Will political correctness kill us?

This is from the UK...but is relevant for us as well....

Greedy for the extra cash they bring, our universities desperately seek overseas students and often ask no questions when some of them fail to appear for classes. Following the introduction of tougher visa rules in the United States, the number of visas issued to students from Pakistan since 2001 has more than doubled in the UK. The problems that this brings with it are now being displayed.

In 2007, at Portsmouth University alone, 379 students from Pakistan were unaccounted for. Immigration minister Phil Woolas recently admitted that the student visa system is "the major loophole in Britain's border controls". It is a loophole that risks becoming a death-trap. Yet those like me who have repeatedly warned about the consequences of our appalling immigration policy and flawed border security policies, and the fact that our universities have become centres of Islamic radicalisation, have been ignored – even as we have been, sadly, vindicated.

Last summer. the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC), in conjunction with the polling company YouGov, released a survey of Muslim student opinion in the UK. Forty per cent of Muslim students polled supported the introduction of sharia into British law for Muslims; a third supported the introduction of a worldwide caliphate instituted in accordance with sharia; and a third believed that killing in the name of their religion could be justified. This is the sea in which Muslim students who go on to carry out acts of terror are able to swim. But instead of engaging with the problem, Bill Rammell, the Minister for Higher Education, attacked the poll for finding out these things and declared that the problem of radicalism on campus was in fact "serious, but not widespread". It is just one example of a government that cannot make the moral distinction between firefighter and fire.

In its recently published counter-terrorism strategy, "Contest 2", the Government congratulated itself on its "key achievement" of promoting the UK as "a centre of excellence for Islamic studies outside the Muslim world". Yet – as the CSC again warned, two weeks ago, in a publication on the sources of foreign funding to UK universities – such courses are at huge risk of being sponsored by exactly the type of people who have caused the problem.

The Iranian government recently revealed that it was in talks with British Islamic studies departments – the same ones that the Government has described as a vital component of its counter-terrorism policy – in order to "train and educate experts on Islam". So now the Iranian regime, the world's largest sponsor of Islamic terror, is funding the very institutions the UK Government says are part of the means of stopping that terror.

Meanwhile, there is a situation on campus which not only radicalises British students, but says to Pakistani and other foreign students that the most backward ideas of their own societies – in relation to women, non-Muslims, homosexuals and others – are entirely acceptable in Britain.

And so figures like the Hamas spokesman Azzam Tamimi repeatedly appear on UK campuses. Last month, after weeks of effort, we finally managed to prevent Hizbollah spokesman Ibrahim el-Moussawi from entering the UK to lecture at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He was only eventually barred when I threatened the Home Secretary with the issuing of an international arrest warrant if Moussawi were to enter the country.

Last month, Bilal Philips, barred from entering Australia because of security concerns, was scheduled as guest of honour at the Queen Mary University Islamic Society's (ISOC) annual dinner. The annual dinner of City University's ISOC last week had advertised guest speakers including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual leader of three of the 9/11 hijackers.

During the Gaza conflict, Islamic and far-Left student societies up and down the country held "sit-ins" to protest against Israel's defensive action. During a tense period some universities – including Cambridge – stood up to the protesters. Others – including Oxford – caved in and gave into the demands of the "occupying" students. Such small acts of appeasement on behalf of university authorities give the radicals the idea that right is on their side and that, given time, everyone will see this.