The national student body told BuzzFeed News some members felt it “would unfairly demonise all Muslims”.
The National Union of Students has rejected a motion condemning the militant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, claiming the vote would be “Islamophobic”.
At the same meeting, at the National Executive Council on 15 September, the union, which represents UK students, decided instead to pass a motion calling for a boycott of UKIP, The Tab reported.
Reuters Tv / Reuters
The motion, which can be read here, called on the union to condemn ISIS and support the Kurdish forces fighting against it.
It also called on members to campaign in solidarity with the Iraqi people and support refugees.
Those found to be funding ISIS should be boycotted, it added.
Umit Bektas / Reuters
The motion was rejected, however, after Malia Bouattia, the black students officer, told the meeting it appeared to be a form of Islamaphobia.
“We recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia," The Tab reported her as saying.
“This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”
Bouattia, who is studying postcolonial theory and language, at the University of Birmingham, said she would put forward a new motion that will condemn ISIS but “in no way pander to Western imperialistic intervention or the demonisation of Muslim peoples”.
Stringer / Reuters
Daniel Cooper, who proposed the motion, said it lost support after Bouattia's speech, in which she also claimed it was “pro-USA-intervention”.
He said many members either abstained or voted against it following her intervention.
Writing on his blog, Cooper said: “The motion was partly written by a Kurdish student activist, and presented by the international students officer, Shreya Paudel.
"I have looked again and again at the contents of the motion, yet I cannot track any Islamophobia or racism."
He pointed out that point four of the motion called on the union "to condemn the IS [i.e. ISIS] and support the Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention".
Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
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