University campuses are not ‘hotbeds of radicalisation’

ENGAGE draws our attention to an interview in the Daily Telegraph with Nicola Dandridge of Universities UK, who rejects the view, promoted by the likes of Anthony Glees and the Quilliam Foundation and widely publicised by the right-wing press, that universities are training grounds for violent extremism among Muslim students.

Needless to say, James Brandon of Quilliam is on hand to rubbish Dandridge’s analysis: “Every week, radical Islamists on campuses around the UK preach a steady mixture of anti-western conspiracy theories and hard-line Islamist ideologies. At the same time, a steady stream of British Muslim university students are being convicted of a wide range of terrorist offences.”

But then, Brandon and his colleagues at Quilliam have made a comfortable living out of hyping up such threats, haven’t they?