Higher education institutions in Britain have increasingly attracted Black and minority ethnic students; however, greater diversity does not, as demonstrated by the recent National Union of Students (NUS) row, lead to improved cohesion and equity, particularly for open supporters of Palestinian rights, who risk being labelled anti-Semites, a smear tactic institutionally wielded against Corbynite Labour to deter any criticism of Israel.
In 2018, it was estimated that over a third of the seven million students embraced by the NUS were Muslim. Despite this, many, including the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), no longer see the umbrella organisation as fit for purpose, but as an increasingly undermined and politically lobbied body.
The writing was on the wall since the establishment of the Office for Students (OfS) in 2018, ostensibly as an independent public body, though one that reports to Parliament through the Department for Education.
When temporarily severing all ties, including funding, with the NUS in May, the government had no hesitation in naming the OfS as its replacement. Shaima Dallali’s presidential ousting was deeply politicised from the outset. Dallali, who is of Sudanese and Tunisian heritage, learned of her dismissal online.
The crude, no-notice public sackings are seemingly a new method reserved for humiliating Muslims, as also exhibited by the government’s unethical dismissal of its Islamophobia advisor, Imam Qari Asim.
The unashamed public display of contempt towards Muslims aligns with ministers’ beliefs that they are above reproach. It has also become commonplace that instead of tackling rampant Islamophobia; anti-Semitic charges are levelled at the Muslim victims.
It is not to say that Jewish people are not victims of hate crimes, but it is quite uncanny how often such accusations occur against those who stand up for justice for the Palestinians.
Not only are Muslim students the most underprivileged, they also suffer from constant surveillance at universities and colleges.
The capitulation of a 100-year-old union created to uphold student rights to government dictates was not just a neglect of its duties to its members in general and Muslims in particular but also a dispiriting testimony to the depths of institutional Islamophobia in the UK.
