A new “tool kit” for universities issued today by Bill Rammell, the Universities Minister, advises universities to draw up a national watch list of guest speakers who should be banned from speaking on campus. It also suggests that universities consider setting up multi-faith chaplaincies instead of separate prayer rooms for different faiths, to promote integration and prevent pockets of extremists forming.
Mr Rammell was adamant that Muslim students – particularly those coming from overseas – did not have the right to demand special treatment from British universities. “Britain technically is a Christian country with many secular features. It’s those two things. It’s not anything else. If you expect that you would have the same response to your faith needs in Britain as would happen within a Muslim or Islamic country, [you] would be disappointed,” he said.
His comments follow fears that some Islamic societies and prayer rooms in universities had become no-go areas for the authorities, where extremists may be free to preach hatred and violence to vulnerable students.
See also “Extremists turn attention to Muslim women” in the Daily Telegraph and “Extremists are ‘grooming’ female students, security officials warn” in the Daily Mail.