According to the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who graduated from UCL with a degree in Engineering and Business Finance, served as the President of the University’s Islamic Society between 2006 and 2007.

In a recent press release, Faisal Hanjra, spokesman for FOSIS said: “There was nothing in his behaviour during this time that would indicate that he would commit these alleged acts. During his tenure as President, the Islamic Society forged closer relationships between other student groups, of all faiths.”

Faisla Hanjra went onto say that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s fellow students and staff were shocked and horrified by his alleged actions and that the purpose of Islamic Societies in Universities is to build positive cross-campus relations.

Scotland Yard and MI5 are currently investigating whether the 23 year old, was radicalised during his three years at University. The FOSIS claim that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab has ceased contact with friends and colleagues in London, after graduating in 2008. The Federation also urges all those who can help to come forward and cooperate with the relevant authorities.

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Today, as predicted, the Daily Telegraph contains an editorial jumping on this bandwagon, pointing the finger at universities for failing to fight Islamism. Its headline is the completely reasonable: “Academic liberalism is a danger to life”.

The editorial states that “institutes of higher education in London have consistently provided sanctuary for Islamist students who parrot the hate-filled rhetoric of al-Qaeda and its allies.” The editorial also blasts “liberal British academics” for their “habit of diverting any discussion of terrorism away from Islamism towards the evils of Anglo-American foreign policy”.

“Again and again, speakers have been invited and rooms provided so that, in the name of free speech, vulnerable students can be indoctrinated,” the editorial continues. The Telegraph, however, is being misleading – as many of its education news stories are. Universities are not designed to fight extremism. They are there to teach and facilitate learning. They are not there to censor.

Students at universities are no more susceptible to extremism than any other young person. UCL did not teach Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab to allegedly strap explosives to his legs and kill 250 people. “Perhaps they picked up their expertise in a British university laboratory”, asks the editorial. Or perhaps they typed ‘how to build a bomb’ into Google. None of the 7/7 bombers had a BA in Bomb-making.

The only way universities can fight against extremism is through giving their students the critical faculties not to be indoctrinated. Banning speakers won’t help. Nor will banning courses that might improve a student’s bomb-making skills (which is surely the next step up from the Telegraph’s innuendo above). Academic liberalism, despite the Telegraph’s claims to the contrary, is not a danger to life.

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Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, accused of bomb plot

A student at University College, London is in custody after reportedly attempting to blow up a plane in the USA. Thankfully Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was studying engineering and not pyrotechnics: his explosives failed to go off and he ended up burning just his own legs. More here.

Following Mutallab’s alleged actions, there will probably be a purported crackdown on ‘extremism’ within universities. Since 2006, universities have been regarded as ‘fertile recruiting grounds‘ for extremists. This means we can probably expect more cases like Rizwaan Sabir’s, from Nottingham University, who was arrested for downloading an al-Qaeda training manual for his PhD – a PhD on radical Islamic groups. Sabir’s case was bad enough, before it emerged that the manual was even available on Amazon, for £7.55. Sabir was held for six days, without charge.

Treating universities as fertile recruiting grounds for extremist groups has a logic. An angry, young man (of which universities often hold many) is more likely to become an extremist than someone with a secure job, wife and kids – thus universities should be watched. But universities are part of much wider communities, embedded in cities. They are not islands. Some young people might be tempted by extremism, but this could happen whether at university or not. Universities are not hotbeds of extremism. With a million students in higher education, there will always be a few nutters. There is no need to treat university populations any differently to the rest of the country.

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