The National Union of Students (NUS) has joined Muslims in criticizing a report on ‘Islam on Campus’, while a new Channel Four television documentary on the Holy Qu’ran has been widely accused of being ‘misleading and defamatory’.
NUS president Wes Streeting said the Islam on Campus report by the Center for Social Cohesion was a ‘reflection of the biases and prejudices of a right wing think tank -- not the views of Muslim students across Britain’.
“Only 632 Muslim students were asked vague and misleading questions, and their answers were then wilfully misinterpreted in order to fit this organisation’s own tawdry obsession with Islam,” Streeting said.
“This report actually undermines cohesion and the joint efforts of students, institutions and government in tackling violent extremism,” he said.
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) in the UK and Eire damned the report as an attack on Britain’s two million Muslim community by ‘elements within the academic arena whose only purpose seems to be the undermining of sincere efforts’.
“The report is methodologically weak, it is unrepresentative and above all serves only to undermine the positive work carried out by Islamic Societies across the country,” said FOSIS president Faisal Hanjra.
“Muslim students have had a tough time since the dreadful attacks on 7/7, they have faced numerous challenges with courage and perseverance, it is evident that those challenges have yet to go away,” Hanjra said.
But he warned that ‘the message though to those who seek to cause this mischief is clear, we will not be deterred, our work will continue and the results of our efforts are clear for all to see’.
The report coincided with a documentary on the Holy Qur’an, which launched a week of television coverage of Islam, but which was also criticized for making ‘seriously inaccurate statements’.
Criticisms that the program was ‘misleading, even defamatory’ led Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, to warn that ‘specific misrepresentations’ could damage cohesion between Muslim communities.
“The program unfairly maligns Muslims following the Shia tradition by accusing them of heresy based on a collection of age-old polemics and misinformation,” Bari said in a letter to Channel 4’s chief executive, Andy Duncan.
“With respect, this is an irresponsible portrayal which plays into the hands of those who wish to seek discord amongst Muslims, which we hope you did not intend,” he said.
Some of the serious misrepresentations included accusations of Shia Muslims as heretics and attempts to link orthodox denomination with Wahhabi clergy in Saudi Arabia.