NUS ignore Jews?

The National Union of Students (NUS) missed out Judaism as an option in a survey question on students’ religions, just six months after the same omission was made on an earlier questionnaire.

In both instances, a question about students’ religions gave the following options: “Buddhist”, “Christian”, “Hindu”, “Muslim”, “Sikh”, “Spiritual”, “Agnostic”, “Atheist”, “Any other religion or belief”, “Other”, and “Prefer not to say”.

After the first omission in July, Shakira Martin, NUS president, said the situation would be dealt with.


Strangely this has not been reported by the BBC, I wonder why.

Yes I think I see

The Telegraph recently reported that 'The boss of lap dancing company Spearmint Rhino has suggested hard-up students should consider stripping as a way to pay for university tuition fees.' The Telegraph's article included this attack on the idea:

'Estelle Hart, NUS women's officer, said:"I think the government has got some questions to answer about why students are turning to what is quite a dangerous job .

...

"The sort of idea that in order for women to work they have got to look and act a certain way and be sexually available and attractive to men is actually quite upsetting." '

Why would that thought upset you so much Estelle?

Sorry... I am in a bad mood today!

Was NUS President Aaron Porter the victim of anti-Semitic abuse?

I blogged the accusations that he had been and read in many places the leftist denials that he had. So I was interested to read at Harry's Place that Aaron Porter himself says that he was in a piece in The Times:

'However, before I was able to speak to the rally of thousands, a small group of people started to chant abuse to try to intimidate me, and there were audible anti-Semitic comments. Racism is something that student activists have been fighting to eliminate for decades and this was a sobering reminder that there is still work to do.
I wouldn’t associate the racist comments with everyone in this breakaway group, who are largely drawn from hard Left factions and who disagree with the tactics and some of the policies of the NUS. For them it is not enough for the NUS to mobilise 50,000 students and lecturers to protest against the rise in tuition fees; instead they say we should be standing alongside those who kick in windows and burn effigies of Nick Clegg.
Those tactics are wrong and do not work. I represent the vast majority of students who believe that peaceful protest should be one part of a campaign.'

I await the leftists' apologies; albeit probably in vain.

Is that a complete denial?

Every so often I hear someone say something that everyone seems to take as a denial but I hear something else. There was an example in The Independent on Friday:

'"There is no evidence to back up accusations that NUS stewards did anything to encourage this despicable violence," Aaron Porter, the NUS president, said'

So did the NUS stewards do anything  to encourage the despicable violence or is there just no evidence? Am I just being cynical?

The student protests

Unacceptable behaviour but what I want to say is that there is a lot of video and still photos of 'students' breaking windows and throwing objects. I would like each and every person identifiable be charged with criminal damage, affray or some other public order offence, convicted and punished. The punishment should not be just a warning and a metaphorical slap on the wrist but a serious custodial punishment.

I also trust that University Vice-Chancellors will be viewing the images and taking action against any of their 'students' found to have been guilty of public order offences.

I have been warning for some time of civil disorder by elements fighting against 'the cuts' and unless strong action is taken now against these 'students' they will only get bolder and more dangerous.

"As far as we are aware, Mr Pankhurst is not currently a member of an illegal extremist group."

The Times reports that:

"A senior figure in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a hardline Islamist group that the Government keeps “under continuous review” and the Conservatives want to ban, is teaching and preaching at a top university.

The Times has learnt that Reza Pankhurst, who was imprisoned in Egypt for membership of the group, is a teacher at the London School of Economics and regularly preaches to students at Friday prayers.

The group is supposedly barred from organising and speaking on campuses under the National Union of Students’ policy of “no platform” for racist or fascist views. The presence of one of its prominent members as a university teacher raises new concerns about Islamist radicalisation on campus.

A new review of campus extremism began last month after it was discovered that the alleged Detroit airline bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London."

But fear not as (my emphasis):

"The students’ union said that Mr Pankhurst was a member of its Islamic Society. Aled Dilwyn Fisher, general secretary of the union, said: “As far as we are aware, Mr Pankhurst is not currently a member of an illegal extremist group.”"

Hizb ut-Tahir is anti-Semitic and dangerous but to the useful idiots on the left of politics this is of no importance as 'we are all Hamas/Hezbollah now'.

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.