Britain unveils advice to fight student extremism

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) Britain unveiled new guidelines today to tackle what the government says is Islamic extremism in universities in its latest attempt to prevent young Muslims being radicalised.

The Department for Education said the advice to all English universities would help deal with a ''real'' risk that Islamist militants were trying to groom students for violence.

The announcement was made as Britain and many European countries consider how to balance traditionally tolerant attitudes towards ethnic minorities with a belief that this approach has allowed extremism to flourish.

This was rammed home by suicide bomb attacks by four British Islamists on London's transport network in July last year, which led to calls for minority groups to do more to integrate into mainstream society.

''The guidance provides a recognition, that I believe must be faced squarely, that violent extremism in the name of Islam is a real, credible and sustained threat to the UK,'' education minister Bill Rammell said.

''There is evidence of serious, but not widespread Islamist extremist activity in HEIs (higher education institutions),'' he said in a statement.

VEIL ROW Demands for greater integration were also demonstrated by a recent heated debate across Europe on whether Muslim women wearing a full veil hindered community cohesion. British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the full veil a ''mark of separation''.

Rammell, who said last month he backed universities that banned students from wearing veils, insisted today's guidelines were not about targeting Britain's 1.8 million Muslims but providing better protection for students.

The guidance instructs staff to be more vigilant and suggests issues to consider should they come across extremist literature on campus or if they are worried about radical speakers coming to visit.

Professor Anthony Glees, director of Intelligence and Security Studies at Brunel University, told the BBC today there were 21 British universities that had a ''direct link with extremism that has led to terrorism''.

These were cases where campuses had been infiltrated and students recruited to supporting violence and he called for much tougher measures including compulsory interviews for all applicants and for all overseas students to be vetted.

However, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which represents some 90,000 Muslim students, said no evidence of extremism on campuses had been produced, describing Glees's report as scaremongering and misleading.

''If any terrorist activity took place, it would be reported.

I just don't believe that any terrorist activity is taking place on campuses,'' the group's spokesman Amar Latif told Reuters.

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