Vague and misleading questions?

I blogged recently about the The YouGov poll for the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) that found that almost a third of British Muslim students believe killing in the name of Islam can be justified and that two in five Muslims at university support the incorporation of Islamic sharia codes into British law. Thankfully it appears that we can stop worrying as the National Union of Students' president, Wes Streeting, has said that the Islam on Campus report was a "reflection of the biases and prejudices of a right wing think tank -- not the views of Muslim students across Britain".

Somehow I am not completely reassured. Wes Streeting posted a report of the July 2005 NEC Meeting that followed the 7th July bombings, when four Muslim men blew themselves and many innocent commuters and travellers up in the name of Islam, What did Wes Streeting have to say on that occasion? Here's an extract:

"Response to the terrorist attacks on London

The events of the previous Thursday were on our minds and the NEC agenda. Jamal and I had both submitted Emergency Motions on the terrorist attacks, but we all agreed that it would be more productive under the circumstances to have an informal discussion based around the motions and the issues to decide what we could do collectively to tackle some of the challenges arising out the attacks.

There were really three things on my mind during that discussion: outrage at what had happened and sorrow for those affected; gratitude towards the staff and management of NUS who had spent a great deal of time phoning around to make sure everyone was safe; and horror at an e-mail I had received from the Muslim Safety Forum over the weekend recounting a spate of unjustified and unprovoked attacks against black people and people of different faiths following the attacks. A Mosque in Leeds was attacked with a petrol bomb, there had been an arson attack on a Sikh Gurdwara, reports of ABH, malicious communications (including towards NEC members) and other racist and fascist attacks. I’ve since learned that the BNP have been peddling their racist filth through the letter boxes of Becontree, near where I live, where a by-election is taking place with slogans like ‘Isn’t it time you listened to the BNP’ and images of the attacks. That the BNP should use these attacks to spread fear and suspicion and misdirect outrage against terrorism into hatred towards innocent people is despicable. Whatever your party, whatever your politics, I would urge everyone to get involved in the fight against fascism wherever it presents itself."

Always good to see a leftist taking an attack by some Muslims and turning it into an "all the fault of the BNP" type piece.

In October 2007 Wes Streeting posted a piece entitled "Academic freedom, religious freedom and progressive political leadership", it's the text of a speech he gave to the "annual conference of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies". Take a read of this and draw your own conclusions.

I was also interested by Wes Streetling's piece pre the London Mayoral election. Unsurprisingly the slogan "Re-elect Ken" is prominently displayed as is Wes's slightly warped world view - apparently:

"Ken’s the kind of mayor who’s shown real leadership. From his stoic response to the 7/7 bombings that united London, as terrorists tried to turn us against each other and the Muslim community came under attack"

Ah it was the Muslim community that came under attack, odd I thought that the people who died, including a friend's wife, and those that were injured were attacked by some Muslim terrorists. I do not condone any reprisal attacks on Muslims as a result of the 7/7 bombings as the majority of Muslims are peaceful citizens of this Country BUT to turn the horrendous attacks of 7/7 into being about an attack on the Muslim community is just not a fair reflection of events.