A study on the attitudes of students has found that 28 per cent said killing
could be justified if the religion was under attack and another four per
cent supported killing in order to "promote and preserve" the
religion.

Over half, 53 per cent, said killing in the name of religion was never
justifiable but among non-Muslim students that figure was 94 per cent.

While most students showed a typical generation gap where their parents were
more religious than they were – 72 per cent – a significant 18 per cent said
they were more strict in their religious observance than their parents.

The importance of sharia law to most Muslim was underlined by the 40 per cent
who said they supported its introduction into law for Muslims in Britain,
although 37 per cent opposed it.

A third of those surveyed supported the creation of a worldwide Muslim
caliphate but 25 per cent opposed it and 42 per cent said they were not sure.

Half of the students said they would not be supportive of a friend who wanted
to leave Islam.

Hannah Stuart, from the Centre for Social Cohesion, co-author of the report,
said: "These findings are deeply alarming. Students in higher education
are the future leaders of their communities yet significant numbers of them
appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values.

"In addition there are signs of growing religious segregation on campus.
These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said that there is
no extremism in British universities."

There are 90,000 Muslims among Britain's 2.3 million students in high
education and the online survey asked 600 Muslims and 800 non-Muslims for
their views on the religion.

Radicalisation among students has been a problem since the 1990s, with three
of the July 7 bombers having attended university, along with most of the
gang which planned a fertilizer bomb attack on the Bluewater shopping centre
and the Ministry of Sound night club.

Ahmed Omar Sheikh, convicted of the kidnap and murder of the journalist Daniel
Pearl, was a former student at LSE and Waseem Mughal, convicted of running a
website for al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a former biochemistry student at Leicester
University.

Mughal was a member of the university Islamic society, and the fertilizer
bomber Jawad Akbar attended Islamic society meetings at Brunel University,
while Yassin Nassari, convicted of smuggling plans for a Qassam rocket into
Britain, was president of the University of Westminster's Islamic society at
its Harrow campus in Northwest London.

The Government has attempted to encourage lecturers to report students they
suspect of radical behaviour but the University and College Union has
refused to do so.

A quarter of those surveyed were members of their Islamic society – compared
with six per cent for other faiths - but only a third said the societies
promoted interfaith activities.

Over a third of students said they used the campus prayer room regularly and
42 per cent said they regularly attended Friday prayers, although only a
small proportion attending prayers were female.

None of the students admitted to being gay or lesbian and 25 per cent said
they had little or no respect for others who were.

When it came to wearing the hijab or headscarf, 59 per cent said it was
important, with more women than men agreeing, but 31 per cent said it was
not and 10 per cent said they were not sure, with more men than women being
uncertain.

A quarter of students said men and women were not equal in the eyes of Allah
and seven per cent were not sure, with more women than men feeling unequal.

By contrast 76 per cent of non-muslim believed that men and women were not
equal in Islam.

Nearly half of women and 36 per cent of men believe that the "free mixing"
of sexes is not acceptable, while nine per cent of women and 17 per cent of
men are unsure.

Despite their adherence to religion it did not stop most Muslim from mixing
with other religions – 37 per cent said they had friends at university from
all sorts of different backgrounds and 38 per cent said religion was not an
issue when choosing friends and only eight per cent said most of their
friends at university were Muslim.

More than two thirds of the students said Islam was compatible with the
Western notion of democracy, and only 13 per cent said it was not, although
19 per cent were not sure.

Half of non-Muslim students thought the two were incompatible.

Three quarters of the students also said that it is possible to be both Muslim
and British equally, although only three per cent said being British came
first. Nearly half said they were not bothered whether they married a
British partner or not.

On the other hand 57 per cent of the students said Muslims serving in the
armed forces should have the right to opt out of the army if they are
required to fight in Muslim countries and 25 per cent said they were not
sure.

The National Union of Students said: "We know there is concern about the
serious issue of violent extremism on campus, but there is a wealth of
evidence to show that this is not widespread. This report actually
undermines cohesion and the joint efforts of students, institutions and
government in tackling violent extremism."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2462911/Muslim-students-back-kill...