ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

At the beginning of January, City University's The Inquirer ran a strong piece about the continued promotion of al-Qaeda linked cleric Anwar al-Awlaki by the City Islamic Society (ISOC).

According to the piece:

The City University Islamic Society has caused controversy this week after two website posts were published and quickly deleted including one that defended radical Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  A second post entitled "Words to be written in gold" strongly condemned the the Inquirer newspaper over the reporting of homophobic Islamist preacher Abu Usamah's visit to City University in November, warning of "severe and painful punishment" for the reporters of the newspaper.

The deleted post defending al-Awlaki, which has been saved by the Inquirer and can be viewed as  PDF here, was originally posted on Dec 26. The Inquirer also has the audio recording which was uploaded with the post in which Shaikh Abu Adnan who says al-Awlaki's attackers were "liars and evil doers" and called for him to be blessed.

On the whole, student papers seem to be terrified of criticising their respective Islamic Societies when they promote extremism, usually interested solely in condemning Israel and supporting the latest pro Hamas rally on campus. 

The Inquirer should be commended for sticking its neck out on such a crucial subject.  City ISOC is one of the most radical in Britain, and are promoters of Anwar al Awlaki and Mohammed Hasan.  Here is the latter calling for the construction of more jihadist training camps so as to accommodate 'the youth of the ummah':

So, the ISOC promote Awlaki, who gives young men the ideological inspiration for international jihad, and Hasan, who tells them to join camps in order to prepare to carry it out - good combo.

Hopefully, after the Abdulmutallab incident, more student groups will follow The Inquirer's example, and admit to a serious problem in many of the UK's universities.

focusonislamism@standpointmag.co.uk