The London university attended by Mohammed Emwazi, who was last week identified as the Islamic State militant known as “Jihadi John”, has been accused of sometimes turning a blind eye to extremist views on campus because it does not wish to offend its large number of Muslim international students.

Jamie Wareham, secretary of the University of Westminster’s LGBT society until last year, said he believed complaints about homophobic speakers organised by the Islamic society were sometimes not treated with sufficient seriousness.

In the past they’ve been prepared to be homophobic in order to not be Islamophobic Jamie Wareham

“What I think makes the University of Westminster particularly difficult with the line they draw is because they derive a lot of their money from international students, and a lot of these are Muslim students,” Wareham said. “It’s seemed clear to me that they are very careful about not upsetting the Muslim community. They certainly get a lot more money from them than they do from gay students.”

Emwazi graduated in information systems and business management in 2009. In the wake of the news about him the Islamic society cancelled a planned address by Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad, a preacher who has reportedly described homosexuality as a “scourge” and “criminal act”. The university has since suspended all “sensitive” student events.

The Islamic society has declined to comment.

Mohammed Emwazi graduated in 2009 with a degree in information systems and business management from the University of Westminster. Photograph: University of Westminster/IS grab

Last year, Westminster’s LGBT society carried out a study that found 39% of members had experienced prejudice at the university, with some respondents giving anecdotal evidence that Muslim students were the source of this.



Wareham said that while he now believed the university was taking this seriously, before the Emwazi revelation its policy could be characterised as “institutional homophobia”. He said: “It’s desperately frustrating, as the university don’t want to be homophobic and they don’t want to be Islamophobic, but their fear of being Islamophobic is greater.

“In the past they’ve been prepared to be homophobic in order to not be Islamophobic. And that’s our entire point – we don’t want any type of hate.”

Westminster, where almost a third of students are from overseas, said it had just hosted National Student Pride, attended by 1,500 people. It said in a statement: “The University of Westminster is clearly very supportive towards the LGBT community and has had many years of continuous and ongoing dialogue with student and staff groups.”

Ibrahim Ali, of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), said there was no evidence so far to show Emwazi had been radicalised at Westminster. He said Islamic societies were often held to tougher standards than other student group over speakers, with groups specifically monitoring who they invite and looking for damaging previous statements: “Of course, speakers should be accountable for what they say,” he said. “But if that same pressure isn’t placed on other groups, then it contributes to a discriminatory environment.”

The issue of balancing robust expression among student groups while not permitting hate speech is a difficult one for universities, not least as the 1986 Education Act compels them to ensure “freedom of speech within the law”, including for visiting speakers. In late 2013, Universities UK produced guidance to members on the subject, which runs to 40 pages.

Westminster’s Islamic society, one of the biggest among UK universities, is not affiliated to FOSIS, But Ali said he would have had advice for them on inviting someone with homophobic views to speak. “My advice would be to probably not invite a speaker like that. But at the same time, if they do go ahead with it, I think it’s fundamentally important that they have a right to do so.”

• This article was amended on 5 March 2015 to clarify that Ibrahim Ali’s advice in the last paragraph did not relate to Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad.