I spy...
As this news comes from the Guardian:
Lecturers and university staff across Britain are to be asked to spy on "Asian-looking" and Muslim students they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence
This news comes in at more-or-less the same time:
Two terror suspects put under control orders to restrict their movements have gone on the run.
There are a few things we can say.
Firstly, assuming the Guardian story is true, what are they playing at? It is not the job of university lecturers to "spy" on their students. These plans are an intolerable intrusion into the lives of both lecturers and university students. You'd have thought that with tensions between communities as they are, especially with the veil controversy, we wouldn't see another "Muslims = Terrorists" style-assumption. It doesn't do much for the British public's perception of Muslims.
The other is, that even if it is proved a student society really is Al-Qaeda in disguise, and special branch rounds up all the members as possible terrorists... they'll only be allowed to run away anyway.
-posted by Cory
