should not be soap boxes for extremists. The events in Manchester and London mean universities cannot pretend that terror is not a threat. Clearly, the Prevent guidelines are not working.’

Universities whose student societies invited extreme speakers also included King’s College London and Queen Mary London.

In every case, the universities themselves did not issue invitations as the events were organised by student groups – mostly the unions or the Islamic societies.

Often they were held on venues off campus, with Facebook and Twitter used to publicise them.

The Higher Education and Funding Council for England has found the majority of universities satisfy the statutory requirements of the Prevent duty. But the Henry Jackson Society said its findings suggest more stringent guidelines are needed. It said in all but one of the cases, speakers ‘disseminated their views without being challenged’.

SOAS hosted the most events – 14. Many events were attended by the same speakers, with the six most prolific accounting for 52.7 per cent of events.

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘There is no place at universities for those who spread hate. While these institutions have a responsibility to protect free speech, they are legally required to protect students by risk-assessing speakers.’

SOAS Registrar Paula Sanderson said: ‘No concerns were raised with us by local police or Prevent officers.’ Last year, the Mail revealed Cage were involved in 13 student events in a few months and were given unchallenged platforms.

The Mail also exposed how Egyptian cleric Fadel Soliman spoke at five events in 2015 and referred students to an online lecture series in which he speaks in favour of hitting women and polygamy. e.harding@dailymail.co.uk

‘Cannot pretend terror isn’t a threat’