Dear Student Direct,
I was extremely disappointed by last week’s opinion piece ‘Opposing Extremes.’ Is it not enough that around the world Muslims are being attacked, demonised and murdered? Is it not enough that Islamophobia has become the last acceptable form of racism in the UK? On top of all that, our Muslim students have to listen to Zo Hashim tell them what their religion should be like.
The pressure on Muslims to conform is overwhelming at the moment and articles like this only add to that pressure. On top of this, Hashim seems to think that if Palestinians would just ask Israel to apologise for 1948’s genocide, its apartheid and its occupation then everything in Palestine would be fine – to make light of the plight of Palestinian’s in such a way is not only insensitive and arrogant, it is insulting. I don’t have much space so I won’t even start on his comments on Iran but I will say that articles like this show just how far some people can slide into perpetuating the ideology of the War On Terror.
In Solidarity,
Andy Cunningham
This Palestine issue is sidelining other major issues that the union could be constructive for, things that the student population actually care about. Yes Palestine is a bad story but No to the ammount of union time it takes up.