A report written by Professor Anthony Glees, soon to be published by the Centre for Social Cohesion, has received coverage in the weekend press.
Both the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail reported on Glees’s study into the extremist ideas being taught at Islamic study centres on a variety of British university campuses.
Glees, director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, discovered that eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995. The majority of this money has gone to Islamic study centres, who Glees found often gave a biased view of Islam and largely propagated anti-Western viewpoints.
Islamic studies are seen as important by the government as part of a counter-radicalisation initiative, and at a conference this week are expected to call for the opening of more Islamic study centres at British universities. Glees says that this will "push the wrong sort of education by the wrong sort of people, funded by the wrong sorts of donor."
They seek them here, they seek them there
Irony, did Mr Gleese look at his own backyard?
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5506&sid=a4b769c5f8f9ea85c449a5845d49e144
To celebrate the King of Saudi Arabia’s official state visit to London 29th October 2007, the Saudi Embassy in line with the Saudi Cultural Office in London is organising a number of events both before and during the King’s visit to raise awareness of the good relationship between the UK and Saudi Arabia.
The theme of this event will be ‘Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Humanity' and will present the Saudi culture, civilization and industry development, and coincides with a state visit by His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to the United Kingdom.
Date: Friday 26th October
Venue: Newton Room, Hamilton Centre
Time: 11:30am-5:00pm
Cost: free of charge
11.30am – 5.00pm: “Open Day” event, food available between 12.00pm – 3.00pm Saudi food samples served with Saudi music and dance.
Each year a student based event is held in the UK and this year the Saudi Embassy and Saudi Cultural office want the National Saudi Day event for students to be in London. Brunel University has been chosen as the venue. There will be the sights, sounds and tastes of Saudi Arabia, including displays from：
· Saudi Arabian Airlines
· ARAMCO (Saudi Oil)
· Saudi Medical Attaché'
· Saudi Military Attaché'
· Saudi Commerce Attaché
· Saudi Embassy
· Saudi scouts in London and Saudi student Society
The menu is tantalising, and includes:
Savouries
- Speciality savoury dish (rice and lamb cues, topped with pastry and then covered with soup)
- Kubbe (mincemeat burger)
- Pastries various (filled with mincement / spinach / cheese / cheese and sesame / cheese and thyme)
- Lamb in sauce with saffron rice
- Humous, Tabbouleh, Aubergine pate, Lebanese salad, Stuffed vine leaves
Desserts:
- Mamoo, Baklava, Kalage (sweet item made of dates)
Travel to Brunel University:
If you would like to come to the event, please make their own way to the Uxbridge campus. For directions, see:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/where/ux
Attending the event:
If you would like to come to this event, please email Rachael Elliott to confirm your attendance: rachael.elliott@brunel.ac.uk
Glees is entirely correct. These centres get oil money to found lectureships, and also they appoint the lecturers. Universities rubber stamp these appointments. So inside the structure of universities we have hard line conservative 'scholars', ie purveyors of fundamentalist religion. They are not at all interested in dialogue with western critical thought at all, in fact they are insulated from all such probing questions. So yes, we have a western free zone in universities. It is a one way street, from Islam to our students, with no cross questioning allowed. It is all on Islamic terms - as so often in the UK in all areas where Islam inserts itself.
Any western university must insist that the Koran is treated just as the Bible, no questions can be off limits. That is not so with any of these centres.
When is the report going to be published?
The report is never going to be published because it's been publicy rubbished - in terms of evidence and quality of argument. Oh well.