The National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK refused to pass a motion condemning the Islamic State (ISIS) on the grounds that to do so would be ‘Islamophobic.’ Since then a media frenzy has developed in the UK condemning the NUS for its failure to pass a motion against the group.
According to an NUS statement given to Buzzfeed News “Some committee members felt that the wording of the motion being presented would unfairly demonise all Muslims rather than solely the group of people it set out to rightfully condemn.”
Those committee members were led by Malia Bouattia, the black students’ officer, who delivered a vociferous speech opposing the motion before leading a bloc vote against it. Many other students abstained.
The motion was tabled at the National Executive Conference of the organization, which is supposed to represent all students in the UK and had been drafted by a Kurdish student, Roza Salih. The full wording of the proposed motion to condemn the Islamic State can be read below.
Aaron Kiely, one of the students who voted against the motion spoke to Vice News on the reasons behind his decision. He said: “I voted against the motion because I oppose the current bombing campaign, I am also concerned about the rise of Islamophobia that has been whipped up in society. Just to be clear again, I am totally opposed to ISIS and I believe that the bombing campaign will only serve to strengthen terrorism in the region, as Western intervention has to date.”
However, Daniel Cooper, who proposed the motion, discussed the rejection of the motion on his blog. He wrote: “the motion cannot be clearer in saying that such forces [the US coalition] cannot be relied upon to deliver democratic change in Iraq [as the motion stated]: ‘no confidence or trust in the US military intervention.’ If one were to believe it is not sufficiently clear or that the motion is not worded strongly enough, fine: make an amendment to the motion ... Instead, the whole motion – which calls for solidarity with oppressed forces in Iraq – was argued as wrong.”
Since the motion clearly expressed no confidence in the US led military campaign, the claim that opposition to the motion was based on objections to the military campaign seem perplexing.
Additionally both Kiely and Bouattia brought up concerns about the motion inciting ‘Islamophobia’ when the actual motion did not speak about Islam in any way, merely expressing solidarity with the Kurds and Yazidis who are victims of the Islamic State’s atrocities.
Some people, presumably incensed at the decision to block the motion, decided to personally attack Malia Bouattia on social media and by email. Death threats and threats of rape were sent to her, and many vulgar, unprintable tweets were sent to her Twitter account.
A day after the news story broke that NUS had failed to condemn ISIS, Goldsmiths University student assembly in London rejected a motion to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day by a margin of 60-1. Sarah el-Alfy, the education officer, argued that the motion was ‘eurocentric’ and ‘colonialist’ despite the fact that the motion also commemorated the Armenian genocide. Armenia is located in Asia, sandwiched between Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, where the genocide in question took place.
According to the Cambridge University student newspaper The Tab, “In the same meeting the NUS passed a motion to boycott UKIP and email every student in the country on polling day telling them to do the same - effectively meaning they find it easier to condemn UKIP than ISIS.” The UK Independence party is a eurosceptic right wing political party in the UK.
Without expressing any support for UKIP or its policies, it is astonishing that the National Union of Students should find it easier to condemn a legal political party with a broad base of support in the UK, than the terrorist group that was expelled from Al-Qaeda for being too extreme.
The full text of the proposed NUS motion
Iraqi/Kurdish solidarity
Proposed: Daniel Cooper
Seconded: Shreya Paudel, Clifford Fleming
NUS National Executive Committee notes:
1. The ongoing humanitarian crisis and sectarian polarisation in Iraq - which has resulted in thousands of Yazidi Kurds being massacred.
NUS NEC believes
1. That the people of Iraq have suffered for years under the sectarian and brutally repressive dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the US/UK invasion and occupation, the current sectarian regime linked to both the US and Iran, and now the barbaric repression of the “Islamic State” organisation.
2. That rape and other forms of sexual violence are being used as weapons against women in IS-occupied areas, while minorities are being ethnically cleansed.
NUS NEC resolves
1. To work with the International Students’ Campaign to support Iraqi, Syrian and other international students in the UK affected by this situation.
2. To campaign in solidarity with the Iraqi people and in particular support the hard-pressed student, workers’ and women’s organisations against all the competing nationalist and religious-right forces.
3. To support Iraqis trying to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide to fight for equality and democracy, including defence of the rights of the Christian and Yazidi-Kurd minorities.
4. To condemn the IS and support the Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention.
5. Encourage students to boycott anyone found to be funding the IS or supplying them with goods, training, travel or soldiers.
6. To make contact with Iraqi and Kurdish organisations, in Iraq and in the UK, in order to build solidarity and to support refugees.
7. To issue a statement on the above basis.