Six universities face inquiry over Cage campus talks

The Telegraph 09 January 2016

Six British universities are facing an inquiry after the controversial human rights group Cage used meetings on campus to encourage the ‘sabotage’ of the government’s official anti-extremism programme, write Gordon Rayner and Tom Whitehead for The Telegraph.

Moazzam Begg, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who is director of Cage, told students “any right-minded person” would oppose the Prevent strategy, likening it to the methods of the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany. He also told audiences they should have sympathy for jihadists killed fighting with Al Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.

Cage was allowed to hold the talks at the end of last year at the six institutions – which include three members of the elite Russell Group of universities – despite being described by Boris Johnson as “an apology for terror”. The universities now face accusations that they failed to comply with the legal requirement set out by Prevent that they must ensure extremist views do not go unchallenged, in other words, making sure panels have people with opposing views.
Full report on The Telegraph site

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