Three Muslim women students suspended at Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) in east London are gathering increasing support.
The three were suspended after standing up to Islamophobia and the government’s Prevent strategy. This compels schools and colleges to report young people for signs of so-called “non-violent extremism”.
The “NewVIc3” have also faced a deluge of online Islamophobic racism.
The college said the students were suspended over misuse of the college email system. But this could have been addressed without suspensions—the suspensions are wrong.
Anti-racist organisations, NUS officers, NUS black students and local people have backed them.
NewVIc is not an Islamophobic college. This situation is a result of state Islamophobia and Prevent.
The case has implications far beyond Newham. A generation of young Muslims are starting to fight state Islamophobia. We must all support them.
Unions have called a general strike
Interview with a member of French revolutionary socialist group Autonomie de Classe
