Target of campus hate-mongers
His crime? To try to halt tide of extremism at university where Jihadi John studied
DISTURBING intimidatory tactics used by students to undermine antiterrorist measures on university campuses can be revealed today.
Activists are targeting anyone connected to the Government’s Prevent programme – which seeks to tip off the security services about potential extremists.
In one example, students at Islamic State executioner Jihadi John’s former university launched a direct action campaign to make a Muslim staff member’s life ‘ hell’ for his involvement in the scheme.
Interfaith adviser Yusuf Kaplan was branded a ‘fake Muslim’ and demonstrators said they hoped he would ‘die’.
Thirty protesters stormed Westminster University’s headquarters to demand his sacking.
They also descended on Mr Kaplan’s office to hurl abuse through a megaphone, screaming ‘shame’ and chanting ‘say it loud, say it clear, Kaplan not welcome here’.
The personal intimidation is part of an orchestrated nationwide plot by hard-Left students to sabotage Prevent, which was made a legal requirement on campuses after a string of Islamist terrorists were groomed at UK universities.
The protest against Mr Kaplan was supported by undergraduates across London, including student leaders from the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas).
Westminster University last night condemned the calls to fire Mr Kaplan, as a terrorism expert said it was ‘completely unacceptable hounding’ of a man trying to protect students and the public. A Daily Mail investigation found:
÷A student leader at University College London said anyone arrested campaigning against Prevent was ‘doing something right’;
÷The anti-Prevent protest was backed online by Cage, the organisation dubbed ‘apologists for terrorism’ after describing Jihadi John as a ‘beautiful young man’;
÷Soas student union is being investigated by the Charity Commission for refusing to comply with Prevent and over concerns it is being used to promote ‘extremists or extremist views or any other unlawful activity’.
Westminster students joined with the Soas student union for a ‘three-day action’ against Prevent earlier this month culminating in a march through central London and the ‘hounding’ of Mr Kaplan.
An undercover Daily Mail reporter attended a ‘crisis meeting’ about Prevent held at a Soas lecture theatre, where journalists and nonstudents were kicked out before a Soas Masters student warned those present not to record the speakers as ‘they might say things that put them in danger’ Former public schoolboy Ayo Olatunji – a third-year medical student at UCL and student union leader – then urged students to ‘disrupt’ Prevent even if it meant arrest.
He said: ‘If you look at history … the people who make the change are those who get arrested, or have been demonised … If that sounds like you in this climate then you’re doing something right.’
Farah Koutteineh, an international relations student and president of the Westminster University Palestine Society, told the meeting Mr Kaplan was the ‘core of the problem’. She made a number of claims against him, including that he had ‘shredded Korans’, turned Islamic prayer rooms into multifaith rooms and tried to ban most of the society’s speakers.
The university said that when the prayer room became a multifaith room for use by all, including Muslims, unused Korans were left in it despite several months notice to remove all items. The Korans were later disposed of according to Islamic principles after consulting ing religious leaders. It added that Mr Kaplan had no role in vetting external speakers. At an eight-hour 'protest work-shop' at Soas the next day, students plotted to target Mr Kaplan as they made banners denouncing him. One activist said, 'I hope he dies', some called him a 'fake Muslim' and others said, 'let's make his life hell'. Miss Koutteineh ran the work-shop and was in the room when all the comments were made. Mr Olatunji was not at the work-shop, but the following day he joined her and about 30 other stu- dents for a three-hour protest in central London - which led to police being called as they picketed the BBC's Broadcasting House. Outside Mr Kaplan's office, a protester said into a microphone: `Kaplan we know you can hear us.' Another waved a placard warning, `This is only the beginning', while Miss Koutteineh held one saying, `Kaplan is watching you', with a picture of a CCTV camera - an apparent reference to her com-plaint that he had installed them in the university's Islamic prayer rooms. The university said cam- eras were briefly installed in 2015 after someone using the rooms was attacked but they had all been removed. The march ended with an hour-long sit-in at Westminster Univer-sity's Regent Campus calling for Mr Kaplan's sacking. Deputy vice chancellor Professor Roland Dan-nreuther tried to reason with the activists and pointed out they were 'vilifying' Mr Kaplan. Soas student union has boy-cotted Prevent since it was intro-duced and the union openly pro-moted the three days of action on
social media. In November, students in Sussex, Bristol, Leicester, Manchester and London all took part in protests demanding an end to Prevent. It was part of a tour of campuses organised by the NUS.
A previous tour in 2015 included events campaigning against Prevent at Birmingham, Glasgow and Swansea universities.
Terrorism expert Professor Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University, said the protest targeting Mr Kaplan was ‘totally unacceptable behaviour’. Prevent is ‘ not an obligation on lecturers to spy on students’, he said, adding that staff ‘have a duty of care … to prevent them being drawn into extremism’.
‘The hounding of this man is unacceptable and inconsistent with what should go on in a university.’
‘Totally unacceptable’
Westminster University said it supports students’ rights to make their voices heard through peaceful protest, but a spokesman added: ‘The university condemns the public naming of a member of our staff and the calls for his removal.’
A Soas spokesman said its approach to Prevent was primarily ‘safeguarding the welfare our students and staff’ but that this is ‘balanced against our fundamental commitment to academic freedom’.
Mr Olatunji said: ‘Students from different universities and a wide range of student groups organised independently and protested against the implementation of the widely discredited Prevent duty at the University of Westminster.
‘Yusuf Kaplan has been identified as a key figurehead in pushing for draconian implementation of this policy … The protest was intended to disrupt actions at the university and push for increased transparency … which it has successfully done.’
Miss Koutteineh did not respond to requests for comment.