Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Switchboard >

Mail on Sunday offers money to student journalists to spy on Islamic Societies

Tom Paine's Bones

22:47 / 17.03.06

Story here

What do people think of this? Is this a form of entrapment? the thing that makes me particularly uneasy about this is the fact that it looks like the Sunday Mail is deliberately targeting Muslim students with this. Why isn't it interested in, say, anti abortion extremists in Christian societies or student extremism generally?

I will declare an interest here. The editor of London Student used to live round the corner from me and we regularly played Worms on my Playstation. Although that's not how I came across this story.

All Acting Regiment

01:05 / 18.03.06

This is absolutely disgusting. Firstly, the idea that students need to spy on student societies of whatever type pressuposes the right-wing ideological construct that Universities are too liberal in what they allow students to do- in actual fact there are checks and measures at every step of the way: if students want to use the University's resources, be it physical space or funding, they have to prove themselves, and if they fall foul of the rules they get shut down.

Secondly, as you said, it also presupposes that it is Islamic societies which need watching, when actually there's hatred and lies being spouted by a few members of every religious group.

All Acting Regiment

01:08 / 18.03.06

More from the article:

The Mail on Sunday’s Education Correspondent Glen Owen specifically targeted Imperial College’s Muslim students and Queen Mary’s World Revival Society...

Owen said: “If they say something in secret about ‘we need to insist that women wear the burka’ or ‘we need to withdraw cooperation from the university’ or any of these sort of plots that they’ll be hatching, if we can reveal that, bring that into the open, then that’ll be interesting … I find it hard to believe that some people aren’t talking about this already, so see what you can sniff out. The Imperial Isoc [Islamic Society] may still be worth pursuing on this issue.”

The campaign against the veil ban at Imperial was in reality peaceful, above board and organised by the students’ union and activists in the Islamic Society and Respect, with no extremist elements present.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

09:40 / 18.03.06

The cases where The News of the World 'exposed' groups planning to kidnap Posh 'n' Becks (and there was another similar case that I can't recall at the moment) collapsed because it couldn't be proved that the NotW hadn't incited them to do it. I don't think the Mail is going to get anything out of this except some news headlines and probably whip up more tension. I'd also be surprised if they get anyone who'd be willing and able to do this...

04:02 / 20.03.06

Islamophobic: yes.

Reprehensible: Yes.

Totally over the top: no. Established organizations paying students to inform on other students is no new phenomina. For example, during the 50's the FBI and the House Unamerican Activities Committiy paid students at many major universities (Henry Kissinger among them) to inform on their fellows. So I mean, this is just an old tradition responding to new prejudices. Its nothing too new.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:04 / 20.03.06

But those were Government agencies, this is a newspaper with no formal links to the Government. The closest parallel I can think of would be The New York Times recruiting some students to spy on Muslim groups at a US university.

Do you think the media have a right to do this?

12:38 / 20.03.06

This is a job for fake Arabs in bedsheets, who seem to be a staple of "sting" journalism in the UK. Why not cook up a student group with a suitably nutty plot like agitating for student medical services to pay for female circumcision, pimp it to the Mail and see they bite? It's not terroristic, but it would play directly to Mail readers' (and editors') prejudices.

All Acting Regiment

23:26 / 20.03.06

I think there's several reasons why not.

Moving on, I was dismayed that when I raised this among my peers there was a shocking number of people who's response was that yes, it was an acceptable thing to do, what with terrorists running around blowing people up and all that.

It shocked me to realise that supposedly "educated" people would still have this reason slip in which Islam is The Dangerous Religion.

05:08 / 22.03.06

But those were Government agencies, this is a newspaper with no formal links to the Government. The closest parallel I can think of would be The New York Times recruiting some students to spy on Muslim groups at a US university.

Do you think the media have a right to do this?

The short answer is no. However, as always this is way more complex than just black/white, right/wrong. The press has always been in the business of investigation. They sometimes do this in ways that seem wrong to us. It seems to me that we are responding to the massive islamophobia in our (western) society and reacting more harshly to this article than we would otherwise. At least to me, a reporter or student or whatever infiltrating a campus muslim society and writing a piece about them from the inside would be an enormously interesting article. Just as it would if the subject was the Church of Scientology, or the CIA, or some large corporation. So the long answer is, although its unsavory practice, it will probably lead to an enjoyable article.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

05:53 / 22.03.06

So in fact the short answer is 'yes'.

06:23 / 22.03.06

no, the short answer is no. asked to make a snap decision i would say it is wrong. given slightly more time i would say it is wrong, but if done anyway, would make for an enjoyable article.

All Acting Regiment

12:17 / 22.03.06

But do you think it would be a neccesary article?

Are campus muslim societies the most useful groups one could be infiltrating? They're certainly one of the easiest targets, far easier than the police or a large corporation. But neccesary? And if not, aren't the atrocious ethics here thrown into sharp releif?

This whole concept of doing a bit of a mission impossible jaunt and checking out a group of dangerous radicals from the inside, man, is founded on a false prejudice about exactly what goes on in these societies and what they are for. For what it's worth, here's a snippet from the Islamic society at my university, bold mine:

The Islamic Society exists to promote the tenets of the Muslim faith and provide support and assistance for Muslim students at MMU.

We aim to provide a halal alternative for students on campus.

We host a range of activities to suite everyone, from sports and excursions to dinners and talks!

The Islamic Society has been in a state of constant growth and activity in recent years, and will continue to grow, Insha’Allah, with your help and benefit both Muslims and non-Muslims on campus.

Currently Jummah prayers are held at either the Students' Union or Loxford Prayer Room every Friday. Please check the notice board in Loxford Prayer room (click here to see map) regularly for updates

As I said on another board, it's not even on-campus societies that are the biggest threat to students, it's groups like the Scientologists who set up bases in student centres whilst remaining outside of the university's jurisdiction.

17:34 / 22.03.06

But do you think it would be a neccesary article?

Are campus muslim societies the most useful groups one could be infiltrating? They're certainly one of the easiest targets, far easier than the police or a large corporation. But neccesary? And if not, aren't the atrocious ethics here thrown into sharp releif?

no article is strictly neccesary. and no, it is not a very useful group to be infiltrating. and yes, there are groups that the newspaper would serve the people more by infiltrating. and yes, the ethics of the newspaper are atrocious.

Phex: Dorset Doom

18:55 / 22.03.06

Well, it depends how you define 'useful' here. Sure, if you want an article about crazy people doing evil things right-under-our-noses(tm), then it's probably not a good place to be infiltrating. On the other hand, I could see how a journalist with preconcieved notions of Islamic student group members as bomb-throwing crazypersons would benefit (as would his readers) from entering a group of nice, normal people and reporting his findings to an audience who generally have strongly negative notions of what British Muslims are like.

Tom Paine's Bones

21:03 / 22.03.06

I think the problem with that is that the decision to publish is never going to be the decision of the journalist. If ze's told to go and get 'evidence' of Islamic extremism on campus, anything that doesn't fit that remit just isn't going to ever get into the Mail.

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:28 / 22.03.06

Phex: Absolutely. I recall with fondness an article, I think in the Mail, about an anti-capitalism march, where the infiltrator reported breathlessly that some of the companions were "high on the combat drug Ecstasy". You can tell scared people anything, as long as it's frightening.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:46 / 23.03.06

Why is the Mail willing to pay students to spy on Islamic groups? Why doesn't it just make up the articles like it normally does?

Or, slightly less cynically, what measures will it take to make sure that the articles it gets from the journalists are accurate? What right to reply will any groups featured get? What steps will the Mail go to ensure the safety of the spying students, and what will it do if any of the students get attacked and injured during/as a result of this?

But most importantly, how will they ensure this article is entertaining enough for MotherSuperior?