As reported in The New York Times, Khalid Mahmood, a member of the British Parliament, suspects that Tayib Rauf, one of the suspects in the recent terrorist plot to blow up planes above the Atlantic, “became radicalized in college, perhaps by listening to a speech from a visiting speaker.”
There is also Professor Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University’s centre for intelligence and security studies, claiming university authorities turn a blind eye to national security on campuses. “Institutions have not sought to address the problem: they have instead sought to undermine those who have raised the issue,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Glees maintains that “[e]xtremist Muslim groups had been detected at more than 20 institutions… over the past 15 years.”
The Telegraph reports:
According to security sources, “several” of the 23 people still in custody over the alleged plot last week are suspected of links to universities, appearing to confirm growing fears that campuses are providing Britain’s biggest security threat.
Intelligence analysts warned Britain in the aftermath of September 11 that British Muslims of student age were being drawn to the cause of fundamentalism… [and] are believed to have infiltrated British universities to recruit terrorists.
In addition, extremist Islamic documents have been found at London Metropolitan University. The Telegraph links Waheed Zaman, a student and Islamic Society president there – and one of the students suspected of ties to the alleged terrorist attack – to “advocating jihad and a pamphlet on how to deal with approaches from the security services.”
All of this underscores the need to examine the vital connections between campuses throughout the world and the security of the world’s peoples.