Islamism and college campuses

Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the four 7/7 London bomb detonators were University students. Shirwa Ahmed, the Somali Minnesotan suicide bomber, reportedly, acquired some college level education.

It is been widely documented that, in Europe and other places around the world, college campuses are a fertile ground to indoctrinate and recruit young Muslims into radical causes. The radical Muslim groups infiltrate college campuses through student unions and exert their influence considerably. These student unions (the Muslim student union, for example) serve as a bridge that connects the outside radical Muslim organizations and the Muslim students. Their goal is to propagate Islamism (Islam as a political ideology, a governing philosophy equipped with fully detailed judicial, economical, political and social policies necessary to run a state and not limited merely to the worshiping arena) and provide the extremist Muslim groups with a platform for their proselytizing efforts to merge the religion and politics. This marriage of the religion and politics, alien to traditional Islam, creates an atmosphere where such radical attitudes could flourish.

The Somali Student Associations from some of the college and university campuses in Minnesota have been organizing weekly Halaqa sessions (a Madrassa style Islamic discussions)—lead by leaders of radical Wahabi leaning mosques—for years on campuses. I am not accusing the Somali Minnesotan student associations of disseminating Jihadist ideas, nevertheless, there is no doubt that they are providing a platform that leads young Muslims to drink the kool-aid as Shirwa did.