Feb 17 2009
English Colleges To”Deter Extremism”
The Labour government has yet again demonstrated just how much faith it has in our educational system… the very educational system that it was supposed to improve and make into the cornerstone of society. Now FE (Further Education) and HE (Higher Education) institutions have been told that they have to deter extremism. Short of actually coming out and accusing Britain’s universities of fostering an extremist minority, the government could not have made a more obvious attempt to control the minds of tomorrow!
Gordon Brown and his Labour cronies have decided to put into force a set of guidelines that will essentially regulate what students can discuss within the lecture and seminar halls. In other words, they are effectively developing “Big Brother” and using the education system tospy on ordinary citizens in yet another blatant abuse of the system.
The BBC said that “The guidelines will address how staff and students can create space for free and open debate and break down segregation between different student communities.” In fact, it will only heighten segregation if it is to put barriers in the way of education and single out certain lines of conversation as subversive and extremist.
I am all for stamping out terrorism. I abhor it and cannot understand why people feel the need to needlessly murder so many innocents in the name of a god that surely would not approve of so much bloodshed. Before getting into the Qu’ran interpretation debate though, I cannot see how restricting what students are talking about will help to stamp out extremism. Surely it will drive potential terrorists further underground because they will not be distingushing themselves from law abiding citizens in the classroom. Those hell bent on becoming suicide bombers will become terrorists no matter what but only by learning from past events and present occurrences can we move beyond them and learn from them. Restricting discussion is only restricting the civil liberties of people that will never break the law in such a way. If we haven’t broken the law then why are we going to be the ones that get punished yet again?
