If you don’t want your kids joining the jihad, don’t send them to a British university. That is the view of the United Arab Emirates, which has removed the UK from its list of scholarship-eligible student destinations. The programme subsidises Emirati youngsters to attend university overseas, with favoured locations including the United States, Israel and France – and, until recently, Britain.
The FT reports that the decision to drop the UK from the scholarship list is ‘linked to anxiety in the UAE over what it sees as the risk of Islamist radicalisation on UK campuses’, and quotes a source saying Emiratis ‘don’t want their kids to be radicalised on campus’. They are said to be especially concerned about the failure of Keir Starmer’s government to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood.
A Muslim country is so concerned about Britain’s tolerance of Muslim extremism that it no longer wishes to send its youth to study here. Bit of a red flag, I reckon. The UAE is one of the Middle East’s moderate Arab states and takes a hardline stance against Islamist incitement and agitation. We can’t do the same in this country because that would be against core British values of liberty, tolerance and not looking back in anger when our children are blown up at concerts.
Since at least the 1970s, but in earnest since 2001, the teaching of international relations, Middle East policy, and domestic politics at British universities has reflected the carefully considered view that the West is evil and gets what it deserves. Third World villainy must be put in context, ‘terrorism’ in quotation marks, and western cash in aid programmes. Viewed through the distorted lens of its universities Britain is a reactionary dystopia run by the Americans, in service of the Israelis, to the detriment of democracy, an ‘Islamophobic’ police state that surveils and harasses Muslims, an Empire-eulogising practitioner of systemic racism, and a tabloid-conditioned tormentor of migrants. Oh, and something something Margaret Thatcher.
The curriculum isn’t what radicalises them, it merely equips them with the midwit worldview necessary for employment in the British civil service, the BBC or the NGO sector. The real danger of sending your children to study in Britain is the sheer array of radicalising influences they will encounter, on campus and off, online and offline, Islamist and appeaser. They will be exposed to student groups and political organisations, propaganda content and craven native apologism that would neither be allowed nor contemplated in the Emirates. Whatever criticisms might be levelled against the Emirati political, media and professional classes – authoritarianism, cronyism, exploitation – they aren’t driven by the same sociopathic self-loathing to disavow their own national interests and harbour those bent on their destruction.
Too many have already submitted
No doubt the UAE is concerned with more than just extremism. Relations with London have grown tense over issues such as the Emirati bid to buy up the Daily Telegraph. But Britain has a major problem with Islamism, a governing class that prefers to deny the problem, police forces that would rather ban Israeli fans from football matches than root out the extremists, and a campus culture where radicalism goes unconfronted. Islamism prospers because it is a victimhood complex allied to a sacrifice and redemption narrative. It is so difficult to fight in Britain because some from across civil society buy into its victimhood claims, regarding Islamism as an unfortunate but predictable response to the sins of the West, rather than a distinct ideological project to dominate Britain and make her people submit. Too many have already submitted.
Moderate Arab nations increasingly regard British universities as Hezbollah training camps with matriculation fees, and that is entirely on the higher education sector and the government, which ought to provide firmer leadership on these matters. The Emiratis have taken the correct decision to prioritise the wellbeing of their children and the stability of their country over the hurt feelings of the British. Until British universities become a hostile environment for Islamists they will not be a desirable destination for those who understand that totalitarian thug ideology and are determined to keep it at bay.
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