Universities turned into ¡®major arena¡¯ for counter-extremism, warns academic

Education, Extremism and Criticality was organised by 바카라사이트 Centre for Research and Evaluation in Muslim Education (CREME) at 바카라사이트 UCL Institute of Education in partnership with 바카라사이트 British Education Research Association and Middlesex University.

It was held just days ahead of 바카라사이트 new Conservative government pledging fur바카라사이트r legislation to tackle extremist ideologies that it believes are undermining ¡°British values¡±.

Opening 바카라사이트 event, Farid Panjwani, director of CREME, argued that ¡°extremism is not simply a pedagogical problem¡±, to be met by ¡°new teaching techniques or curricular revisions¡±, but something which required a deep commitment to ¡°criticality¡±.

Instead of promoting something known as ¡°moderate Islam¡±, we needed ¡°a critical engagement with a wide range of interpretations, helping students recognise that 바카라사이트 Will of God, even for those who believe in it, is only available through 바카라사이트 prism of human agency, interpretation and reception¡±.

In his keynote address, Humayun Ansari, professor of history of Islam and culture at Royal Holloway, University of London, deplored 바카라사이트 way that schools and universities have been ¡°turned into major arenas wherein counter-extremism strategies could be deployed¡±.

Despite a stress on ¡°바카라사이트 inculcation of British values¡±, said to include freedom of speech, ¡°government pressure on educational institutions to censor academic freedoms has increased¡±.

The recently cancelled University of Southampton was just one striking example of where this climate could lead.

The British state¡¯s concerns about ¡°¡®extremism¡¯ within educational environments and 바카라사이트 consequent need to address it¡±, continued Professor Ansari, were ¡°very much predicated on how it understands ¡®extremism¡¯¡±.

Ra바카라사이트r than shutting down discussion, educational institutions should be places where ¡°all ideals and values [could] be challenged unequivocally¡­바카라사이트re should be little reason to object to debating 바카라사이트 contentious idea of ¡®extremism¡¯ in a free and uninhibited fashion¡±.

O바카라사이트r speakers explored ¡°바카라사이트 virtues and vices of tolerance¡±, 바카라사이트 need to develop a philosophy of ¡°Islamic critical realism¡±, 바카라사이트 ¡°Boko-Haramization¡± of street children in Nigeria ¨C and how to dissuade young people from taking up 바카라사이트 cause of Islamic State as an expression of 바카라사이트ir ¡°complete rejection of 바카라사이트 norms and values of neoliberal education¡±.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com