14th October 2014

NUS refuses to condemn ISIS terrorists…because it’s ‘Islamophobic’

Read the motion and judge for yourself

Murderous ISIS militants secured a victory on British soil – when the National Union of Students voted against a motion to condemn them.

Hand-wringing delegates at the NUS blocked a vote to show solidarity with Iraqi Kurds and condemn Islamic State militants because they say it’s “Islamophobic”.

The bill called for the Union – which claims to represent UK students – to support unity between Muslims, condemn the bloody terror of ISIS (also known as the Islamic State), and support a boycott on people who fund the militants.

But the motion offended Black Students Officer Malia Bouattia, who said: “We recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia.

“This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”

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.

Malia Bouattia said condemning ISIS has become a justification for ‘war and blatant Islamophobia’

ISIS militants beheaded aid worker Alan Henning two weeks ago

She led a bloc who either abstained or voted against the proposal – leading to the bill’s defeat at the NUS NEC (National Executive Council) meeting in September.

Birmingham student Bouattia says she plans to put forward another motion in the next meeting to condemn ISIS that “will in no way pander to Western imperialistic intervention or the demonisation of Muslim peoples.”

ISIS has wreaked misery in Syria and Iraq, slaughtering thousands of Kurds and other Iraqis, raping and kidnapping women, beheading innocent victims including British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines.

Baffled delegates pointed out the motion specifically expressed “no confidence or trust in the US military intervention”.

Roza Salih, a student of Kurdish descent, had worked on the resolution for the NUS to condemn the Islamic State and to campaign for democracy in Iraq.

Would you support it? Read the motion in full and vote

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.

The vote took place at the NUS National Exec and was reported by proposer Daniel Cooper on his blog.

He wrote: “I have looked again and again at the contents of the motion, yet I cannot track any Islamophobia or racism.”

He added: “There is a stranglehold of ‘identity politics’ on the student movement. This is an issue which needs to be discussed in more depth, but essentially the idea is widespread that if a Liberation Officer opposes something, it must be bad.”

Aaron Kiely tweeted support for the motion’s failure, although his tweet now appears to have been deleted

ISIS have overrun huge areas of Iraq and Syria

Speaking on behalf of the Black Students’ campaign, Malia Bouttia said yesterday she planned a new motion and emphasised her support for Kurds.

She said: “The NUS Black Students’ Campaign stands in support of Black communities across the globe and uncompromisingly against imperialism and Western interference which history shows all too often leads to the suffering of Black people.

“We stand in complete solidarity with the Kurdish people against the recent attacks by ISIS and join many others in condemnation of their brutal actions.

“In doing so we recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia.

“This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.

“The NUS Black Students’ Campaign will be working with Kurdish students and the International Students Campaign to raise this issue within the NUS.

“A motion will be taken to the next NUS National Executive which truly reflects the situation.

“This motion will pose a condemnation of the politics and methods of ISIS as well as unequivocal support for the Kurdish people.

“It will in no way pander to Western imperialistic intervention or the demonisation of Muslim peoples.”

Meanwhile, in Kobane…

llama

when were the NUS ever relevant?
- Vice
  
  Being irrelevant is the new relevant
- Someone
  
  While I appreciate the thrust of your comment, my concern is the number of former NUS Presidents and NUS delegates who wind up on the PPC lists for Liebour and the Limp Dumps, who take this obtuse and absurd mindset into public life with them.
  
  It is by voting on these matters which makes the NUS such a joke outfit.
  - llama
    
    yeah man, it’s a problem with left-wing politics. They say they represent the working class/ poor but are just a bunch of sanctimonious middle-class fuckwits.
    
    TORIES 2015
    - derp
      
      Rather them than a bunch of sociopathic upper-class fuckwits.
c’mon

Refusing to take a political stance on an issue =/= supporting ISIS.

I’m sure there are very few people in the NUS (or this country for that matter) who don’t personally condemn ISIS, that doesn’t mean the organisation needs to make an official condemnation.

This is the sort of thing you’d expect to read in The Sun or the Mail, get your shit together.
- Wha?
  
  Yes, but there’s a clear difference between ‘literally never bringing it up and offering a tacit condemnation of ISIS’ and ‘refusing to support a motion that condemns ISIS when it is brought up on the grounds that it offends Muslims’.
  
  The motion LITERALLY says it wants “To condemn the IS and support the Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention” – and this was deemed ‘too harsh’?
  - c’mon
    
    Supporting a motion is actively making a statement, whereas rejecting it simply maintains the default, passive position on the subject. I could write a letter to my local dog shelter asking them to condemn ISIS, and while I’m sure they’re not ISIS supporters, they’d probably refuse to make the statement because it’s irrelevant.
    
    I’m not saying there isn’t more at play here mind, just pointing out that rejection of a motion does not mean you support the opposition view.
    - xargirl
      
      … Well, thank god the local dog shelter doesn’t claim to be our ‘voice for students’ then.
      
      There are also plenty of students here (even, I daresay, many Muslim and Kurdish ones, whome the NUS is also meant to represent) who would hold that this motion is about as politically inoffensive as it gets and that refusing to support it sends a very troubling message, but that’s a different issue, mind.
      - c’mon
        
        Fair point. As I said I do think there’s probably more at play here, just don’t want people to get the wrong end of the stick y’know.
    - BloodyTankies
      
      But those aren’t the grounds the motion was rejected upon. I don’t think the NUS should be getting involved with this as it is outside the NUS’ remit, just as it shouldn’t have passed a motion against Israel.
      
      The motion was rejected however because it was “Islamophobic” and “aggravating”, even though the same people demanded the passage of BDS despite concerns that such a motion was anti-Semitic. This motion was rejected not because Bouattia and Co thought it was irrelevant to the NUS but because they hate the West and our allies.
    - Kalooni
      
      You have miss the point quite spectacularly.
dfdf

Don’t call it a grave, it’s the future you chose.
chum

Does it really matter? The NUS is a bunch of muppets playing politics. They have no power, and no influence – everything they have to say is irrelevant.
Bloody Socialists

that is all
Wowzas.

Ridiculous. This exact kind of thing is why no student I know takes the NUS seriously at all.

Maybe we should all boycott their discount card until they elect a couple of students who are actually reasonably representative of the average student body.
- Jelly J
  
  Just sign up to Unidays.com. I’ve managed to avoid having to hand over £12 (or whatever it is at the moment) to fund NUS’ insanity circus.
- tzioneretz
  
  Nah, I’ll milk them and the benefits they offer, while laughing at them. As someone else here said, they’re a bunch of muppets playing politics.
U.N. Impressed

Islamophobia is a meaningless term used by irrational people when unable to rebut a rational criticism. If it literally means a fear of Islam then you would be mad not to be fearful of the sectarian violence, female oppression and irrational faith-based ideologies of a literalist interpretation of the Qur’an.

This Malia Bouttia should realise how lucky she is to be able to stand up and express her opinions with freedom and security. She would not enjoy the same freedom if she were to visit the ISIS/ISIL that she refuses to condemn, and protested her opinions.
dfdf

I love how ISIS are creating a new militaristic state, perpetrating mass rape, killing thousands, and committing multiple theocides under the orders of a dictator, and the bloody NUS have the gall to call the west imperialist.
- bobbob
  
  I’m also very sceptical of the idea of it being ‘Islamophobic’, when ISIS are barely Muslims themselves.
Hm.

I personally would find something rather Islamophobic in Ms. Bouttia’s idea that condemning ‘ISIS’ is also to condemn the other, approximately 2 billion Muslims on the planet – who don’t rape minorities or murder journalists, who don’t want ISIS to carry out such attacks in the name of their religion, and who in the West have repeatedly begged not to be associated with the activities of ‘Islamic’ State – because all Muslims are obviously just the same, and there is no distinction between them and terrorists, you know.

If the vast majority of Muslim students (who are by default NUS members) in the UK are in fact repeatedly standing up and telling you that they don’t like ISIS, that these terrorists don’t represent their faith, that they don’t want to be associated with them in any way – then how exactly is not condemning ISIS helping to fight Islamophobia?
BloodyTankies

NUS Careerist is a hideous, power-mongering creep. More at 11.
tzioneretz

All I can say is: Thank F-U-C-K these morons were not around when we had to fight the Nazis.
- BloodyTankies
  
  Ah, they were. They’re the ideological heirs of the far-left which continually denied the deportations and massacres committed by the Soviet Union after 1939 (Katyn, the Baltic States, the Tatars etc.) right up until the 1990s because to recognize the USSR’s war crimes was “Western Imperialism”.
- bazzar
  
  The Communists in the unions dragged their feet as much as possible until Barbarossa, then they put their backs into it.
Andrea Grainger

I withhold my opinion until I see the motion as proposed by the opposition.
ryan

*facepalm*, people need to understand that ISIS are not actually islamic, they are just a bunch of psychos who made up some extreme and brutal religion and decided to label it islamic to attract an army of crazy extremists so that they can take over a region…since you are bound to attract insane fanatics from one of the biggest religions in the world.
- Ash Metcalf
  
  The idea that Islam is a “peaceful religion hijacked by extremists” is a dangerous fantasy—and it is now a particularly dangerous fantasy for Muslims to indulge. It is not at all clear how we should proceed in our dialogue with the Muslim world, but deluding ourselves with euphemisms is not the answer. “islamaphobia” is a bullshit euphemism. These people are not taking Islamic teachings “out of context”, no they are the group who are truly living and fulfilling the teachings.
  
  Throughout Western Europe, Muslim immigrants show little inclination to acquire the secular and civil values of their host countries, and yet exploit these values to the utmost—demanding tolerance for their backwardness, their misogyny, their anti-Semitism, and the genocidal hatred that is regularly preached in their mosques. Political correctness and fears of racism have rendered many secular Europeans incapable of opposing the terrifying religious commitments of the extremists in their midst.
  
  We are told again and again by ‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to
  somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. Many Muslims assert that these fanatics are not part of Islam, but in reality, Islam IS the primary motivating factor in their actions.
  
  Just a few things to point out, look at any defense agency
  on the planet, even those coming from the Islamic world, most estimate that between 14 to 18% of all Muslims throughout the world are either extremists or condone extremism as a social norm… that is 220 to 270 million people (in comparison to the earlier point, there were only 8.5 million Nazis at the point of their dissolution). Furthermore the acceptance of some extremist activities in some countries is the majority, 83 to 85% of Egyptian Muslims think death is
  acceptable punishment for apostasy, (with Jordan at 82%, Afghanistan and Pakistan both at 79%), or that similar figures appear for these countries in regards to something as the punishment of stoning adulterers.
  - Toon94
    
    ”Islam IS the primary motivating factor in their actions”.
    
    With ISIS, yes I agree that they may be radical islamists, but I really dont believe that islam is the ‘primary motivating factor in their actions’… It is actually a political issue where they are trying to gain power in an unstable region, they were formerly an anti-government movement.
    
    The reality is, you get violent extremists and radicals in every religion, for instance Buddhist extremism in places like myanmar where millions of muslims have been killed, cases of dangerous christian extremism in African countries, jewish zionism in Israel etc. Im not suggesting that any of these religions are evil, im just saying they are no different from islam and you are always going to get good and bad people in every religion. (That’s partly why i choose not to follow any religion)
- dfdf
  
  Look, not every Muslim, or even more than a minority of Muslims are violent, but the religion is going to have to stand up and accept it has radicals. You don’t see the current pope disowning the crusaders.
SodOffStalin

No, I wouldn’t support this motion because of the no-confidence clause against the US. You really think the Kurds can repel ISIS without air support? You’re living in dreamland, my friend.
- dfdf
  
  tbf, while I support US strikes, I’m not confident in their ability to win the war.
Ash Metcalf

Yet they would happily condemn the groups committing massacres in Central Africa, most of whom identify themselves as Christian based groups. Why does criticism of Islam immediately get this luxury of claiming racism or Islamaphobia. It is an ideology for one, Muslims come in a variety of races, and secondly, criticising a religion because its teachings are causing the problems is not a phobia, it is a rational fact.
Economist

Christ. And this was the same NUS who vowed to oppose UKIP (not that I’m a massive fan of them).

And do you really have to publish that photo of Alan Henning? Rather irresponsible to help ISIS in their propaganda war against the west

As for people complaining about “Western Imperialism”, you should read this:

http://anonymousmugwump.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/five-myths-about-isis.html?spref=tw
Gary the Goat

Motion of no confidence in Malia Bouttia anyone?
Filth

Nothing new from the far-left
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/17569576.jpg
- dfdf
  
  Woah, you need to stop talking and be educated, because I’m pretty sure your great grand father committed a crime.
Charlie Evans

The NUS should be abolished. Firstly, nobody really gives a damn about what they have to say on the matter and secondly, they have come out as ISIS apologists. 95% Muslims condemn the ISIS killings yet ‘our’ Union that claims to represent us fails to do something similar. Pathetic.
Charlie Evans

The Tab poll puts support of the motion at 86%. The NUS are completely out-of-touch just like our bloody Westminster elite
Jordan

Shame you had to use a still from Henning’s execution video. Maybe you should follow the example of the national media and refuse to promote their barbarism…it’s exactly what they want
EricHobsbawmtwit

The NUS is a parody account. I honestly can’t believe how stupid it is.
Carney3

Stupid appeasement to include “the US/UK invasion and occupation” as part of a list of supposed negatives worthy of condemnation. And unsuccessful anyway, like appeasement usually is.
aaabbb

In my opinion, it´s good that they refused it. ISIS is bad, obviously, but in my opinion NUS should not touch any kind of politics/religion related stuff. At all. Nothing about UKIP, ISIS, abortion, whatever. It should represent all the students – no matter if you vote for Lib Dems, UKIP, are raging feminist, or pro-life conservatist.
While ISIS is bad, if we start playing with ISIS, then we might play with UKIP and so on.
On the other hand, what are we going to achieve with it? We could as well condemn holocaust or the red army. They were bad, but everyone knows it. If you don’t, then you’re an idiot. As simple as that.

Leave politics to the politicians. They don’t have any better things to do anyway…
Carney3

Looks like these “students” still have a lot to learn.

And by the way if criticizing ISIS equals criticizing Islam why is the BNP wrong when it says that Islam is inherently alien and dangerous? And why should Britons not seek to halt and reverse all Muslim immigration?
Max

By saying condemning ISIS is Islamophobic does exactly as the opposition (allegedly) wishes wishes to avoid. That is by lumping ISIS and Moderate Islam together. This result is an offence to the Students, the victims and Islam.

ISIS is a disgusting inhuman group guilty of racism, rape, mutilation and murder. This is not Islam. Is you do not condemn them. You are part of the problem.
Paul Simpson

The NUS are completely irrelevant and have been for decades now this sort of story just highlights it to people who didn’t already know that.

The only reason people have any affiliation with the NUS is a discount card.
Lazy comments…

It’s interesting to see that some comment authors here are using the absurd behaviour of Kiely and co. to dismiss “the Left”, given that the motion was co-authored and submitted by Daniel Cooper, a left-wing activist and member of the revolutionary socialist group Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. Perhaps a more informed analysis than “Left is bad, Right is good” would be helpful here, instead of using the idiocy of some who call themselves left-wing as an excuse to trot (boom boom) out the same old sweeping statements over and over.
- BloodyTankies
  
  There’s a difference within the far-left between those who are prepared to criticize Western foreign policy on a case-by-case basis (i.e. Cooper) and those whose hatred of the West stems from dogma and clichés (“Western Imperialism”, Stop the War Coalition, anarchists etc.) and will drive them to collaborate with the likes of Daash. The NUS is more strongly influenced by the latter type.
http://flyingtigercomics.wordpress.com/ Flying Tiger Comics

Is there a White Students Campaign too? Or are the natives just meant to foot the bill for endless blocked toilets full of third worlders with chips on their shoulders?
Kalooni

I suppose the only good thing to come of this is that any political career Bouattia may once have looked forward to is finished before it started.

What a hopeless cretin.
Dan

Condemning ISIS is not islamophobic in the same way that condemning the IRA isn’t catholic-phobic. It’s condemning a militaristic state who are using religion as an excuse to do some horrible acts, even though the religion doesn’t allow this in any way. It’s like not condemning North Korea, because of a religious reason!
mowaten insan

Muslims should be the first to reject and condemn Islamic State, as they say it tarnish the image of Islam. So by condemning IS has nothing to do with Islam. The question why we have not seen Muslims marching against IS, and saying these are not Muslims, then no one will associate IS with Islam. But failing to do so, means that most Muslims either afraid or like what IS is doing. Silence means acceptance.
ChrisWintle

I would like to challenge any student to do a positive reflection on Islam then, Where does it work the ideology
Jonathan Roberts

I’d be interested to see if they condemn the rape of 1400 little girls – or would that be racist given the perpetrators were all Pakistani?
I went to an NUS conference once (there was free beer) and they voted to condemn the Pope, condemn Israel, condemn ‘the Tories’ and condemn the ‘neoliberal economic consensus’. In doing so, they had to guillotine debates over student fees, student housing, insufficient contact time with lecturers and graduate opportunities because they ran out of time.
These people don’t represent students because they are too busy debating motions on policy issues they have no influence over, pretending they are more important than they are and practicing for a career in politics. It’s bonkers.
Spencer

The real Islamophobes are the ones who behead and execute thousands of their co-religionists because of a 7th Century dispute over the succession of the Caliph.
Craig Bauer Melson

bit awks as they’re happy to condemn israel
- BloodyTankies
  
  Not only that – I’ve just had a look at the motion passed by the NUS’ Black Student’s Campaign condemning Israel earlier this year (page 14: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/asset/Event/6040/BSC_2014_CD7_Motions-Document-DRAFT-6.pdf ), and the NUS’ boycott of Israel passed in August (page 21: https://www.scribd.com/doc/235380560/Nec-140804-Agenda-Final-2) which was proposed and amended by Bouattia and there’s no mention *at all* of the anxiety Jewish students feel around such boycotts or the context of rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
  
  How can apologists for Islamism and anti-Semites represent British students and retain their positions of power within the NUS?
Peter Gilkes

This shameless hussy, Malia Bouattia, is flaunting her hair in her photo.
Gareth hurton

well……looks like our countries future is in good hands with fools like this….NOT…get a grip on real life you idiots!!!!!!
Fasdunkle

Malia Bouattia is typical of the racists who infest the NUS
Trofim

When you do a Malia Bouattia, do you have to grease the dish first?
Trofim

Seriously, though, why does the NUS exist? What exactly is its function and remit?
Johannes48

What a lovely stupid students they have in the U.K and they have a great future with that silly new generation!
TomFowdy

ISIS do not represent Islam. ISIS have been resoundingly condemned by Muslim scholars, preachers and leaders around the world.

Therefore to oppose ISIS is not in any way Islamophobic or have any grievance against the Islamic religion. To oppose it is to oppose terrorism, extremism and the slaughter of innocent people by brutal means.
Nick

I feel physically sick that a body claiming to represent the views of students refuses to condemn ISIS, ultimately in the course of seeking to be politically correct. How can it be that UKIP is worthy of condemnation when ISIS isn’t? Say what you will about the odious little hatemonger Nigel Farage, but he isn’t beheading British aid workers! I wish that my university, the University of Sheffield would disassociate itself from this completely out-of-touch and ridiculous body. Any pretension that they still claimed to represent students must now be void.
- Jozef
  
  They don’t refuse to condemn Isis they refuse to pass this one particualry motion and will submit another one that condems ISIS but doesn’t have islamphobic undertones. I know this is a very simplistic analogy but if a motion was put forward that was asking people to confirm that you like Hot Dogs but part of the motion was that every hotdog had to have mustard on if I voted agaisnt it that doesn’t mean I don’t like hotdogs and therefore it means that I don’t like a small part of the motion. I know that is very simplistic but the article is totally misrepresenting the vote which was not to not condemn Isis but was to rewrite the condemnation they are so different
  - Nick
    
    The issue I have is that there isn’t anything remotely Islamophobic in the motion as it was proposed. It isn’t Islamophobic when it is all true! It is paranoia of seeming Islamaphobic that saw to the rejection of this motion.
    
    If objections were made about specific language, why was an Amendment not sought rather than rejecting the motion entirely?
    - Jozef Brodala
      
      You can’t do an admendmants for some stupid procedural reason so that’s why they are taking it away and amending it before its presented again which is very normal very politically average thing that happens to all kind of motions. The bit they felt was islamaphobic was this bit ““encourage students to boycott anyone found to be funding the IS or supplying them with goods, training, travel or soldiers”
      
      For this reason: “how does one retrieve this information that an individual or a group
      actively supports IS? Are the British Secret Services going to devolve
      some of their powers of intelligence to the NUS so the Barnabys and
      Johns, Lucys and Sarahs of the student body can have the liberty to
      investigate and report anyone who they deem to be suspicious and
      vulnerable? Will the ever dysfunctional NUS direct some of its funds to
      install secret cameras in Muslim prayer rooms across the United Kingdom?”
      
      You may disagree with the validity of that statement but a lot of people in the NUS felt that it unfairly targeted muslims as all suspects they’ll change that bit and condemn ISIS total storm in a teacup
Gabriella

Insanity. IS is not a representation of Islam. There are billions of perfectly rational, peaceful, kind people who happen to be of the Islamic faith and abhor the violence of this extremist group as much as anyone else. To say they are one in the same is disgusting and insulting. Blaming all of Islam for the acts of a few is wrong, but condemning IS is essential.
properdegree

Ah, NUS still the last bastion of retarded adolescent politics, it was refusing to condemn the IRA when I was at Uni….
Jacob

The wording in that proposal was pretty clear!
http://web.elastic.org/~fche/ Frank Ch. Eigler

Why do they have a “Liberation Officer”?

It sounds like the “Political Officer” from soviet days.
Abdi

Poor journalism, do your research before you join in with the idiots of the internet… So a motion is submitted that includes a line (resolves 5) that’s tantamount to outsourcing Mi5 and Mi6′s work to the NUS and encouraging students to DIY as well, ”trial and error, you’ll get better at spotting the funders, trainers, suppliers and soldiers of IS, don’t worry if it’s difficult at first ,the one thing you can be sure about is they’ll be Muslims”… so the options then are either taking parts on the line or re-submitting a new motion that you think to be better to the next meeting, co-written with Kurdish students, as you aren’t procedurally allowed to make additions there and then… The second option was taken and this Cooper character and cronies weren’t happy to have been excluded from re-writing a motion that fully supports the Kurdish people, condemns ISIS, condemns the legacy of western imperialism and avoids asking NUS to co-ordinate a witch-hunt of Muslim students and frankly you weren’t journalist enough to realise their hyperbole was nonsense and political manoeuvring and how do I know all this, well I’m a member of the NUS NEC and was at the meeting. P.s Shreya is Nepalese not Kurdish P.p.s I’ve read a few of your other attempts at journalism, genuinely anyone who relies on you as a source once is mistaken, twice is an idiot…
Pluto Animus

The killing of innocent Iraqis fails to offend Muslims the way a harmless cartoon does.

Such astonishing moral defectiveness.
Jozef

A few issues with this article. The first issue is that the first line says judge for yourself while the second line basically infers that anyone who disagrees with the tabs opinion is giving Isis a victory in the UK which is rather ridiculous. This has been totally totally spun out of proportion. The bloc that voted agaisnt this motion are voting agaisnt one partiuclar part of the motion not the whole motion itself. This post https://www.facebook.com/abdullah.geelah/posts/10152528106816925 explains the opposition to part five of the motion.

As this article says later on “Birmingham student Bouattia says she plans to put forward another motion in the next meeting to condemn ISIS” so the article should really be block of the NUS refuse to pass a piece of legislation and will look to rewrite it so it becomes acceptable i.e. what happens in both student and normal politics all the time. Also the way this has been spun to villify one single person is quite frankly disgusting, to target a single person when lots of people voted agaisnt the motion is really awful and not at all acceptable. So please Tab stop writing sentionalist articles that incite hatred and attempt to hide or distort the facts which simply.
MN

Remember when Hizb ut-Tahrir were elected to run the NUS at a college in London? Good times.
chimoio

what’s the view of the white students” officer” on this?
SOMARA556

What an absolute bunch of morons.
anon

Anyone who voted against that motion is a fucking cunt. They are also condoning rape, murder and genocide. Nice one Malia, whoever the fuck you are anyway?
Daniel James

Yet hating on Israel is perfectly acceptable…
Ngaire Lowndes

“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.”
With what justification? What lies are they spreading about a mainstream political party? I am horrified at the power this union seems to wield over young, gullible people, brainwashing them into unthinking extreme leftist attitudes.
Mrs.JosephineHydeHartley

“In doing so we recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia.

“This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”

By “recognise” do we really mean “reckon” ? Either way, how do we “recognise” something “appears” in the proposed motion..without the said motion actually containing any evidence that can be recognised to have appeared? This is not a rhetorical question.

To use ” rhetoric” in the way by Malia Bouattia is attempting, is so far out it may be counter-intuitive. And so she’s at risk of losing the plot. Luckily, the little voting facility built into this page tells us what people really think about the motion, which definitely does count.
AK

In principle, anyone can criticise ISIS on the basis of condemning murder of civilians, but only a politically astute mind knows that to do so would support/justify the Government’s rhetoric and wider imperialist agenda.

Don’t be blinded by their claims of morality/humanitarianism and never say anything without considering the implications of what you say. This is politics; not an academic discussion.

Ideally, we would all like to speak freely. But to condemn ISIS on the basis of killing tens/hundreds of innocent civilians today would unfortunately mean to support another Western led war which would condemn potentially *hundreds of thousands* more civilians to death.

Don’t be fooled. They don’t care about your principles or your morality. All they want is your voice of support. Resist their rhetoric and condemn the killing of ALL civilians lives including the *millions* killed by the West over the last two decades alone, not just the killings committed by ISIS. Be fair and be consistent.
Elcy Nic

Time to differenciate between the fear of Islam (Islamaphobia) and the fear of extremist religion (Extramaphobia). ISIS are responsible for the growth of Islamaphobia not due to it.
What?

I’m really struggling to see any sense to any of this.
A) How can it be Islamophobic to take the side of the Kurds, when most of the inhabitants of Kurdistan who are being attacked are Muslim?
B) Many Muslims claim that ISIS is nothing to do with Islam. Again, if this is the case, how can condemning them be Islamophobic?
C) “In doing so we recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia.” So is she suggesting that the claims of rape being used by ISIS are false, and the calls for boycotts against anyone supporting them are Islamophobic as a result?
D) Since when did the NUS “condemning” anything matter at all? What does that accomplish? Hardly going to result in world peace, is it.

Ridiculous. I’m ashamed to be a part of this generation sometimes.
Lily

so they will condemn and boycott israel, but wont condemn an actual terrorist organisation???
(whatever you believe about israel they arent, by definition, a terrorist organisation, and ISIS are)

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