In light of the discovery that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the alleged terrorist behind the failed attempt to bomb an aircraft over Detroit, was head of the UCL ISOC between 2006-07, campus radicalisation is once again in the news.

This is a guest post by CSC Research intern, Deborah Garel:

The response to the Swiss ban on minarets has triggered extensive criticisms from most other European governments. Nonetheless, it has inspired European nativist parties to take similar measures, revealing a fear of Islam felt by some European communities and the desire of extremist parties to exploit this.

This is from the latest entry in my Standpoint blog:

In a Parliamentary committee room last week, I witnessed the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Mohammed Abdul Bari, present evidence at a Communities and Local Government (CLG) hearing about the effectiveness of the Prevent agenda.  As well as being reminded of just how little this man and his organisation had to offer to such a complex debate, I was also struck that CLG still sought their opinion.  Three days after the hearing, Martin Bright gave us yet more evidence about the unpleasant nature of the MCB.