Head of London college of Detroit bomber mired in depths of denial about Islamic extremism
Malcolm Grant is the president and provost of University College London (UCL), the academic institution attended by Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He sports a list of awards and titles so long that his business card must be printed on A4 paper. In other words, although New Zealand born, he is a quintessential member of the British establishment.
Here is what he wrote in an article on New Year’s Eve defending UCL from charges that it was an institution rife with the kind of multi-cultural political correctness that had allowed Islamic terrorism to be incubated right under his own nose. Referring to Abdulmutallab’s terror plot over Detroit, he said:
“What induced this behaviour remains a mystery. He has not emerged from a background of deprivation and poverty. He came from one of Nigeria’s wealthiest families. He was privately educated, and to a high level. He gained admission to University College London, where he studied mechanical engineering with business finance between 2005 and 2008, and was president of the UCL student Islamic Society in 2006-07.
“The events of Christmas Day came as a complete shock to the UCL community.”
Oh dear.
If this whole affair were not so serious that statement would be fall-on-the-floor hilarious. He should have been easier to spot than Osama bin Laden.
But Grant is so mired in the politically correct assumptions that govern the thinking of British bien pensant society that he cannot help but repeat such assumptions even when he is called on to refute the charge that he holds them.
For it is precisely the belief, furiously adhered to by the vast majority inside Britain’s opinion forming establishment, that terrorism can only be explained by grievances arising from poverty, repression and social and educational backwardness that is definitional of the multiculturalist, politically correct mindset on all matters related to terrorism from Gaza to the Hindu Kush. The overwhelming evidence that terrorism is the product of ideology is airbrushed from the picture.
It has been remarked on by others that the Islamists should be a pushover for us. They’re few in number as a proportion of the wider population. They’re wedded to a religious outlook which is stuck in the Middle Ages. We’ve got police forces, armies, surveillance equipment, resources. They’ve got so little that their only effective means of attack is to destroy themselves in suicide missions in the hope they’ll take as many of us with them as they can.
But what balances up the odds for them, and encourages them to believe that the battle is worth fighting, is that while they’re prepared to commit suicide as individuals, large parts of the western world seem hell bent on committing suicide as a civilisation.
That is what the self-hating narratives of multiculturalist political correctness are all about. And they clearly run riot at UCL.
So, while as Malcolm Grant puts it, “the events of Christmas Day came as a complete shock to the UCL community”, they come as no shock or surprise to me. And there’s plenty more to come.
To read Grant’s article in full, click here:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=409807
To read the excellent Con Coughlin article in the Daily Telegraph to which Grant’s article was (in part) a response, click here:
January 1st, 2010 at 8:57 pm
An excellent summary of the issue, Robin. Thanks.
January 1st, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Robin - the best commentary _ have read on this affair. Not only is terrorism the product of ideology, but the overwhelming evidence is that, without exception, or, to prevent nitpicking contradiction, almost without exception, every terrorist involved in an attack on the US, UK, or other Western country precisely fits Malcolm Grant’s description. If I may paraphrase his words slightly:
“He came from one of xx country’s wealthiest families. He was privately educated, and to a high level. He gained admission to xx University, where he studied xx between 2005 and 2008, and was “well-known” at the xx student Islamic Society in 2006-07″.
None so blind as will not see.
The poor have little time for ideology - it is the pampered rich who who can travel to Yemen for indoctrination, study at Western universities, etc.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:28 am
What is amazing is that Malcolm Grant states in his article how proud he is of the fact that UCL is a major centre for research into counter terrorism.
I hope that there are no islamists involved in this research.
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:48 pm
“But what balances up the odds for them, and encourages them to believe that the battle is worth fighting, is that while they’re prepared to commit suicide as individuals, large parts of the western world seem hell bent on committing suicide as a civilisation.”
Superb and prescient writing.
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:12 pm
The alleged attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day has focused attention on the major issue of extremism in British universities. He is the fourth President of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years and while he was in London he reportedly attended talks given by the extremist Anwar al-Awlaki who has links to Al-Qaeda.
Antisemitism and vilification of Israel are features of Islamist extremism. Numerous meetings at British universities have provided a climate where extremism can flourish. Recently there was the BRICUP (British Committee for Universities for Palestine) meeting at SOAS London (School of Oriental and African Studies) where the openly antisemitic comparison of Israel with apartheid South Africa was repeatedly drawn. There was antisemitic
shouting at the meeting and one speaker, Bongani Matsuku, was recently found by the Human Rights Commission in South Africa to have practised hate speech against Jews. Another example was at Goldsmiths College in November 2008. There a meeting with an openly antisemitic title - comparing Israel to the Nazis - gave a platform to a profoundly antisemitic speaker.
The Zionist Federation notes the recent cancellation of a meeting at UCL which was to have been addressed by Abu Usamah. It also notes the letter in The Times from Denis MacShane MP (see below) saying that University vice-chancellors and the university lecturers’ union “pooh-poohed” the concerns of the all-party parlimentary commission on antisemitism which he chaired..
It calls upon:
· University Vice Chancellors and student unions to be more vigilant and more proscriptive against this extremism and antisemitism. Vice Chancellors must have regard to their duties under the Race Relations Amendment Act, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act, the Protection against Harrassment Act and the Public Order Act. ‘Free speech’ is only possible with appropriate boundaries.
· The government to encourage Universities to be more vigilant against Islamist extremism and against antisemitism.
· The Crown Prosecution Service to be more willing to prosecute extremists and those who host them (the CPS is still looking at the Goldsmiths case over a year after it occurred)
· The government and Vice Chancellors to implement recommendations of the Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism which were published over three years ago:
§ University Authorities to record all reports of antisemitism
§ Vice Chancellors to set up a working party to take robust action against antisemitism on campus.
Letter from Denis MacShane MP: The Times 31 December 2009:
“Sir, In 2006 an all-party parliamentary commission I chaired reported on rising anti-Semitism on university campuses and the support for Islamist ideology, including appeals to jihad, which are widespread in students circles. University vice-chancellors and the university lecturers’ union pooh-poohed our concerns. Might they now have the intellectual honesty to admit that this is a serious problem, or do we have to wait until some student radicalised by campus Islamism succeeds in killing hundreds before our university elites realise what is incubating on British campuses?”
Contact:
Zionist Federation:
By Phone:
+44 (0)20 8202 0202
By Email:
office@zionist.org.uk
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Malcolm Grant’s statement shows his total ignorance about the nature of Jihadism(”What induced this behaviour remains a mystery. He has not emerged from a background of deprivation and poverty. He came from one of Nigeria’s wealthiest families. He was privately educated, and to a high level”).
Such ignorance about the nature of extremism is surely unacceptable in someone in his position. He cannot begin to deal with the problem from such a wilfully ignorant base.
He must surely be dismissed.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:58 am
This is Londonistan, the major centre for terrorist activity. The government should go after the people who do the brainwashing- if the Foreign Office permits. Al the major Universities allow the most vicious activities under the banner of “free speech”. Academics who presumably can read never bother with context or try to learn something about the background and context of current conflicts. They have a strange mindset that allows them to dump any inconvenient facts that might conflict with their particular prejudices